There are few films that can withstand the test of time and these are usually referred to as classics. You'll find them scattered throughout critic's list in every imaginable form. In the horror genre, it is even harder to name movies that would hold up to the standards set by today's audiences. Most of the younger audiences today are too overwhelmed by special effects (not to mention too dumb) to get scared by a good story alone. Harkening back to the era of black & white, movies like "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" are perfect examples of classics, but sit one of these audiences down in front of them today and they are likely to get snickered at. Almost gone is the appreciation of the subtle nuances or performance, lighting and cinematography.

Taking a step many years later, films such as "The Exorcist" and "The Omen" are no longer good enough. Studios seem to think audiences need another sequel to the former and a pallid remake of the latter. Go figure. The bright side of the wake of remakes and sequels is an rise in the interest for the originals by a smaller segment of the population, and the studios (to their credit) sometime opt to cater to this segment of the consumer market. In the case of "The Omen", for example, Fox is releasing a brand new 2-disc special edition set for Richard Donner's 1976 religious thriller.

The timing of this release was interesting personally, aside from the release of the remake in theatres, by the fact that my wife and I were watching TV a few weeks ago and happened to turn to a station that was showing the original. She had never seen it, believe it or not, so we kicked back and enjoyed it, commercials and all. Aside from those pesky commercials, the only problem with watching it this way was that the picture and sound were less than stellar. We both lamented that we did not own a good DVD copy of the film. A couple of days later… one showed up… (insert Latin choruses being sung here….)

In its day, "The Omen" preyed on the fears people had of the eventual upcoming apocalypse. Most people believed it was right around the corner, so no doubt many of them believed that this story of the birth of the antichrist to an American ambassador living abroad was more than just fiction. Even the idea of the child having a birthmark bearing the number '666' sent parents across the country into a frenzy checking out their own children's scalps. My parents even got into the game, relieved to find that my birthmark only revealed the number '999', so we were safe.

Adding to the film's credibility was the superb casting of the great Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as Robert & Katherine Thorn, the parents of the aptly named Damien. Ahhh, Damien, now there's a good name for a kid. Of course, following the release of this film, we rarely saw that names being used… well, until more recent times when silly and maladjusted pseudo-satanists started using it to name their children. (Of course, why these people are allowed to have children is beyond me.) Believe it or not, I actually know someone who named their kid Damien… poor kid.

Anyhow, "The Omen" captured enough box office to warrant 3 sequels, the third was a made-for-TV flick, but it still counts. None of the sequels lived up to the original (as is the case with most sequels), but I would like to point out that I did enjoy Sam Neill's performance as the grown-up Damien in the third movie.

So, to get back to the point (before I start rambling so much that this review starts referring to the moon and its effects on marigolds), this new DVD of "The Omen" is spectacular. I had seen a copy of an earlier release and the sound and picture on this new version is like watching a whole new movie. They even carried over some of the special features from that release, while adding enough new ones to allow for a 2nd disc.

Amongst the original features are a commentary by Richard Donner and Stuart Baird, a featurettes that focuses on some of the eerie deaths in and around the production of the film, and an in-depth look at the film's score by its composer, Jerry Goldsmith, and a lengthy making of documentary. That 2nd featurette sets perfectly with the film and tells stories similar in feel to the unexplained phenomena surrounding the film "Poltergeist." Added to these features is an additional commentary by Donner, only this time he is joined by fellow writer/director Brian Helgeland ("Tales from the Crypt", "Man on Fire"), an additional (and even longer) documentary about the 'Omen' legacy, a look at the scriptwriting process, a deleted scene and comments about the film by another writer/director (and horror maven) Wes Craven.

I loved "The Omen" back when it first came out and I still love it today. In terms of naturalistic horror, it rarely gets better than this.

Directed by: Richard Donner
Starring: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner
Extras: Disc 1:
Widescreen Feature Film with Commentary by director Richard Donner & editor Stuart Baird
Commentary by director Richard Donner & writer/director Brian Helgeland
Featurette: Curse or Coincidence
Jerry Goldsmith on the Omen Score (Love Theme, Damien to Church Dog Attack, 666 and Mrs. Baylock)
Theatrical Trailer
Disc 2:
Introduction to the special edition of Omen by director Richard Donner
666: The Omen Revealed
The Omen Legacy
Deleted Scene - Dog Attack with commentary by director Richard Donner and & writer/director Brian Helgeland
David Seltzer on Writing the Omen
An Appreciation: Wes Craven on THE OMEN
Still Gallery
Specifications: Widescreen (2.35:1)
Studio: Fox
Release Date: 6/20/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R
Website

We'll give The Omen: Special Edition an A.