The First Omen (USA, 2024)

Jumping on the reboot/sequel/prequel bandwagon we have Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen a prelude to Richard Donner’s 1974 antichrist horror The Omen. In 1971 Novice nun Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) is brought to Rome by jolly middle class Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy) to take her vows. while she awaits this auspicious day she takes on a role as an assistant teacher at a Catholic school for girls born out of wedlock by day and by night she shares a flat with sexy fellow novice Sister Silva (Sonia Braga) who likes to go out getting pissed and pulling blokes just to find out what she is going to miss when she finally joins up.

Meanwhile Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson with a curious Irish accent that his native Yorkshire brogue keeps threatening to break through), who played by former Dr Who Patrick Troughton comes to a sticky end in Donner’s The Omen, is convinced that there is a secret plot by a sect in the Vatican to cross breed an inmate of the school with a demon to create the Antichrist in order to scare the multitude who are abandoning religious beliefs back into the arms of the church.

To prove his theory Brennan persuades Margaret to look into the school’s student records to find out who is likely to be the devil’s chosen bride. Now what could possibly go wrong? As if you can’t guess!

Needless to say there are plenty of cleverly staged deaths along the way, although none of them quite get the belly laugh that David Warner’s plate glass window beheading did at the Odeon Muswell Hill back in 1976. Other than that The First Omen is a competent if predictable chiller with a really nice sense of period, a couple of really excellent jump scares, the odd Father Ted moment with some of the dowright bizarre Catholic nun practices, Charles Dance’s easiest ever pay cheque and a curious addition to the The Omen‘s storyline that may develop into an interesting sequel, which the conclusion of the film is wide open for.

And if you have ever wanted to see a nun on a trampoline this is the film for you, we give The First Omen a 555/666. Daily Mail offence scale sex, smoking, booze, violence and gore.

The First Omen is in UK cinemas now.