The Omen - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Omen or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Omen

[chad]

The producers and Richard Donner were debating whether or not to keep the Mrs. Baylock character because while the rest of the movie was subtle enough to keep you guessing if it was really a demonic conspiracy or just a series of coincidences, Mrs. Baylock was so over the top evil, it was pretty clear she was straight from hell. This killed the ambiguity and suspense of the rest of the movie. But Donner loved Billie Whitelaw so much in this role he just couldn't bear to see her go.

[riley]

Guglielmo Spoletini and Alf Joint are dubbed by Robert Rietty.

[jesse]

The theme song "Ave Satani" means hail Satan.

[oscar]

David Warner kept his severed head for years, until his divorce, when his ex-wife obtained custody of it.

[ivan]

Richard Donner had read the script in one sitting and had heard that 20th Century Fox had already passed on the project. He repitched it to studio head Alan Ladd Jr. when the two were sitting down to dinner one night. Ladd was impressed with his enthusiasm and committed to the project.

[melinda]

The end of this movie borrows from The Bad Seed (1956), the beginning of the evil child horror movie subgenre. Christine, the protagonist of the story, has a young daughter named Rhoda, the eponymous bad seed, a serial killer. At the climax, Christine gives Rhoda an overdose of sleeping pills, and then kills herself, hoping to put an end to her daughter's genetic predatory instincts. Unfortunately Rhoda survives her mother's poisoning attempt, and at the end she taunts the audience by smiling and leering at them, indicating that she will kill again. Damien too survives his father's attempt to kill him, and smugly smiles at the audience, indicating that his reign of terror is also not over.

[jamie]

It is unlikely that David Seltzer named Damien after St. Damien of Molokai, who was not canonized until 2009. The previous St. Damian was martyred in 287 A.D.

[charlie]

Billie Whitelaw said Harvey Stephens was always misbehaving on the set. "He was just awful", she says.

[beth]

While critics tore into The Exorcist (1973) for being too gratuitously gory, this film was almost universally praised for its discreet use of gore. In fact, although there are many grisly deaths, there is still almost no bloodshed. That didn't stop it from nearly getting an X rating due to its gory decapitation scene.

[christina]

One of the most famous decapitation scenes in cinema history, after the scenes in Hereditary and Friday the 13th.

[sylvia]

Initially David Seltzer turned down Harvey Bernhard's offer to write the screenplay. Then he realized that he'd never actually read the Bible so he changed his mind.

[caroline]

Five cameras were used in the now-famous decapitation.

[kenzi]

Before he met Harvey Stephens, Richard Donner was considering casting a girl as Damien, as the casting process for the child was proving to be so difficult.

[addison]

Gregory Peck and screen writer David Seltzer were in separate planes heading for London. An engine on Gregory's plane was knocked out by a bolt of lightning and eight hours later half way across the Atlantic, David's plane was struck by lightning. Whether these events really occurred, or if it is promotional gimmicks dreamed up to draw attention to the film has never been verified.

[marc]

According to director Richard Donner, he talked the noted cinematographer Gilbert Taylor into coming out of retirement to shoot this film.

[kyle]

As part of its pre-release publicity campaign, and to point out the significance of "the three sixes" as The Sign of Satan, the movie was sneak-previewed nationwide in the USA on 6 June 1976. While audiences inside the theatres were being scared witless by the film, theatre employees were out front, busily putting up specially made posters declaring: "Today is the SIXTH day of the SIXTH month of Nineteen-Seventy-SIX!" Hokey though it was, the gimmick worked quite well, as many a theatre patron literally "freaked-out" upon seeing those posters as they left the previews.

[sandra]

Damien doesn't actually kill anyone in this movie. Rather a series of accidents occur which kill off his enemies, and it's implied that the Devil is behind these accidents (not the Devil's son). Comparatively speaking, Regan from The Exorcist (1973), who brutally murders Burke Dennings with her bare hands, is much more dangerous.

[ivan]

Rosemary's Baby (1968) follows a similar plot, about a satanic conspiracy involving the rise to power of the devil's son, and the series of accidents and deaths that are inflicted upon the opponents to this conspiracy. But whereas that film is very subtle, this is more explicit. For example, when Hutch dies after giving key information about the Castavettes and the coven to Rosemary, it's easy to miss that his death was a result of the coven's intervention; it's very subtle. But when Father Brennan warns Robert about Damien and immediately thereafter is impaled by a metal rod which is struck by lightning, it's impossible to miss the Devil's handiwork.

[beth]

After location shooting in Israel, a private jet was hired to take Gregory Peck to America. But at the last moment he cancelled, and it was rented to five Japanese businessmen. The plane supposedly crashed, but this has never been verified.