MOVIE MUSIC UK

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

A movie that nobody asked for, but which in my opinion ended up being the second-best film in the series, The First Omen is a prequel chronicling the events leading up to the birth of the antichrist Damien as shown in the original 1976 Richard Donner Omen film, which adds a great deal of depth and intrigue to the backstory of David Seltzer’s characters. The film is set in 1971 and stars Nell Tiger Free as Margaret, an American novitiate nun who arrives in Rome to take up a position at a convent orphanage overseen by the kindly Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy). However, Margaret soon discovers that all is not right at the orphanage; a young girl named Carlita is plagued by terrible visions, a fellow novitiate appears to want Margaret to experience sexual vices before taking her vows, and – worst of all – she is visited by an agitated Irish priest who is convinced that the orphanage is a front for a cult intent on bringing about the birth of the child of Satan. The film is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, and has a supporting cast that includes Alice Braga, Ralph Ineson, and Maria Caballero.

The original 1976 film The Omen famously had a score by great the Jerry Goldsmith, which earned him his only Academy Award win. The second sequel to the original film, The Final Conflict from 1981, also has a Goldsmith score which I personally consider to be one of the greatest horror scores ever written. Goldsmith’s The Omen was massively influential; while horror scores with religious overtones had includes sequences of Latin chanting before, Goldsmith’s score popularized the approach in the Hollywood mainstream to such an extent that it quickly became an overly-imitated trope. As such, it’s easy to forget just how brilliant the score and its centerpiece song “Ave Satani” is, and how groundbreaking it was when it first came out almost 50 years ago.

Horror scoring has changed considerably since then. These days the majority of horror scores are less melodic and less thematic than those written by Goldsmith and his contemporaries back in the day; instead, and with some exceptions, they rely much more on abstract orchestral drones, sound effects, sound design elements, and loud stingers to unnerve the audience. For the most part I dislike this approach, and that’s why it’s actually quite satisfying to report that The First Omen – while it does contain a great deal of this modern sound – also adopts some ‘classic’ horror music approaches, making it a very compelling score as a result. The score is by Canadian composer Mark Korven, who over the last few years has penned numerous acclaimed challenging dark drama and horror scores for films like The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Black Phone, among several others.

Korven wrote his music mostly for strings and voices – almost no brass, very little percussion, no woodwinds at all – and in doing so created a score which overflows with ominous atmosphere, fosters an oppressively creepy mood, and occasionally emerges into sequences of truly nightmarish cacophony which is deeply unpleasant to listen to, but which works magnificently well in context. What’s also interesting is how Korven often uses divergent tonal ideas in the same cue to keep the listener unsettled; he will layer soft violins against brutal cellos, angelic sopranos against deep, guttural basso profondos, and so on, constantly shifting between the ideas in ways that feel like a battle for supremacy. The light versus the dark, if you will.

There are no recurring melodies to speak of, but there are a couple of interesting motifs that crop up multiple times throughout the score. There is a motif for urgent, insistent string pulses that seems to represent the investigation part of the story, as Margaret tries to get to the bottom of what is happening in the orphanage convent. There is a low, growling vocal motif representing the ‘demonic jackal’ who eventually becomes Damian’s parent. This is counterbalanced by a spiritual, almost angelic vocal motif that appears to represent Margaret and the inherent goodness of her nature.

Other recurring vocal/choral ideas include moments where they whisper frantically in Latin, where they make oddly rhythmic na-na-na noises in a way that reminds me of Johann Johannsson’s score for Arrival, and even some moments where vocalists squeal, shriek, gasp, and wheeze, resulting in a sound that is somewhere half way between a death rattle and an orgasm. Some of these vocal performances were undertaken by Toronto’s Element Choir, which specializes in unconventional vocal improvisation techniques, and who acquit themselves excellently here.

Most of the cues are combinations of one or more of these elements, but some stand out more than others. The opening cue, “It’s All for You,” actually underscores one of the film’s more horrific scenes half-way through the story, where a character self-immolates and leaps from a balcony in a chilling foreshadowing of the death of the Thorn family’s young Nanny in the original film. Here, Korven’s strings groan, whine, rumble, and then erupt into a chilling choral performance of religious Latin phrases, underpinned with overtone-style vocal textures and howling outbursts of anguish and horror. I was able to catch some of the Latin lyrics Korven uses here – “qui quis rex salvatoris” translates to “who is the king of the savior” – which is of course perfect for the story as it unfolds.

“Searching the Files” features one of the score’s most prominent statements of the Investigation Motif, amid urgent, insistent string pulses, chanted Latin vocals, and guttural gasping and wheezing sounds. “Vow Ceremony” includes the most prominent use of the soft, gentle, angelic voices, but these are quickly overtaken by the harrowing chaos and dissonance of “Margaret’s Voice”.

“Carlita’s Rescue” begins with spiritual voices but becomes portentous and dramatic in its second half, even including some subtle references to ‘Ave Satani’ in the lyrics and the phrasing of the low strings. “Tighten the Noose,” which underscores the first of several disturbing demonic rape sequences, features one of the score’s most notable statements of the Jackal motif, as well as what sounds like a ram’s horn to really emphasize the religious brutality of it all. Later cues like “The Claw” and “The Antichrist” use the same sounds accompanied by agitated string textures, whispering, and shrieking and howling voices, with the former cue underscoring what is perhaps one of the most disturbing on-screen birth sequences I have ever seen. Elsewhere, both “Riot” and “Demon Dance” take these stylistics even further into darker musical corners; the latter underscores the scene which pays homage to the notorious 1981 horror film Possession, and uses vocal textures that veer violently from eerie breathing, to moaning and gasping, to the verge of a sexual climax.

“Plan Revealed” is another great example of the tonal juxtaposition that Korven uses throughout the score, as he pits soft, angelic, almost soothing strings and voices against unnerving creaking noises; the disconnect that Margaret feels between the face of a man she has always trusted, and the nightmarish circumstances she finds herself in, is palpable. “Gurney Journey” contains more Latin singing – ‘pie jesu nomine’ translates to ‘in the name of Jesus’ and must have been an accurate description of what was going through poor Margaret’s head at the time.

“Ambassador” blends the Jackal motif with more whispered Latin chanting for the scene at the end of the film where director Stevenson cleverly links everything in to the first scene of the original 1976 film, complete with a photo of Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn. Finally, to underscore the moment where the cult members identify the latest newborn baby as their long-awaited boy, the filmmakers made the excellent decision to use a massive, in-your-face front-and-center new arrangement of Goldsmith’s legendary “Ave Satani” theme. Hearing this legendary theme in such full-throated glory was, for me, a spine-tingling moment of classic film music appreciation.

Also included in the film, but not included on the soundtrack, are two needle-drops from scores from period Italian films: Ennio Morricone’s dreamy “Sospesi Nel Cielo” from the 1964 film I Malamondo, and the sexy, sultry title track “La Ragazza Dalla Pelle di Luna” from the score for the 1972 film of the same name by Piero Umiliani. These pieces are used as musical scene-setters to convey the essence of Rome in the early 70s and are brilliant in context, both at illustrating the romantic wonderment that Margaret feels upon her arrival in the city, and at creating a false sense of security in the audience’s mind, before all the demonic horror kicks in. Personally, I would have included them as bonus tracks on the soundtrack, and if anyone has a mind to do so I would find them and program them in as tracks 2 and 3, in order to create a more accurate reflection of the film’s musical content.

The First Omen is a good score but, as I said at the outset of the review, one cannot go into this score expecting Mark Korven to have approached the film the way Jerry Goldsmith did. In interviews about the music, Korven states that he was told to actively avoid writing music in Goldsmith’s style, except for in the moments of intentional reference and homage, and so as such this score is very much written in the modern, more abstract, more dissonant horror fashion, and lacks the classic themes-and-melodies approach that its predecessors used. If that textural approach is not something you appreciate… well… then The First Omen will not be for you. With that in mind, and while I will always prefer the classic approach, I find that I am coming to appreciate the intelligent design in scores like this. It’s difficult, challenging, and often unpleasant, but it’s also one of the best recent examples of this contemporary horror sound, and in film context it adds immeasurably to the overall atmosphere of devilish dread.

Buy the First Omen soundtrack from the Movie Music UK Store

Track Listing:

• It’s All for You (1:32)
• Searching the Files (1:24)
• Vow Ceremony (2:40)
• Margaret’s Voice (1:56)
• Carlita’s Rescue (2:36)
• Tighten the Noose (3:19)
• Cloister de St. Rita (0:59)
• What’s Happening to Me (1:50)
• The Claw (1:21)
• The Antichrist (1:22)
• Not My Area (1:31)
• Riot (3:32)
• Horrific Accident (1:45)
• The Demon Face (1:26)
• Scianna Files (3:28)
• Defending Carlita (2:43)
• Tableau of Hell (2:09)
• Shaming (1:25)
• Demon Dance (1:51)
• Plan Revealed (2:33)
• Gurney Journey (1:12)
• Ambassador (1:14)
• Ave Satani (written by Jerry Goldsmith, arranged by Mark Korven) (1:11)

Hollywood Records (2024)

Running Time: 45 minutes 11 seconds

Music composed by Mark Korven. Conducted by Cliff Masterson. Orchestrations by Jim Fowler. Recorded and mixed by Jake Jackson. Edited by Jeff Kwong. Album produced by Mark Korven.