The Omen 1976 vs 2006

1976

2006

                                                               

One of my all time favourite horror films is The Omen 1976 together with The Others. I thought The Omen was masterfully written, well acted and didnt waste time. I watched the Exorcist and Nightmare of Elm Street and  I was bored out of my mind. Unlike The Omen, The Exorcist relies on shock, awe and disgusting vomit inducing scenes. The Omen does not need spinning heads and vomiting demon possessed kids to arouse fear. It just relies on the telling a narrative in such a way that the viewer feels terrified. The black dog in The Omen gave me chills.

30 years after the iconic movie came out they did a remake. To compare The Omen 1976 to the The Omen 2006 is like comparing a cat to a lion. One is ferocious, roars and makes you tremble. The other is a pussy cat. Both are felines but one is far superior to the other. The Omen 2006 copies everything from 1976 but somehow it misses a step. The quality of the camera in 1976 does not help matters because that grainy feel of 1976 adds to the fear inducing element of the film. The actors of 2006 werent that great except for the nanny who nails her part. You have to wonder what was the point of remaking a movie and then creating a far inferior product. Some things should just be left alone. Classics like The Omen should remain untouched. 

Further thoughts on The Anti-Christ

We first hear of an Anti-Christ figure in the book of Daniel which makes reference to Antiochus Epiphanes IV as the 'little horn' who causes "an abomination of desolation". Films like The Omen illustrate how influential the Bible is. The genius of the Bible is that is has so many layers and multiple meanings. It really is a timeless classic and as a writer I am in awe of the authors of the Bible. The ambiguous nature of apocalyptic books like Daniel and the Book of Revelation makes it resonate with the reader. The verses can mean whatever you what it to mean. Thousands of years after the verses were written, people still draw meaning from the Holy Book. Generations continue to interpret and misinterpret Bible verses as they try to predict the future and the "end of days".

The Bible really shows how the adage the pen is mightier than the sword is. The authors of the Bible were very aware of how powerful the written word is. Ideas are mightier than spears. You can kill a man but you cannot kill an idea. Take the Jewish nation of Israel as an example. The Hellenists fought tooth and nail to destroy Judaism and failed. Why? Because they were fighting an idea with the spear. The Maccabees were inspired by their Holy Texts and would not give up fighting even on pain of death. And in the end the pen of the Bible authors triumphed over the Greek spear. Then we move onto the Romans and the Jews who battled for decades until the second Temple was destroyed. But still the Jews persisted in their belief because you cannot kill an idea. Judaism continued to be practiced even without the temple and even after the Jews did not have a homeland. For 2000 years the idea of Zionism persisted because it had been written down and spoken. Speaking words will manifest destiny. And in 1948 the idea of Zionism triumphed.

The Omen is a movie about the Anti-Christ and that got me thinking again about the battle between the pen and the sword. The first so called Anti-Christ was Nero. He burnt Christians alive and fed them to lions but that was fruitless because you cannot kill an idea. Persecution only made the Christians stronger in their beliefs. Many Anti-Christs came after Nero. Domitian, Decius, Valerian and finally Diocletian tried in vain to stamp out Christianity but they all failed because they relied on force to neutralise Christianity. Finally, when Constantine converted, Christianity prevailed. The conquered conquered the conqueror and Rome fell to the pen of the New Testament authors. The pen of Christianity was mightier than all the swords in Rome. And the pen proved mightier than the sword in keeping Rome a powerful city and the centre of western Europe. Centuries after Rome had fallen in 476 Rome continued to cast its shadow over western Europe. Kings and armies trembled at the feet of Catholic Popes. Truly George RR Martin was right to have Varys say that power lies where men believe it lies. 

In the east Christianity was the glue that held the Byzantine Eastern Roman empire together for 1000 years. However, one more Anti-Christ came and was more successful in destroying Christianity. The most dangerous anti-Christ of all time was Mohammed. Not because he came with a sword but because he also came with a book. You cannot kill an idea with a sword but you can neutralise an idea with another idea. And so Mohammed came with Islam and the Koran. Armed with his pen and sacred book he eradicated Christianity and Zoroastrianism from the Middle East and North Africa. Islam spread like wild fire from Europe to Indonesia and held the Ottoman empire together for centuries. And finally Islam was triumphant over Constantinople, the greatest city in Christendom. The pen of the Koran was mightier than the pen of Christianity. 

However, Islam did not completely destroy Christianity and Hinduism precisely because an idea cannot be killed. It makes me think what would have happened in the pagans, Druids, Vikings etc had written down their ideas with Runes and created their own sacred texts. Would paganism have persisted? Today we see a resurgence in pagan belief because ideas are eternal.

Back to the battle between Christianity and Islam. Islam has not given up its 1400 war against Christendom. Mohammed is still the most dangerous Anti-Christ off all time. Today many capitals of the Christian world have thousands of mosques and the Islamic call to prayer shrieks out over Europe. Christians all over the world are being persecuted by Muslims. The problem with Christianity today is that it has splintered into numerous factions and denominations. You have Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, Calvinists etc. During the middle ages most Europeans were all Catholics and were united in their fight against Islam. Moreover today Christianity is a dying religion in the west. Christianity has now become commercialised. It was destroyed by atheism, science, feminism, liberalism and humanism. The question is will liberalism be able to stop the march of Islam? For now it seems like liberalism is assisting Islam in its conquest of the West. If western civilisation does not wake up soon the Anti-Christ will not be a white man with blue eyes and a black suit. The Anti-Christ will be an Arabic man with a beard and a kufi.