The Exorcist: Believer was one of the big horror letdowns of 2023. But it’s a new year, and a different 1970s horror classic is looking to expand its world—and this time, it looks very promising. The first trailer for The First Omen, a prequel to 1976’s The Omen, is here, and it’s bringing Satanic conspiracies galore.
You may be asking yourself, as most horror fans will, if The Omen actually needs a prequel; after all, the backstory of how the real Damien Thorn was switched at birth with the Antichrist, “666″ birthmark and all, is pretty well covered by Gregory Peck’s frantic detective work in that first film. But the talent behind The First Omen has the potential to override any feeling that it’s a mere cash grab; for one thing, it’s directed by Arkasha Stevenson, who helmed the Butcher’s Block season of the late, great horror anthology series Channel Zero. Her flair for gruesome yet gorgeous visuals was on full display there. At the time, she spoke to io9 about how her work has been strongly influenced by David Lynch, explaining “I’m really interested in social realism—that’s very much from my background as a journalist—but then, melding that with surrealism. That’s exactly what I think David Lynch does; I think he’s a social realist on some level.” Her season of Channel Zero, she went on to say, was about “taking problems that are very much rooted in our everyday reality, and then surrealism seeps in. You’re creating this psychological terror naturally because you don’t know whether to trust what you’re seeing or not.”
While The First Omen—about an American woman in Rome who uncovers the impending baby-switching conspiracy at hand—is probably less rooted in “everyday reality” than Butcher’s Block was, we’re still looking forward to seeing what Stevenson does with this story; she co-wrote the script with Tim Smith and Keith Thomas, from a story by Ben Jacoby and based on David Seltzer’s original characters. And she has a great cast, too, with Servant’s Nell Tiger Free alongside veteran actors Sonia Braga, Ralph Ineson, and Bill Nighy.
Advertisement
Are you excited for The First Omen? It releases April 5.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews