The Omen’s alternate ending changes everything

With horror prequel The First Omen hitting screens today, we’re looking back at the original movie, and an alternate ending that would’ve had far-reaching consequences for The Omen franchise.

The Omen was little short of a horror phenomenon when it hit screens in the summer of 1976, making more than 20x its $3 million budget at the global box office.

The film was sold as a classy psychological drama, starring Hollywood heavyweights Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. But in reality, writer David Seltzer and director Richard Donner had crafted a movie that was a little less sophisticated than that cast suggested — a nasty, violent, hugely entertaining potboiler about a grand conspiracy to birth the Antichrist in modern times.

Peck and Remick are the poor parents faced with raising a Satanic son, little realizing they are surrounded by devil-worshipers hell-bent on the boy’s survival. With prequel feature The First Omen in cinemas today, here’s how the original very nearly ended, which would have changed everything.

The Omen’s alternate ending changes everything

In The Omen, the Antichrist is a little boy called Damien, who is born in Rome, and raised by diplomat parents in London. But bad things happen around Damien, from mysterious events to bloody deaths.

His father Robert Thorn investigates, ultimately realizing that his son might be Satan, and deciding to kill him on a church altar. Just as he’s about to commit the heinous act, Damien screams, “No daddy, no,” causing Robert to call to the heavens, “God help me, please,” just as a police officer shouts “Stop or I’ll shoot.”

But Robert proceeds and the officer does indeed him dead, before the film cuts to Thorn’s funeral, with Damien very much alive. This is very different from what was originally shot, as Richard Donner explains during the film’s director commentary.

“[Head of 20th Century Fox] Alan Ladd Jr saw the picture. There would have been a third coffin and it was the little boy’s. He saw it and said ‘Dick, let me ask you one thing. Can you keep the kid alive?’ I said ‘I don’t have the money – I need a half a day.’ He said ‘You got it.’

“We went back and re-shot this end. Because originally we shot this whole little sequence and the child was dead. Instead, because of Alan’s question about changing the ending, this is what we put in…”

Donner says these words as the camera cuts to little Damien turning, looking directly into camera, and smiling. An ending that brings the house down, and ends the movie in perfectly devilish fashion.

No alternate ending, no sequels

If Alan Ladd hadn’t made that suggestion, inspiring Richard Donner to change his movie, horror history would be very different. As Damien would have died, thereby killing the Omen series stone-dead.

But Damien survived, so three sequels followed in the wake of the original:

• Damien: Omen II (1978)
• Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)
• Omen IV: The Awakening (1991)

These sequels aren’t great, and pale in comparison to the 1976 movie, with the only highlight being brilliant Sam Neill playing grown-up Damien in Omen III. And delivering a performance that’s much better than the film itself.

But for better or worse, that change shifted the course of The Omen franchise, and paved the way for The First Omen this week.

The First Omen is in cinemas now – you can read our interview with the filmmakers about the cursed set here. While for more movies releasing this month head here.