The First Omen - The scoop and digest

Arkasha Stevenson co-writes and directs the prequel to 1976 original.

Did they copy title from The First Purge?

Errr.

Nell Tiger Free - Sister Margaret Daino

Sônia Braga - Sister Silvia

Ralph Ineson - Father Brennan

Bill Nighy - Cardinal Lawrence

Tawfeek Barhom - Father Gabriel

Maria Caballero - Luz Valez

Nicole Sorace - Carlita Scianna

Charles Dance - Father Harris

Summary

Rome, 1971.

American nun Sister Margaret arrives at Vizzardeli Orphanage, which provides facilities for pregnant unmarried women to give birth.  She meets Sister Silvia, Cardinal Lawrence, roommate Luz and a troubled young girl called Carlita Scianna.

Before taking her vows, Luz persuades Margaret to go clubbing where she boogies with a geezer named Paolo.  She blacks out and wakes up the next day with no memory of the night before.

However, Luz reassures her that she 'behaved'.

One day, Brennan approaches Margaret and warns her to be careful around Carlita as evil things will happen.  He later goes on to explain that because of the rise in secularism, fanatical priests (who turn a blind eye to torture, rape and murder in the name of God), believe they can birth and control the Antichrist.

As nightmares and hallucinations intensify, Margaret realises that Brennan may not be batshit after all.

Es un niño

Due to sharing multiple similarities with Immaculate, this has unsurprisingly been dubbed its 'twin'.

Unfortunately, this was nowhere near as good.

Performances are solid enough, and a woman giving 'birth' to a demonic hand is probably the standout moment.

Towards the end, Margaret suddenly becomes heavily pregnant, screaming in the middle of a street, likely paying tribute to the infamous tunnel sequence in Possession (1981).

Not that it makes any sense, but continuity has been retconned.

1. Both Margaret and Carlita were born of a jackal, as per the former's son and anonymous twin sister.

2. Jackal is male, not female.

3. In the original, Jennings states jackal's grave reads Maria Scianna (changed to Maria Avedici Santova in the utterly pointless 2006 remake).

Members of the Vizzardeli arrange for Robert Thorn to secretly adopt and replace the dead unborn child of his wife's supposed miscarriage on 6 June.

We then unofficially jump five years later to Brennan visiting Margaret, revealing the boy's name as Damien.

What a fucking mess.