The Antichrist and Cinema

Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the Beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.
-Book of Revelation, Chapter 13 verse 18.


This is probably the most infamous quote from the Biblical New Testament. This is also one of the most famous quotes from the world of cinema. Throughout the years Hollywood has capitalized on the two thousand year old concept of what Christians worldwide call The Antichrist. Why? Because it’s fascinating, creepy, and makes for good horror film material.

There have been various depictions of the Antichrist on film throughout the decades. The idea is usually that he is Satan’s son (though the New Testament never specifically refers to him as such…) and that he is born in the world to take over it and destroy the human race. There has been no series of films which has portrayed this in a more scary fashion than the Omen films.
Beginning with The Omen in 1976 starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, it pulls us into the story of a perfect couple, a well known politician who is appointed as Ambassador to Great Britain. He loses his first and only child in birth in a hospital in Rome, unaware that it was all orchestrated by a group of Satanists who have assisted in the unholy birth of the Antichrist out of a Jackal. They switch babies….telling Robert Thorn that this child’s mother died at the same time as his own child. Not telling his wife, Robert secretly adopts the child and they give him the name of Damien.
Five years later, a priest shows up at the embassy to warn Robert of who that child they are raising really is. He throws him out thinking he’s nuts but this sets off a series of events where even though it’s clear the child doesn’t know who he is, dark powers are at work that start picking off one by one, people who pose a threat to him.
After a few horrible incidents which ultimately lead up to the death of his own wife, Robert and Keith Jennings, a photographer who winds up helping him, travel to Israel to search for the only man who knows how to destroy the Antichrist, Carl Bugenhagen. He gives them the seven daggers of Meggido…the only things on the planet that can kill the Antichrist. 

 

Basically everyone dies…except for little Damien of course. The Omen spurs on two more great films Damien, Omen II and The Final Conflict where he ultimately comes face to face with Jesus Christ! That was quite a moment in Cinema history. The Omen series also give birth to what is in my opinion a crappy and stupid made for TV movie called Omen IV The Awakening, which after watching it just once I said, WTF?
In 2006, a remake of The original Omen was released. I’m not big on remakes but I can tell you that that one was very good. It stayed truthful to the original story it was even creepier in certain parts.
Of course there have been other films like Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Stand (1994), Lost Souls (2000), and even Left Behind movies based on the Christian fundamentalist best selling novels.
Why this fascination with the Antichrist? Why this fascination with evil?
The Bible calls the spirit of Antichrist as the Mystery of Iniquity. I think it’s a common mystery to all of us what attracts us to the concept of evil so as to make movies about it. Horror films would not be horror films without it. It may be our natural way to step away from reality and go into another world where we can be entertained, not get hurt and learn in some ways, how to cope with the real evils of the world when we finally leave the theater. I think we used all types of movies in general to get ideas of how to deal with life issues. Horror is simply a strong and powerful medium by which our coping strategies are refined and made a little stronger. I’m not sure.
Before I move on I do have to address one weird thing about the Omen films…Damien was born of a jackal right? Have you ever seen a jackal? It’s a wild African dog. It’s little. How can a little thing like that be able to bring a human baby to full term? It’s kinda weird. Maybe they should have come up with another kind of animal because Jackals are kinda small. 

 
I give the Omen series 5 coffee cups (except for part 4). I make this rating even in the light that I am a practicing Catholic who indeed believes there will be a real Antichrist one day, most likely after I die. There are other Christians out there who have different belief systems regarding this infamous figure, but it’s the substance of a good horror film that entertains us, fascinates us and even lures us to want to know more.
It was 1983. I was about to start high school. I walked into a stationary store on 161st street, right by Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. I came across the novel The Omen by David Selzter. I bought the book. I remember reading it on the bus on my way to school. I absolutely loved it. I bought the other books based on the other films as time went on and I ended up seeing the movies a little later on. There were even things cited in the 2006 remake from that novel that was not referred to in the original 1976 classic. I was impressed.
Ironically, this interest in supernatural horror was only one of different factors which have led me to being the believer in God that I am. Hollywood took my money, but I got something even better in return. When it comes to supernatural horror, I get hooked. When it comes to supernatural horror regarding God and the Devil, I get even more hooked. It speaks to me. It reminds me of both my faith and my potential to be evil. We all have that trait in different ways and expressions. This is why this film and others like it has seen great success in the cinema over the decades. Yes, The Omen films, Rosemary’s Baby, Lost Souls, The Stand and other films like it emphasize the end, but what is your take on such horror films? Please let me know. Perhaps you think it sucks. That’s okay. Perhaps you think they’re awesome. Regardless of one’s opinions and beliefs, one has to admit that movies about the Antichrist have captured the imagination of the general public. Films like this began to really roll in the late sixties and early seventies…a time of upheaval in southeast Asia and revolution here at home. A calling out and demand for change was the zeitgeist of the time. People were searching for meaning and purpose in this time. People were also looking to be entertained. The movies were there to provide that. Horror in general was there to exploit it. It did a great job.
The main idea about the Antichrist in Christian Literature is that he would appear during a time of uncertainty and world decay so as to become a savior of sorts to the masses searching for stability, kind of like what Hitler did in post World War I Germany. In the case of the early 70’s, we here in America were searching for that too. There was no real Antichrist to reveal himself, but those movies sure did give us something to think about and be entertained at the same time, not to mention having the holy hell scared out of us. What a way to deliver.