The Clashing Forces of Good and Evil Have Spawned Hard-Fought
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The clashing forces of good and evil have Although The Omen isn’t necessarily a film spawned hard-fought battles in films spanning about demonic possession per se, the idea that all genres. Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man supernatural forces with bad intentions want vs. Self… A story’s root conflict can spring to invade the human world is still apparent. from sources as superficial as the jealous ex- The idea that a demon or an evil spirit wants boyfriend in a romantic comedy to a comet/ to invade a person’s body, wreaking havoc on alien/robot-in-disguise hurdling toward Earth the lives of presumably innocent humans is in any number of Michael Bay’s films. But, common, but the exploration into the Devil’s nowhere is the battle between good and evil direct involvement requires an assemblage of so clearly illustrated as in horror films. And, characters having much greater power and no film so memorably pits good against evil as influence. Consider a film like Oren Peli’s pop Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976). hit Paranormal Activity (2007). The characters With a little help from the high-impact per- in Paranormal Activity didn’t justify the Devil’s formances of co-stars Gregory Peck and Lee attention, so a less-powerful demon made Remick (among a host of others), a pitch- more sense for that storyline. The Omen takes perfect score, and a well-executed screenplay, place on a grander scale, with Damien born The Omen does a masterful job bridging the into a family of privilege and power, as the gap between the natural and the supernatural. ending so ominously indicates. Ambassador Robert Thorn’s (Peck) skepticism, his wife Katherine’s (Remick) increasing despon- Good vs. Evil, Man vs. Himself, Nature vs. dency and disconnection with the creature she Humanity… From beginning to end, The presumes to be her son (Damien, played by Har- Omen tackles the battle in an appropriately vey Stephens)—these elements of emotion-/ grand scale. And, although we may walk away human-driven drama pave the way for more from the film strangely satisfied by Damien’s convincing supernatural aspects of the film. survival, the idea that humanity’s goodness But, it’s Thorn’s final resolution that he must could not have overcome, regardless of the ritualistically kill the creature he raised as his film’s circumstances, is most certainly unset- son that brings the film’s tension to a head. tling. The final scene of The Omen is, of course, inevitable. Unlike what one might consider to be “hap- pily ever after” films that position man vs. the beast, The Omen leaves viewers with a sense of doom, a thick blanket of dread settles over the audience, alluding to the impending and inevitable storm on the horizon. Consider an alternative approach, like William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) — qualified though that happy ending may be. What sets The Omen apart from other films where ultimate evil is unfairly matched against humanity’s more-or- less good nature is that the film’s finale leaves us with no hope. Naturally, this leaves us feel- ing unsettled. Of course, that unsettled feeling left in our guts by the knowledge that the antichrist lives on could have been avoided. We could have seen (or at least been lead to infer) that a child is brutally stabbed to death on an altar by his own father. Now, maybe the terms “child,” “death” and “father” aren’t entirely accurate, but one could imagine a scene like the climax of The Omen being interpreted as such. What feeling does that leave in our guts? It’s interesting that filmmakers (and arguably audiences) often prefer the former to the latter. The idea of an evil child remaining in the world seems to upset our sensibilities less than the idea of killing that child for the greater good. Consider a film like George Ratliff’s Joshua (2007) or Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968). The “children” in these films survive in accordance with, and entirely counter to, what one might imagine is the best interest of humanity. 36 PARACINEMA #14 / DECEMBER 2011.