From a gut-wrenching possession scene to a public self-immolation harking back to the original film, The First Omen is full of absolutely horrifying moments that won’t be forgotten any time soon. Set several years before young Damien, the Antichrist, was adopted by American diplomat Robert Thorn and his wife Katherine, The First Omen stars Nell Tiger Free as American novitiate Margaret Daino, who’s sent to work at an orphanage in Rome, where she uncovers a sinister religious conspiracy. Like all the best horror prequels, The First Omen uses the inevitability of Margaret’s dark fate to create terrifying tension.

Since it revolves around how Damien was born, The First Omen has more in common with Rosemary’s Baby than The Omen. And as a pastiche of Rosemary’s Baby, it’s pretty darn scary. Arkasha Stevenson’s relentless direction and Free’s powerful lead performance combine to make The First Omen an unforgettable viewing experience. From its eerie opening death to its shocking climactic birth scene, The First Omen is jam-packed with frightening moments that make it one of the scariest horror movies of 2024.

10

The Death Of Father Harris

The opening scene of The First Omen sees two priests, Father Brennan and Father Harris, talking outside a church, where some construction workers are working up on the roof. The similarity between this setting and the church where a slightly older Father Brennan gets impaled by a church spire in the original 1976 film creates the expectation that something horrible will happen. This conversation scene creates tension with the construction crew’s precarious work on the roof.

Of course, the construction workers eventually drop something. A pipe soars down towards the priests and they look up in haunting slow-motion. Brennan makes it out unscathed, but Harris isn’t so lucky, as the pipe splits his head open. What makes this gory scene even more unsettling is Harris’ nonchalance. He smiles at Brennan, revealing blood-stained teeth. This opening sets the appropriate tone for the film’s horror: intense, harrowing, and slightly surreal.

9

Margaret Sees A Demonic Claw Emerge During A Childbirth

Shortly after arriving at the orphanage, Margaret is exploring the Abbey and stumbles upon a woman giving birth. As Margaret observes the childbirth, it quickly becomes clear that she’s not giving birth to any regular baby. Where she should see the head of a newborn child, Margaret instead sees a demonic claw emerging from between the woman’s legs. This triggers a fight-or-flight response, and Margaret naturally chooses flight and flees from the Abbey.

Margaret dismisses the demonic childbirth as a horrific vision and tries to ignore it. This sets up what will be the character’s downfall. She’s been suffering from scary visions her entire life, but eventually learned to just move past them because they’re not real. But a lot of what she sees in The First Omen is real, and she refuses to consider that possibility, so she misses a lot of warning signs.

8

All The Recurring Spider Imagery

Arachnophobia is one of the most common fears for humanity. Death and public speaking are up there, too, but there’s something about eight-legged creepy-crawlies that triggers a frightened response in a lot of people. Horror filmmakers have been taking advantage of this phobia to terrify their audiences for years. Lucio Fulci’s 1981 classic The Beyond has tarantulas crawling over a character’s face and chewing on their skin.

The First Omen is another horror movie that uses a recurring spider motif to creep out its audience. Extreme closeups of spiders recur throughout the film, each one creepier than the last. This imagery isn’t just scary; it also serves an important story purpose. A spider crawled across Margaret when the jackal attacked her, so the spider imagery shows her subconscious trying to remind her of what happened.

7

Margaret Rips Paolo In Half

Margaret’s troubles first start after she spends a night at a disco dancing with a man named Paolo. She woke up the next morning with no memory of what happened, but that night proved to be the catalyst for unusual supernatural occurrences in her life. When she spots Paolo on the street, she talks to him and tries to ascertain what happened. He tells her to “look for the mark” before he’s hit by an oncoming truck.

As Margaret tries to help Paolo, she tells him he’ll be okay and pulls him away from the truck. But then, it turns out that the truck impaled him so forcefully that it bisected him. Margaret comes away with the top half of his corpse, dribbling blood and organs onto the ground below. The gore is gratuitous, but the visceral impact is undeniable.

6

The Harrowing History Of The Church Conspiracy Is Revealed

Throughout The First Omen, much like Rosemary when she grows suspicious of her neighbors, Margaret does some research. And, much like Rosemary, she uncovers a chilling conspiracy. Towards the end of The First Omen, Margaret learns that due to a rise in secularism and a decline in church attendance, the church has taken to serving a jackal demon and trying to bring about the birth of the Antichrist.

The thinking is that, if the Antichrist comes to Earth and wreaks havoc on humanity, people will be scared enough to go back to church and start praying. The church’s leaders have been bringing unsuspecting nuns to the jackal so he can impregnate them. He would then impregnate the offspring to create the Antichrist. This sick, twisted conspiracy isn’t revealed in a sneaky jump scare or a shocking gore moment, but the exposition itself is as frightening as any jump scare or gore moment.

5

Margaret Is Forcibly Impregnated By A Demonic Jackal

The uncovering of the church’s conspiracy reveals that they have a dark, hidden chamber where they ritualistically bring women to be forcibly impregnated by the jackal demon. When Margaret is taken to this place with a bag on her head, the camera gives the audience a look around the room. The ceiling is covered in disturbing murals depicting demonic forces and brutal violence against women, visualizing the poignant themes of the movie.

While The First Omen contains plenty of homages to the original Omen movie, this is more of a callback to the demonic impregnation scene from Rosemary’s Baby. The impressionistic cinematography and obscure editing create a similar effect to Rosemary’s Baby. Although no demonic impregnation sequence could top the intensity or precision or overall impact of Rosemary’s Baby’s impregnation scene, this scene from The First Omen comes close.

4

Sister Anjelica Self-Immolates

The emotional throughline in The First Omen is Margaret taking the mistreated orphan Carlita under her wing. Since Carlita is similarly tormented by frightful visions, Margaret feels a sort of kindred spirit with her. While the two are bonding, Father Brennan ominously warns Margaret to avoid Carlita, because “evil things” will happen around her. Margaret sees Carlita showing Sister Anjelica a disturbing drawing of a pregnant woman being held down.

Seconds later, Sister Anjelica steps out onto a ledge, self-immolates, and hangs herself in front of a courtyard full of people. This recreates one of the most iconic moments from the original film: when Damien’s nanny hanged herself at a garden party. The First Omen’s version of this scene ups the ante by having the woman who publicly hangs herself set herself on fire first.

3

Margaret Is Tormented By A Vision Of Sister Anjelica

Sister Anjelica’s self-immolation and hanging isn’t the last time that Margaret is tormented by a horrifying image of the late nun. While Margaret is snooping around and uncovering the church’s conspiracy, she’s caught by a flock of nuns who capture her and lock her away in a small, secluded room. Stuck in isolation in this dark room, Margaret is plagued by a horrible vision of Sister Anjelica (which may or may not just be a vision).

At first, Sister Anjelica just stands in the corner, giggling to herself. As she slowly walks towards Margaret, it becomes clear that it’s her charred, burnt, post-immolation body speaking to Margaret from beyond the grave. The giggling ghost harks back to the classic 1961 psychological thriller The Innocents, which similarly used a supernatural spirit’s laughter to create an unnerving juxtaposition.

2

The Gruesome C-Section Birth Of The Antichrist

The climactic sequence of The First Omen depicts the graphic C-section birth of the Antichrist – and it almost earned The First Omen an NC-17 rating. Margaret is dragged into the church, where they’ve set up a makeshift O.R., and introduced to Cardinal Lawrence, the head of the conspiracy. Every single member of the church dons a black hooded robe and watches on as Margaret’s stomach is gruesomely sliced open. Hands reach through the gaping cut and yank out the amniotic sac, which is revealed to contain both a boy and a girl.

While the girl is discarded, the boy is proclaimed to be the Antichrist. Margaret stabs Lawrence, but she can’t bring herself to kill the baby boy she carried. The conspirators leave with the boy, but Carlita saves Margaret and the girl. To top it all off, at the end of this horrific climactic set-piece, Margaret sees the father of the children – the demonic jackal – amidst some nearby flames.

1

Margaret’s Possession

Arguably the scariest moment in The First Omen doesn’t use any special effects or camera trickery to frighten its audience; just good old-fashioned acting. As Margaret is seemingly embodied by a demonic spirit out of her control, she frantically writhes around and contorts her body. It’s not easy to pull off this kind of scene without making it look silly or cartoonish, but Free nails it by committing wholeheartedly to the horrifying reality of the possession.

In this scene, Free gives possibly the best physical portrayal of a demonic possession since Isabelle Adjani’s unforgettable turn in the subway scene in the banned cult classic Possession. Free’s performance plays out like an homage to that controversial classic, but she puts her own spin on the demonic contortion. The First Omen reaches the peak of its terror in this possession scene.