Here’s another great example of why the old adage, ‘They don’t make ’em like they used to!’ is so apropos. The Omen was released in 1976 right at the height of Hollywood’s fascination with the Devil and the many ways he can turn up. Over the ensuing years he pops up in many places. Maybe it’s in a house (The Amityville Horror), an apartment building (The Sentinel), a car (Christine), or in the case of Rosemary’s Baby and this popular hit, seemingly innocent children.

Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck, Cape Fear) is an American diplomat living in Rome with his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) awaiting the birth of their child. When their baby is stillborn, Robert cannot bear to tell his wife for fear of her sanity and agrees to adopt a baby boy that was orphaned on the same night. How Robert can live with this deception without any signs of guilt is curious but a stalwart actor like Peck makes it work all the same. As the boy grows into a toddler and Robert is made the U.S. Ambassador to the UK, the Thorns move to the English countryside and that’s when things start to get a little weird and pretty deadly.

When the boy’s nanny dies under suspicious circumstances and a new one (Billie Whitelaw, Night Watch, truly terrifying) appears with sinister motivations, the Thorns get thrown into a deeper mystery surrounding the origins of their adopted son. Enlisting the help of a priest (Patrick Troughton) and a photographer (David Warner, Waxwork), Robert learns that the agreement he entered into has dark consequences. Traveling back to Rome and to the place where the boy’s mother was buried, what he finds out could bring about the downfall of humanity if the boy is allowed to live.

Directed by Richard Donner (Superman, The Goonies) from a script by David Seltzer (Bird on a Wire), The Omen still rings true decades after the original release. There’s a welcome absence of the kind of hysterics and histrionics that often accompany stories about the Devil and Donner has assembled an excellent company of actors and filmmakers to elevate this to high-class gothic horror. Jerry Goldsmith’s instantly recognizable score won him his only Oscar (crazy!) and cinematographer Gilbert Taylor’s strong camera work helped land him his next gig: Star Wars. Peck would seem to be a bit buttoned-up for this type of role but by the time he’s being chased around a cemetery by rabid dogs or going to battle with Whitelaw’s evil nanny he seems to be having a jolly old time.  The late Remick is so lovely here as a doomed wife and mother, no one does wide-eyed terror with such beauty.