This Widely Praised Prequel is Now on Prime: “The Perfect Religious Horror Film”
Horror was pissed off in 2024. A major cause for that came from the overturning of Roe versus Wade. The decision by the Supreme Court signaled an attack on the bodily autonomy of women. As it so often does, the genre responded accordingly. Who can forget Immaculate and that rage-fueled ending? Or Apartment 7A and one woman’s defiance of a cult attempting to force her into motherhood?
One film stood out more than any of them, though: Arkasha Stevenson’s feature debut, The First Omen. A prequel to the 1976 classic, The Omen, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone not singing the film’s praises upon release. If you missed it, you can stream it on Prime now.
What’s The First Omen About?
Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) has just arrived in Rome at a convent that operates as an orphanage for young girls. There, she meets a child named Carlita (Nicole Sorace). Margaret’s fellow nuns deem the girl a monster, but she’s not so sure. The closer the new nun gets to Carlita, the more she learns of a sinister presence lurking in the shadows of the convent. There’s something strange going on behind the closed doors of the church. Come hell or high water, Margaret won’t rest until she knows the truth.
In her review of The First Omen, Dread’s own EIC, Mary Beth McAndrews, described the prequel as “the perfect religious horror film”.
Mary Beth isn’t alone. Currently, The First Omen stands with an eighty-three percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Not too shabby.
A Feral Scream in the Face of Violence Against Women
By every measure possible, The First Omen terrifies. Stevenson displays a more than impressive understanding of atmosphere for her first feature. It wraps around you like a cold embrace and squeezes until you can hardly breathe. For a prequel to a major horror franchise, limits are pushed to shocking lengths. I’m still haunted by a nightmare birthing scene that goes a lot further than I expected a studio like Disney to allow. In fact, The First Omen nearly received an NC-17 rating because of it. Not due to gore, but because it deals with intense female body horror…a big no-no for the stuffed shirts at the MPAA.
Horrific birthing scene aside, within Stevenson’s narrative lies one gasp-inducing sequence after another. The film captures forced pregnancy as the violence against women that it is better than anything else out there. Through an unforgettable performance from Free, we’re witness to the suffocating dread and suffering associated with the attack on female bodily autonomy in the name of God. “Pro-life”, my butt.
One day, I believe we’ll look back on The First Omen as the defining horror film of 2024. It screams in the face of violence against women. Gives a middle finger to the church. Hell, it’s a goddamned battle cry. Stream it on Prime now and get ready to experience one of the scariest films of last year…or this decade.
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