AllMovie

Fueled by advances in special effects, the birth of the midnight movie, and a cultural fascination with mysticism, the horror genre achieved a status in the 1970s not seen since its glory days of the 1930s. Of all the occult horror films that surfaced in the wake of 1968's Rosemary's Baby, Richard Donner's phenomenally successful The Omen (1976) was the slickest and least subversive. Derivative but effective, the film was Gregory Peck's box-office comeback, and it offered a convincing turn from Lee Remick as well. The Omen never achieved the cult status of other specimens of the genre, but it paved the way for such 1980s big-budget mystical horror films as The Howling (1981) and Poltergeist (1982). The film's success also ensured more big-screen projects for Donner, including the Lethal Weapon series.