If you don't like spoilers, then do not read this!

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I'm serious!

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The Omen tells the story of the birth of the Antichrist, Damien Thorn, and how he eventually winds up in the White House. (Here's a little aside for you: Some people said that U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan was the antichrist in the White House, because his three names all comprised of six letters each. This always made me wonder why Damien's name wasn't similarly thought-out… Damien is six letters, Thorn could be if it were spelled Thorne, and he could have easily been given a middle name.)

The original version of The Omen came out in 1976, and remains to this day a critically acclaimed and fan-embraced bit of cinematic horror that in all honesty has aged very well and doesn't at all cry out for a remake. However, the studios crave box-office bucks and some younger horror fans won't see anything that's "old". So… of course, The Omen was going to be remade. (Besides, how could they let the once-only-every-100-years release date of 06-06-06 go by without taking a stab at it?)

At least the 2006 version of The Omen is a very faithful, only slightly embellished, remake. It could have been worse, folks. We could have gotten the Renny Harlin crazy-CGI-devil Exorcist prequel silliness, or the arrogant "Who cares about the original?" House of Wax Joel Silver treatment.

I've seen both Omen movies within one week of each other, and this is what I thought.

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Scene-by-scene comparison

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Opening credits.

Original: Text credits roll, with Jerry Goldsmith's eerie, Oscar-wining score playing.

Remake: This is much different in the remake, with more build-up to the global signs of the apocalypse. Every recent disaster from natural (the Indian Ocean tsunami) to manmade (the terrorist attacks of 9/11) is touched upon in a montage intercut with images of The Vatican, priests around the world, newspaper clippings, etc.

Result: The remake edges out the original here, adding more excitement and dread to the impending introduction of the antichrist.

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Damien is born.

Robert Thorn is told by a priest that his wife, Kathy, has given birth to a stillborn baby, but that a baby whose mother died in childbirth is available for adoption. On advice of a persuasive priest, Robert does this and doesn't tell Kathy her own boy is actually dead.

Original and remake: Very much the same.

Result: It's a draw.

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Robert becomes the Ambassador to England, and the family moves from Rome to the UK.

Original: Robert is simply promoted.

Remake: The Ambassador dies in a freak, fiery car explosion, leaving the job open for Robert to step into.

Result: The remake is more exciting in this regard, and gives us an inkling that Damien's minions are already paving the way for him to advance in the political world.

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Montage of Damien growing from baby to five-year-old child.

Original and remake: Pretty much the same.

Result: It's a draw.

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Happy birthday, Dear Antichrist…

Damien's opulent, well-attended fifth birthday party. His nanny sees the dog on the outskirts of the lawn, seems to get a psychic message, goes up to the top of the mansion's roof, yells to Damien "It's all for you, Damien!" and in full view of everyone, hangs herself.

Original: The dog the nanny sees is a Rottweiler. The nanny jumps from the roof, with a noose around her neck, as Damien (and everyone, alerted by the nanny's announcement) watches. It's quick. Her body breaks a window in the house. Some people run and scream. The photographer, Jennings, snaps photos. Kathy shields Damien from the sight. Other kids stop and stare, seeming fascinated by the corpse. Damien sees the dog, waves and smiles at it.

Remake: The dog the nanny sees is an angular German Shepherd, with amber eyes. It's an arresting visual, but it's not carried through — the rest of the dogs in the movie are all Rotts. I think they should have stuck with one or the other. The nanny jumps from the roof, with a noose around her neck, as Damien (and everyone, alerted by the nanny's announcement) watches. She doesn't break a window, but hits the side of the house with a thud. The death is more dramatic, in the aftermath: the camera shows one of her shoes dangling from her toe, falling through the air, hitting a punch bowl, breaking it, and the red contents spilling over a white tablecloth. Jennings takes pics, Damien is shielded, and everyone runs and screams. Damien sees the dog, waves and smiles at it.

Result: The stylishness and the embellishments in the remake edge out the original by a neck.

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Thorn meets Jennings.

When Robert goes to his office the next day, he's swarmed by reporters and photographers asking about what happened with the nanny. He accidentally bumps into Jennings and breaks his camera. Robert offers to pay for it, and Jennings replies, "That's all right, Mr. Thorn. Let's just say you owe me."

Result: These scenes are basically the same, so it's literally a draw, but the remake has a bonus in that the original actor who played Damien has a cameo here as a reporter.

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Fanatical Father Brennan, having seen the nanny news, seeks Robert out to tell him he's harboring the antichrist.

Original: Father Brennan goes into Robert's office, and locks the door behind him. Security has to break in to escort him out. He seems menacing and unbalanced.

Remake: Father Brennan accosts Robert in the main lobby of his office building. It seems less threatening, since it's not in such an enclosed, private place. The Father still seems pretty whacky, though!

Result: The original wins this match.

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Jennings gets a clue.

Jennings is developing his film in the darkroom. He notices strange marks on prints of the pictures of the nanny, and of Father Brennan.

Result: I can't remember if this same scene is in the remake, or if it's condensed into one scene when Jennings and Robert are inside Father Brennan's residence.

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Mrs. Baylock becomes Damien's new nanny.

Original: Mrs. Baylock just shows up, announcing herself as "the new Governess". Robert and Kathy are relieved, but somewhat suspicious. Mrs. Baylock is very eager to see Damien, and she tells the parents that "the agency" sent her after reading about the demise of the first nanny.

Remake: The Thorns are interviewing nannies, when Mrs. Baylock shows up at the end of the day. They are impressed by her resume, and they like her right away, so she is hired. She is eager to see Damien.

Result: While the remake makes the addition of Mrs. Baylock more natural, the original wins this one on creepiness.

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Damien hates church!

Original: The Thorns have to attend a church wedding, and they want to take Damien with them. At the last minute, Damien still isn't ready. Kathy calls upstairs to Mrs. Baylock, who comes to the top of the stairs and tries to beg off by saying, "He's too young for church. He won't understand…" and so on. Kathy has none of it, and Damien is dressed and off he goes with his parents in the car. As soon as Damien sees the spires and the cross, he starts crying and fussing. As they drive up to the entrance, he then has a violent fit, pulling off Kathy's head scarf and punching her in the face. Robert tells the driver to keep going.

Remake: Much the same, except that Mrs. Baylock says Damien is sick. When Damien sees the church, the religious icons are more dramatically presented, with quick cuts. When he hits Kathy, he claws her face, drawing blood.

Result: Both scenes are really intense, but the remake edges out the original.

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To the Devil, a Dog.

The Rottweiler from the garden is inside the house. He growls at Robert, and Mrs. Baylock steps in to say that she found the dog, and Damien loves him. Robert tells her to get rid of the dog ASAP.

Original: The dog is in the hallway when Robert first sees him. He appears to be the same dog that was controlling Damien's first nanny, and the one that Damien waved at after the suicide.

Remake: This is a Rottweiler, too. But it is sleeping in Damien's room when Robert sees it for the first time.

Result: It's a toughie, because the dog in the new movie has a meaner snarl, but the original wins because it's scarier to think it's the same dog that was at the birthday party.

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Animals hate Damien!

Original: Kathy takes Damien to an outdoor, safari-style zoo, where you can drive your car amongst the wildlife. The giraffes run from Damien in a stampede, and the baboons get very nervous as Kathy drives through their habitat. They start to run, freak out, then attack the car. They fling themselves at the windshield, trying to get Damien.

Remake: The visit to the zoo, a posh indoor building with the animals on display behind glass, seems to be part of a class trip. There are lots of the kids there, with a few mothers along as chaperones. Damien is looking at animals alone, and Kathy asks him why he's not with the other kids. "They're afraid," he whispers. Then the monkeys and gorillas start getting really upset. The gorilla tries to break the glass by throwing himself against it, but it only cracks.

Result: I think the relative isolation of Kathy and Damien alone, and the fact that being in the animals' habitat seems more dangerous, makes the original top banana in this scene.

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I need my head examined.

Kathy tells Robert that she needs to see a psychiatrist. She tells him, "I have such fears…"

The scenes are similar in both movies, but the remake is embellished with Kathy's freaky dream sequences.

Result: The remake may be a little over the top in this regard, but the dream sequences are scary and stylish, adding some freaky flair to the proceedings.

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Father Brennan implores Robert to listen. He sets up a meeting.

Brennan corners Robert during a local football game. "You're wife is in danger. She will die if you don't come!" Robert agrees to meet him later on. Jennings is there, and takes some pics of Father Brennan (does the newspaper only have one photographer, for everything from kiddie parties to scandal to sports?).

Result: I think the setting in the remake is more dramatic (the opera? Memory fails…).

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Jennings develops more pictures.

He sees "the mark" on Father Brennan.

Result: I don't recall if this was shown in the remake, too.

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Robert meets Brennan in the park.

Original: Father Brennan is sitting on a park bench; he tells Robert to see the exorcist, Bugenhagen, to get the tools he needs to kill the antichrist, Damien. He warns Robert that Kathy is pregnant, and Damien will stop at nothing to kill the unborn child, then Kathy, then him, to climb the political ladder.

Remake: Pretty much the same, but the setting is much more dramatic, and it is at night, which adds a lot to the atmosphere.

Result: Remake gets points for visuals.

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Brennan gets speared.

Original: Skeptical Robert storms off, and a storm comes up, chasing Father Brennan all the way back to the church. The church doors are locked, and a bolt of lightning hits a spire on the roof, and it falls off, impaling Father Brennan and pinning him to the ground where he stands.

Remake: The same basic set up — Robert leaves in a huff, and the storm comes after Father Brennan. But while his death is pretty perfunctory in the original, it's more set-up and drawn out in the remake. A bit of dramatic flourish is added when the instrument that impales the Father also severs the necklace he's wearing, throwing the cross to the dirt.

Result: The remake is more chilling and has more religious overtones.

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Damien is causing a racket, obviously upsetting Kathy and agitating her migraine. (He's just playing loudly in the original; in the remake, he is playing a videogame.) Later, Kathy tells Robert she is pregnant, but she wants an abortion. (It's colder, meaner, and more chilling in the original.) Robert sees the newspaper showing Father Brennan dead in front of the church. Robert talks to the psychiatrist about Kathy's state of mind. The psychiatrist says she should have the abortion; Robert disagrees.

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Kathy falls.

Kathy is hanging a plant from the ceiling upstairs, very close to the banister. Damien is playing, and he "accidentally" knocks her over (this is just after what looks to be silent encouragement from Mrs. Baylock.). Kathy holds on for a second, but her hands slip and she falls to the first floor.

Original: Kathy is hanging a fern. Damien is riding a tricycle. A vase with water falls before Kathy does. She holds on the railing for a second, as Damien watches. She says, "Damien…" before she drops. She falls on her face/side. Damien just looks at her (maybe waves? I'm not sure).

Remake: Kathy is hanging a plant with blood-red petals. Damien is riding a scooter. Some petals fall, like drops of blood through the air. The plant hits the marble floor and comes apart. Kathy falls but is hanging on by her fingertips. She says, "Damien… help" before she drops. She falls somewhat "Psycho"-like, landing on her back. Damien looks at her, waves and says, "Bye-Bye."

Result: The remake rules for its superior suspense and red-color imagery, but loses a couple of points for having Damien talk.

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"Don't let him kill me."

Kathy is in traction in the hospital. Robert comes to visit, and she implores, "Don't let him kill me." The baby is lost.

Result: The setting is a little different (she's in a dorm-like area in the original, in a private room in the remake), but it's a draw.

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The dog is still at home, growling at Robert in Damien's room. (I can't remember if this scene was also here in the remake.) Robert gets a phone call from Jennings, telling him to come to his flat to look at the photos and to talk about the death of Father Brennan. (I can't remember if this scene was also in the remake, or if Jennings's flat is bypassed and they meet at Father's Brennan's residence.)

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