The critics like it.


https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_first_omen

The critics consensus;

Frequently frightening even as it plays within the confines of a nearly 50-year-old film series, this prequel is The First Omen of a bright future for the franchise in quite some time.




RT scores for 2024 horror releases;
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Late Night with the Devil - 97% (153 reviews)
The First Omen - 81% (150 reviews)
Immaculate - 71% (153 reviews)
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 - 52% (27 reviews)
Lisa Frankenstein - 51% (188 reviews)
Imaginary - 25% (96 reviews)
Night Swim - 22% (162 reviews)

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Did it really play in the confines of the series?

Damian was born of a jackal, and nothing willk change my mind, dammit!

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTQfBPfOWfV2DMUBPX2NXyIPIdI1jHRG0hH9VPaMTjg9A&s

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From a review I've read it seems they do tackle the whole jackal background.

Then there’s the matter of the Jackal; how The First Omen interprets the lore behind Damien’s birth is nothing short of incredible. Through this symbolic interpretation, The First Omen explores thematically heavy themes of sexual abuse within the Church without getting overly heavy-handed, thanks to its stunning vision of body horror.

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It's not symbolic in the Omen, though.

Or do they explain why there was an actual jackal's skeleton in the grave?

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Do you want spoilers for the movie or just yes/no if there's an explanation or not?

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I'm going to see it in about an hour so I'll find out myself. Thanks for asking first.

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Cool, report back!

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Glad I went. It was indeed much better than I expected. They handled the whole born of a jackal prophecy in a smart way, i thought.

The movie as a whole really added a lot to the series while respecting what went before, imo.

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Yeah, I liked how they melded it right into the original. It was supposed to be the mother as the jackal, but I guess for one reason or another they buried the "father" in the grave of the "mother" *shrug*

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That's kind of surprising, in a good way.

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Yeah, for some reason I was expecting this to be trashed by critics, but I'm glad it's getting good reviews.

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The horror genre has been on a little bit of a run of quality films, lately.

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You can never properly tell from a trailer but I suppose when I saw that I did think there was at least some interesting imagery going on, so slightly more hope raised than when I saw the Exorcist: Believer trailer, which looked a bit more generic and reliant on fan service. That said, it's still surprising it's rated as high as it is.

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Are these reliable critics or woke assholes?

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Encouraging to hear.

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I watched it today. I thought it was alright, a little too predictable and formulaic. Performances were pretty good though. It's a 6/10 from me.

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