The Omen

Movie fans have become accustomed to the physical representation of terror resembling a hulking, merciless, unrelenting beast of a man, a Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees type that stalks his victims with heavy footsteps, a menacing demeanor, a large bladed weapon, and some sort of supernatural invulnerability. The four films presented in The Omen Collection portray a villain just as dastardly, invulnerable, and horrific as any masked madman, but instills these terrifying attributes not in a beastly killing machine, a wise-cracking villain, or even a criminal mastermind, but inside the body of a boy, a teenager, a man. Young, adorable, carefree Damien Thorn, with nothing more than a stare, a smile, an innocent countenance, grows into one of cinema's more enduring powerhouses of evil over the course of three films, a character both at once charming and repulsive, the very definition of innocence, yet with a future of Biblical importance, a destiny that nothing – or nobody – can alter. He is pure evil, the antichrist, the final representation of terror, an abomination so tremendous that even the greatest of the horror icons shiver in his presence. 20th Century Fox's The Omen Collection contains four films bundled together, three representing the original Omen trilogy (1976-1981) along with the 2006 remake of the original classic. Not included here, but available in a previously released DVD boxed set, is 1991's made-for-television film Omen IV: The Awakening.

Robert and Katherine Thorn seem to have it all. They are happily married and he is the US Ambassador to Great Britain, but they want more than to have children. When Katharine has a stillborn child, Robert is approached by a priest at the hospital who suggests that they take a healthy newborn whose mother has just died in childbirth. Without telling his wife he agrees. After relocating to London, strange events - and the ominous warnings of a priest - lead him to believe that the child he took from that Italian hospital is evil incarnate.

When the Vatican observatory priest sees the appearance of a comet, the Church is sure that it confirms the eve of the Armageddon. Meanwhile, the USA President's godson Robert Thorn is informed in the maternity in Rome by Father Spiletto that his wife Katherine has just lost her baby and she had troubles with her uterus and would not have another pregnancy. Spiletto suggests Robert that another just born child that lost his mother could be the substituted for his son, and Robert accepts the child and gives the name of Damien. Robert is promoted to ambassador in London after a tragic accident. When Damien's nanny commits suicide in his birthday party, a substitute, Mrs. Baylock, comes to work and live with the family. Along the years, Katherine realizes that Damien is evil, while Robert is contacted by Father Brennan, who tells him that Damien is the son of devil. When the priest dies in a bizarre accident, the photographer Keith Jennings shows evidences to Robert that the boy is the Antichrist. They travel to the town of Megiddo to learn how the boy can be stopped.

Jerry Goldsmith's score for The Omen, which earned him an Academy Award, combines incidental scene-setting music, classic horror and suspense motifs (Bernard Herrmann's wild violins à la Psycho are a probable influence), and – most notably – forms of the requiem mass as they have been interpreted over the centuries.