It’s a nun-derful life at the cinema these days. You wait years for a sister-and-Satan movie, and suddenly The Nun 2 and Immaculate materialize. But this smartly chilling '70s-styled screamfest, a reboot of the Omen franchise, is definitely a cut above.
A classy, atmospheric prequel shot with understated, desaturated, Polanski-style good looks, The First Omen propels naive novitiate Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) into a creepy Catholic orphanage in 1971 Rome, where she’s eager to take holy orders. First-time director Arkasha Stevenson (feted for the Butcher’s Block run of TV horror anthology Channel Zero) crafts a tense, chilling mood, as tenderhearted Margaret bonds with disturbed orphan Carlita (Nicole Sorace) over their similarly abusive childhoods.
