The First Omen

The First Omen (2024) is set in Rome in 1971. A young American woman starts work at an orphanage before taking her vows. Caring for one girl there, she begins to notice something moving inside the church. It is a prequel to the 1976 film. Where its idea is original is this: it treats evil not as a supernatural force but as an institutional decision. The church sees faith weakening and decides to manufacture an enemy in order to bring people back. It is Arkasha Stevenson's first feature. Its censorship history is short and sharp. The American ratings board first gave it an NC-17 over one specific shot in the birth sequence. Producer Keith Levine described going back and forth with the board five times. It cost 30 million dollars and grossed 54 million worldwide. Critics liked it while audiences graded it a C on CinemaScore, a clear split between the two. It runs 119 minutes. Good for: seventies church horror, formally ambitious genre filmmaking, and prequels. Less good for: the childbirth and body horror is genuinely heavy. The last section accelerates in order to connect with the original film and finishes without fully working through its own idea.