In the past decade, there have been satanic movies a plenty. From The Conjuring franchise to an Exorcist reboot, we’ve been lucky enough to witness demons and the devil on screen in many forms (whether they’ve been hits or not). Now things are about to get even scarier and darker with the arrival of a brand new evil that fans have been waiting anxiously for – The First Omen. And even before its release director Arkasha Stevenson already has some big ideas to expand the franchise.
Stevenson’s passion for this latest version on the 2024 schedule was apparent during her interview with ComicBook. But she seemed to get really excited when she talked about the opportunities for future sequels. And based on what she said, it’s obvious that if a sequel or two were to happen, she doesn’t want them to fall flat and be thought of as mediocre like other horror follow ups in the past. Instead, she wants to use the real estate wisely and address other questions and theories that have come up for her and other fans. Here’s what she had to say:
Oh, well, what is really fun is – as an Omen fan – there's the big question of where Damien came from and this film answers that, but then all these other questions pop up, and I feel like for me, I could keep going back in time and learning how the conspiracy started, where the jackal came from. It's fun to think in both temporal directions.
I really like how she’s thinking because the possibilities are basically endless here. Based on what this new prequel covers, she can keep building upon the history that the original movie left behind, and create new lore and set up the antichrist in a way that will continue to scare audiences another four decades from now. I’m especially excited to see what she does with the infamous jackal carcass because I know that part of the movie still spooks me to this day.
As Stevenson continued, she mentioned that two things she made sure that her movie mirrored from the original were the “egoless” cinematography and “grounded nature of the relationships”. She stated that for her, these were what made the first movie so impactful. So, for us moviegoers, I’m assuming that this one is staying away from the over-the-top horror theatrics, with The First Omen's trailer teasing that we’ll be seeing is very intentional and designed to haunt our nightmares, not just give us a quick jump scare.
The First Omen is the latest movie in The Omen franchise, following the 2006 remake, which was received poorly. It’s almost been two decades since we’ve seen or heard anything about Satan’s child, Damien Thorn, but Stevenson’s take has real potential to bring the franchise back to life because of her willingness to explore uncharted territory. The other sequels followed Damien throughout his lifetime, while another really didn’t have anything to do with him at all, so Stevenson will be providing a backstory that people have been waiting for.
While there aren’t many reviews yet, this seems to be a hit with critics on Rotten Tomatoes as many of them gave the satanic sequel a high rating. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait much longer to see what Arkasha Stevenson has in store for us. Before you check out The First Omen in theaters on April 5, be sure to read our latest review on it. And you can watch its 1970's predecessor with a Hulu subscription.
