The First Omen

The First Omen (directed by Arkasha Stevenson) is a return to the origins of the Omen film series that brought us the classic horror film character Damien, who is supposed to represent the Antichrist. The First Omen is set in Rome, and is a prequel to the 1976 film The Omen. The symbolism of the Antichrist and the act of returning to the origins of a decades-old film franchise both point to the concept of “going backwards.” But this trailer takes the concept of “backwards” literally and has a field day with it.

We open with scenes from a convent, with nuns dressed in black. All the shots up until 0:20 appear to be nuns, priests and young girls engaged in various rituals and activities at a convent in Italy. Right off the bat you can’t help but notice that in this trailer all the people are walking backwards, and later, cars are driving backwards. There is a very clear sense from the beginning that something is not right. The treatment of the 20th Century Studios’ logo at 0:06 is also telling–the iconic searchlights are turned off one by one, leaving us in darkness.

Matching the vibe of this trailer is ominous Swedish electro-pop artist Fever Ray’s 2009 song “If I Had a Heart” (whose music video is a short horror film in its own right). This music is bass-heavy, with most of the sounds originating in the low register, stuttering electronically like a sample on loop, as though the music is frozen in one moment while the visuals are moving backwards in time. The singing in this track is low and understated, feeling more like a whispered chant or incantation.

Because most of the footage in the montage of scenes is played backwards, there are no lines of dialogue until the end, and also we hear no sound design to correspond to these backwards visuals. Most visual media we audio-view (film, tv, video) have a healthy three-part blend of spoken dialogue, sound design, and musical underscore. However, in an unusual step for a trailer, here the music is given all of the sonic space for the first 47 seconds. The trinity has been broken.

At 0:20 the scope of the film begins to shift, perhaps pointing toward the romance that leads to the birth of the evil incarnate, which is the central idea in the Omen series of films. Over the ensuing shots that evoke sex, rituals, and childbirth, the trailer adds to the sound world various high pitched whispering sounds and a number of electronic and orchestral rising tones, which build to a final note at 0:47, the resonance of which echoes out as though from a string orchestra.

From 0:49-0:54, the one line of dialogue in the trailer (spoken by Bill Nighy who plays a priest in this film) is heard over an extreme close-up of what looks to be the eyeball of someone in utter panic. To close the trailer, the stuttering bass loop returns, then disappears again, replaced by the distorted sounds of a woman speaking, with the recording of her voice played…wait for it…backwards.

The First Omen is in theatres April 5th.

— Jack Hui Litster