TonyPH

29th Dec 2019

The Omen (1976)

Question: Why didn't Damien's parents notice the 666 when he was an infant?

Answer: It's possible that the mark didn't appear until Mrs Baylock showed up and began teaching him about his heritage. The mark of the devil is said to appear only when Satan accepts a follower, and up until Mrs Baylock appears, Damien is a normal boy. Yes, he's the devil's son, but he knows nothing of his evil nature until she starts teaching him. In fact, at one point, Robert mentions that he knew every inch of Damien's body since he raised him and never saw anything, so more than likely the mark didn't appear until Damien had areas on his body where it could be hidden more easily.

dewinela

But it's a birthmark. He had it when he was born.

Answer: Damien already had an impressively full head of hair by the time they first saw him as an infant.

TonyPH

26th Aug 2018

The Omen (1976)

Question: Something that puzzles me about the thee Omen films taken together. In the first film of the series the very young Damien is taken into a church. As the son of the Devil he has a great aversion to all things Christian, so he has a huge tantrum, and screams, struggles and resists going into the building. So how is it, that, as the series progresses, he can enter Christian buildings without any ill effects? (The denouement of the third and final Omen film is set in Fountains Abbey, a venerated Christian church in Yorkshire).

Rob Halliday

Answer: It may be similar to myths around vampires. In many variations, their fear of crucifixes is purely psychological. As a child, Damian may have feared the symbolism of the church, but as he grew he realised it had no actual power over him.

Answer: There's no clear-cut answer. The first film was intended as a stand-alone movie. When the later sequels were made, the plot details were changed or otherwise adapted to fit a new story line.

raywest

A quick addendum to this correction: There was indeed a general idea from the start that the Omen could spawn a trilogy of movies, though there weren't detailed plans, and the first film was written so that it could function fine as a stand-alone movie if they never got around to sequels.

TonyPH

21st Jul 2014

The Omen (1976)

Question: How could Damien's mother be a jackal? That has always thrown me for a loop and I could never understand why they'd do that unless it was for entertainment purposes. I mean, I know it's Hollywood and all but that's just too far-fetched.

Enchantress

Chosen answer: The idea wasn't entirely Hollywood's. The antichrist is sometimes said to be "born of a jackal. " Jackals are mentioned in the Bible, and some interpretations consider them a symbol of something that is "not of God." In the movie, it means that the kid was scary as hell, literally.

Hobbes

Answer: It's Satan's twisted and macabre mockery of Jesus' virgin mother.

TonyPH

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