The year is still young, and yet we’ve had the opportunity to see quite a few horror offerings so far. To be honest, most have been reasonably disappointing. But I have a feeling things are about to look up. And interestingly enough, The First Omen happens to be the first omen indicating a shift in the horror landscape for 2024.

The First Omen is not a perfect movie. In fact it’s not even particularly a great movie. But I can’t deny there’s something admirable about it. It’s a movie that builds its horror primarily in haunting imagery over jump scares. And frankly that’s increasingly rare in horror cinema today; especially for a movie that’s meant to be part of a franchise that died out years ago.

As its title indicates, The First Omen is, in fact, a prequel to the 1976 original horror classic, The Omen. This time around, the story centers on a novitiate named Margaret, who is attempting to become a nun. She’s sent to Rome to work at Vizzardeli Orphanage, where she meets a young, but troubled girl named Carlita. When suspicions arise that Carlita might be the Antichrist, mysterious and horrible things begin happening around the orphanage. Margaret begins to be plagued by horrific visions. And people around her begin perishing in mysterious and terrible ways. To get to the truth, Margaret needs to endure a living nightmare, and survive to escape the unexpected terrors of the orphanage and the order surrounding her.

The movie rises and falls on two surprisingly good elements: the direction of first-time film director Arkasha Stevenson, and the stellar, brave performance of Nell Tiger Free (Servant). The screenplay and the story are not great. But when the tension is high, and the nightmarish images are disturbing, you don’t need the movie to be Shakespeare.

The fact that the movie has some genuinely scary moments is an impressive feat for a directorial debut! In fact, when compared to the product of veteran horror film directors who have made inferior films, Stevenson has done a solid job producing some slick, and sick, scenes that prove to be unsettling. There’s a fair amount of body horror in the movie that will make the easily squeamish shuffle in their seats. And that, to me, is preferable in generating scares over the typical “musical cues die down, then *jump scare*” scenario that’s par for the course in most horror films these days. Nope! The scares in The First Omen are clear as day, and force you to gaze upon the disturbing images for long moments at a time. And that’s, admittedly, respectable.

The other big sell for this one is the go-for-broke performance from Free. It’s arguably easy for any one character or actor to go around screaming hysterically. But what Free does is paint a portrayal of a tough woman, having to deal with horrific circumstances beyond her control, as horrible things happen to her. There’s a jaw dropping scene that focuses on her for a few minutes, where she contorts and twists her way, like a victim possessed, and without any special effects or premium sound mixing, she sells the illusion of an other worldly presence plaguing her. It was astonishing to say the least. And how her character grows from the naïve individual she is at the beginning of the film to the hardened badass at the end is believable solely because of Free’s performance.

On a technical level, the cinematography in the movie is pretty haunting. There’s a lot about it that’s shot like a fever dream, and it immerses the viewer into what feels like the depths of Hell. And that’s apt for a movie within this franchise. The score by composer Mark Korven is also well done. It provides intensity and tension, and a sense of urgency that fills you with the chaotic energy felt by Margaret as her sanity begins to unravel.

That being said, I will say this is, in some ways, a silly movie. There’s a lot about it that just feels obvious and predictable. I suppose that’s the intent, given it is a prequel meant to set up a story that we’re already so familiar with. But it doesn’t really get too many points for originality, or freshness. There’s a lot of clichés thrown around that make the movie derivative of most Rosemary’s Baby knock-offs. But it’s forgivable because the story isn’t the key selling point of the horror movie; the horror is, and thanks to Stevenson’s vision, The First Omen ends up succeeding in that department.

Did we need The First Omen. Hell no. But in a year pretty bereft of strong horror films, you can do worse. The movie is supported by strong directorial debut from Stevenson and a strong performance by Free; both of which allow the movie to shell out some genuinely scary and unsettling moments. It’s predictable and a bit lazy, but that’s essentially no more than what you’d expect with most franchise movies. In fact, one could say that given the aforementioned strengths of the movie, The First Omen succeeds where other stale franchise chapters fail. It’s actually pretty scary. And that, in and of itself, just barely justifies the need for this installment. Even if I won’t remember it by next week.

Overall Score: B-