The First Omen’s Most Debated Explicit Shot Had Disney’s Support Amid Ratings Struggle

The First Omen director Arkasha Stevenson and producer Keith Levine have revealed that the most explicit shot in the movie had Disney’s support amid struggles to keep the film rated R. The upcoming prequel to The Omen follows Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free), an American woman in Rome who discovers a conspiracy to create the Antichrist. Although the film is rated R, a scene involving an explicit shot almost landed the movie an NC-17 rating.

Speaking with Screen Rant, Stevenson and Levine discussed how a shot of a vagina in the upcoming The First Omen had the support of Disney’s 20th Century Studios despite a ratings battle. The creatives discussed how, incidentally, the scene in the final cut wound up being “more intense” than it originally was. Check out what Stevenson and Levine had to say below:

Arkasha Stevenson: We sure earned our R [rating]. That was an earned R. Yeah, we were thinking a lot about the spirit of the imagery in the ’76 version, and how the deaths and the gore and the content just pushed so many boundaries. And in really unique ways that I think weren’t just gratuitous, but spoke to culturally what people were feeling at the time.

A lot of our discussions were about, “How do we want to have something that stands up to that, but isn’t gratuitous and doesn’t fetishize or dehumanize?” Telling a story through the female perspective was really important to me, and telling it through the lens of body horror – exploring the female perspective through the body war – is a little eerie [because of] the timing. And I think it’s a really big opportunity, so it was really important that we didn’t shy away from that imagery, and shy away from humanizing who that imagery was happening to.

The shot of the vagina was the only thing that was holding up the R rating. It wasn’t any of the gory deaths. It wasn’t men being severed; it was literally just the shot of the vagina. It wasn’t what was happening to that body part that was offensive; it was the body part that was offensive. It’s 2024, we need to stop looking at the female body as an object of horror fascination. That’s why we fought so hard. I just can’t believe that we were so supported by our producers in the studio. This is crazy! We have a vagina in a Disney movie.

Keith Levine: I can’t think of any other scene in any other movie to compare it to – let alone something that came out of the studio system. That was Arkasha’s big idea when she walked in the door. She had this image, and I think everyone was a little shook like, “Wait…” We could see people on the edge of their seats, but we were leaning in. We just thought like, “Wow!”

When the original came out in ’76, it shook audiences. There were beheadings and things that, at the time, were quite shocking. And you had Gregory Peck in all of it, so it took it all up to the next level. It wasn’t something that you’re going to see at the drive. This was a big studio film. We’re in an age today where shock and awe is hard to do. I think when Akasha came in with, at least on our side, we were all like, “We’ve got to make this happen.”

It was a battle every step of the way, but obviously, the biggest battle was with the ratings board. Weirdly, we had to do so much back and forth with them that by the time we actually got the R rating, we kept the scene and it got more intense. Sometimes you hold your head low after some of these battles, because you feel like you’ve neutered something. But here, it was like, “Did we just make this better?” And I think that’s what ended up happening. So, we want to give them almost a shoutout. They truly helped us, I think, find the scene. And now it’s even more visceral and more powerful. I think they think they won, but we feel like we really won.

How Intense Will The First Omen Be Compared To The Original?

As stated by Levine, the intensity of the upcoming prequel film is inspired by the original movie, which featured shocking moments like Damien’s nanny hanging herself and Kieth (David Warner) being decapitated. While it’s unclear how the prequel will compare to disturbing elements of other films in The Omen franchise, its trailers refer back to the original. This means the upcoming explicit scene may not be the only intense part of the film.

Given the movie’s focus on Damien’s birth, it’s already clear from the beginning that the birth of the Antichrist cannot be stopped. Because it’s predetermined what this story will lead into, though, it may open the door for more disturbing scenes and violent character deaths. This means that, while the explicit shot was almost enough to make the movie’s rating much higher, there could be equally frightening scenes throughout the film.

Since 20th Century Studios was an advocate for the explicit scene in The First Omen, it’s a testament to just how disturbing the rest of the film is likely to be. Since it’s a prequel to a classic film, there may even be deaths that mirror those of the original, adding darker twists in their homages. With the film more intense in its final cut than originally conceived of, it has potential to be a worthwhile addition to the horror franchise.