Omen IV: The Awakening

Just like the original Omen, but with a girl instead. Just as silly as the original Omen—with one exception. This one has the best “Damien” character thus far.

Have you recovered from your shock? Good. Let’s dig into the details, shall we?

Plot Summary

Karen and Gene York adopt a beautiful baby girl who they name Delia. For the first few years, they’re a happy family. Then strange things happen and people start dying. The little girl always seems to be involved somehow, and Karen begins to wonder about Delia’s real identity.   

Nutrition Facts

Vitamin B-Acting: 20%

This movie is notably different from the others in its lack of big stars. Faye Grant, Michael Woods, and Michael Lerner all acted mostly in TV, rather than movies. Their performances are low-key and decent. Only the nuns and Delia’s first nanny can fairly be accused of overacting in this installment.

Asia Vieira plays Delia, and compared with Harvey Stephens and Jonathan Scott-Taylor, she’s a pint-sized Meryl Streep. The first time I watched Omen IV a few years ago, I laughed at the movie, including Delia, without a second thought. But after watching the movies in sequence, it occurred to me that Vieira actually played her role well. She conveyed Delia’s manipulative ability more effectively than either Stephens or Scott-Taylor. 

"Anything those boys can do, I can do better!"

I could also imagine Vieira’s Delia growing into a charming, albeit sociopathic, politician much more easily than Stephens’ or Scott-Taylor’s Damiens. It helped that Asia Vieira used more than three facial expressions during the whole movie.

By the way, if the name “Asia Vieira” sounds familiar at all, she played the sidekick on the Disney Channel show “Flash Forward.”

Today, Disney. Tomorrow...THE WORLD!

In case you’re wondering if I think this is a good movie, don’t worry. I thought the rest of the movie was terrible.

Vitamin B-SFX: 0%

Vitamin Fun: 70%

The best way to enjoy this movie is to ritually mock it, like people do for the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Omen IV begs for this kind of treatment, considering how often it directly rips off the original Omen’s script. I put forth these moments from Omen IV as candidates for mockery:

1) Anytime the following happens:

--Characters quoting the same biblical quotes as in The Omen
--A character explains where the Antichrist will come from (politics)
--A Rottweiler saunters into the scene
--When a Catholic nun/priest who knows the truth is about to die/go bonkers

2) The scene in which the father of one of Delia’s classmates is beheaded by the lowered back door of a truck (total rip-off from the glass plate truck scene in The Omen)

3) Delia’s first nanny dies 

4) Karen kills Delia's demonic nanny, just like Gregory Peck in the first movie

Eh, Mrs. Blaylock was much more hammy and fun to watch.

5) Demonic auras appear in photographs 

6) Woman's intuition is brushed off as pregnancy-induced hysteria 

7)  The Great Horse Freakout—the equine version of the first movie’s baboon scene. When the horses start neighing, someone in the audience should start yelling “FRAU BLUCHER!”

WHINNY!

Here are some other moments that aren’t total ripoffs from the original, but nevertheless deserve to be incorporated into a ritual mocking:

1) The use of clowns

2) The crystals and Kirlian photographs (Next time I have a hard time persuading someone that the Antichrist is among us, I’ll just say, “But I saw it in a KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPH!!!”)

3) The wrecking ball scene

4) Whenever yet another upside-down cross appears, no matter how forced the setup

Sugar: 0%

Plot Fiber: 3%

Bumped it up a tiny bit to Vieira’s acting, but plenty of bones to pick still.

Before going into my traditional dissection of the death scenes, there are two brief scenes I’d like to comment on.
 
The first is Delia’s christening. I found it absolutely laughable that the witnesses considered Delia’s crying at the baptismal font strange and unholy. Had the writers ever been to a baby’s baptism? If a baby crying during its baptism was a sign of satanic influence, the Antichrists would have overrun the world long ago.

The second scene takes place during Delia’s birthday party. One moment, we’re staring at one of the most frightening clown faces ever, then mercifully Terror Clown turns away to face the children. No one is screaming, though. Not one child. How often does this happen in the real world? Perhaps the kids were just terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought? (Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a picture of the clown.)

Now for the real fun—the deaths. The movie has two particularly stupid deaths—the glass plate truck ripoff and Michael Lerner’s death by wrecking ball.

I’ve already mentioned the truck beheading scene. An additional poetic touch helps distinguish it from the glass plate beheading in The Omen. Instead of seeing the man’s head rolling around in Omen IV, the moviemakers tastefully rolled a pink rubber ball with a clown face down the parking lot.

Michael Lerner’s death is an epic scene. First, Lerner walks down the street, looking at shop displays. He admires a toy crane in one window (foreshadowing!). A choir sings Christmas carols on the street. Lerner walks over to a nativity scene. It starts out your typical nativity scene. Then…the carols turn ominous…OMG, it’s the evil Latin chanting! The nativity Jesus turns into a zombie Jesus! Then we get the ultimate treat—we get to see the evil choir IN PERSON! 

In the off season, they work at the London Dungeon.

Trying to get away from the evil aura enveloping him, Lerner runs straight for a construction site. Naturally. Of course, the wrecking ball crane has powered up all by itself. We get to watch in extreme slo-mo as the ball smashes through a trailer and makes its way to Lerner’s noggin. Then we cut to a shot of egg yolks splattered on the floor.

One last thing. As you may have guessed from my mention of crystals and Kirlian photography, there’s a lot of New Age in this film. Delia’s first (and doomed) nanny, Jo, uses New Age to figure out that Delia is evil. Not only does the New Age feel dated, but…
 

I'm with Delia where New Age is concerned.

Tune in next week for my review on the final movie in the series—the 2006 Omen remake with Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, and Mia Farrow!