Twentieth Century Fox, 1976
starring: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Billie Whitelaw
directed by: Richard Donner

the plot: Robert Thorn (Peck), a diplomat from the United States serving in Rome, is devastated to learn his wife has given birth to a stillborn child. He dreads telling his wife Katherine (Remick), who still doesn’t know. A priest suggests he adopt another boy who was born at the same time and whose mother died in childbirth; Katherine would never have to know the child wasn’t hers. Robert reluctantly agrees, and the couple brings home their baby boy, Damien. Several years later, Robert becomes the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain and the family moves to London. Things start to go sour when Damien’s nanny abruptly hangs herself in the middle of his fifth birthday party. A series of terrible accidents ensues over the coming weeks, and Katherine becomes increasingly suspicious of her son and his strange new nanny Mrs. Baylock (Whitelaw). Meanwhile, a crazed Roman priest repeatedly confronts Robert and warns him that his son is the antichrist. Desperate to protect his family, Robert and a photographer who’s inadvertently gotten involved travel to Italy to find out the truth about Damien.

why it’s good: There’s something inherently creepy about cursed children. Sure, evil is generally a creepy phenomenon, but especially when personified in the form of an outwardly innocent little boy or girl. See young Regan’s head ratcheting around in “The Exorcist,” or little Danny croaking “red rum” in “The Shining,” or wee Gage wielding a scalpel in “Pet Sematary.” Diminutive Damien, the very picture of cherubic childhood purity, watches indifferently as his terrified mother loses her grip on the second-floor banister. The list goes on, but Damien is a unique child villain in that he doesn’t do anything obviously evil; he just frolics and plays while horrible tragedies occur all around him. And what else would you expect from the son of Satan? Even creepier is Mrs. Baylock, who, as portrayed by Billie Whitelaw, has one of the eeriest smiles in cinematic history. It’s these subtle touches, in the absence of excess blood and gore, that make “The Omen” so memorably scary. The Oscar-winning score by Jerry Goldsmith doesn’t hurt, either. Richard Donner had directed numerous television series leading up to 1976, but “The Omen” marked his transition to feature films (he went on to direct “The Goonies” and several installments of “Superman” and “Lethal Weapon,” among others). With “The Omen,” which came out a few short years after “The Exorcist,” Donner set a high standard for evil children in film.

why you should own it: Twentieth Century Fox’s two-disc collector’s edition of “The Omen” has more than six hours of special features, including audio commentary, documentaries, featurettes and a deleted scene. There’s really no need to see the 2006 remake, which is pretty much a glossy stroke-for-stroke retelling of the story. Sit back and watch the original for a good dose of classic 1970s horror.