I decided to rent this after the (sob) death of Gregory Peck. First, I viewed the trailer on the DVD and even that was kind of funny. Direct quote: "American Ambassador Robert Thorn and his wife Katharine are very happy about the birth of their son, Damien." My brother and I cracked up at that. Amazing, how much a few movies can affect people's association with Satan. Okay, that aside, here's the gist:
Robert Thorn (the amazingly talented and handsome Gregory Peck) is an American ambassador who lives in Rome with his wife Kathy (the amazingly talented and beautiful Lee Remick). He learns, before she, that their new and first child is stillborn. Robert goes to a church where some nuns show him a live baby that was also born at that time (June 6th at 6 AM, by the way), and offers him to Robert, as he could pass as their son. This puts Robert in the lose-lose situation of either telling Kathy the baby she had is dead or lying to her and saying that this baby is theirs. You can probably guess which one he chooses, since it's a matter of whether or not this movie would have been made. Anyway, they take home the cute little devil named Damien, and soon they have to move to London. Now, before I describe the first silly (supposed to be creepy) part, I'll explain that I understand Kathy and Robert are very much in love. I mean, she's absolutely gorgeous, and he's Gregory Peck, for crying out loud, but that's no excuse to be so fascinated with each other as they go for a walk that they briefly lose sight of Damien, now a toddler. And then after that there's a hanging scene (not gory, just kind of spooky), a scene where a spear stabs through an important someone (not gory or spooky; you can see it coming a mile away), two scenes where the same person falls from a high point (painful to watch, but that's good), an attack in a graveyard by about ten rottweilers (pretty bloody and subsequently followed by a sharp peak on a fence stabbing through someone's arm), and a REALLY AWESOME decapitation scene (a little blood). I normally hate gore, but c'mon, you have to praise the sfx people of 1976 to do that scene so well. Basically, Robert learns that Damien is the son of Satan.
Now, although the first third of the film is unintentionally silly and sometimes over-acted, the rest is quite good, with some bits shot quite brilliantly. For instance, anyone who's seen a single Peck film has to know that he can save a movie most of the time. Anyway, Peck is brilliant as usual, as is Remick. The kid was SOOOO adorable, but did have a little devilishness about him. Billie Whitelaw (the creepy nanny) had me hating her from the second she walked into their house, especially after what she does later on (more about that later). And the score scared the hell out of me (no pun intended). When Peck walks into his house for the last time and we hear a mixture of the dog panting and a choir whispering and chanting "Ave Satani," I had goosebumps. Some of the little bits I loved and/or that scared me (some spoilers): Robert's frustration that he has to stab Damien, when he and the photographer unearth the skeletons of both Damien's mother and Robert's real son with a hole in its skull, and Kathy's blue eyes widening under that veil-like cover-up as she sees the creepy nanny approaching with that sick smile (even though it was an awful part, I have to say that was when Remick looked the most beautiful, almost like an angel, therefore the nanny had to kill her). Also (BIG SPOILER), I felt Robert's pain when he was about to stab Damien as he said, "No, Daddy, no." And you have to love Damien's smile at the end....
Robert Thorn (the amazingly talented and handsome Gregory Peck) is an American ambassador who lives in Rome with his wife Kathy (the amazingly talented and beautiful Lee Remick). He learns, before she, that their new and first child is stillborn. Robert goes to a church where some nuns show him a live baby that was also born at that time (June 6th at 6 AM, by the way), and offers him to Robert, as he could pass as their son. This puts Robert in the lose-lose situation of either telling Kathy the baby she had is dead or lying to her and saying that this baby is theirs. You can probably guess which one he chooses, since it's a matter of whether or not this movie would have been made. Anyway, they take home the cute little devil named Damien, and soon they have to move to London. Now, before I describe the first silly (supposed to be creepy) part, I'll explain that I understand Kathy and Robert are very much in love. I mean, she's absolutely gorgeous, and he's Gregory Peck, for crying out loud, but that's no excuse to be so fascinated with each other as they go for a walk that they briefly lose sight of Damien, now a toddler. And then after that there's a hanging scene (not gory, just kind of spooky), a scene where a spear stabs through an important someone (not gory or spooky; you can see it coming a mile away), two scenes where the same person falls from a high point (painful to watch, but that's good), an attack in a graveyard by about ten rottweilers (pretty bloody and subsequently followed by a sharp peak on a fence stabbing through someone's arm), and a REALLY AWESOME decapitation scene (a little blood). I normally hate gore, but c'mon, you have to praise the sfx people of 1976 to do that scene so well. Basically, Robert learns that Damien is the son of Satan.
Now, although the first third of the film is unintentionally silly and sometimes over-acted, the rest is quite good, with some bits shot quite brilliantly. For instance, anyone who's seen a single Peck film has to know that he can save a movie most of the time. Anyway, Peck is brilliant as usual, as is Remick. The kid was SOOOO adorable, but did have a little devilishness about him. Billie Whitelaw (the creepy nanny) had me hating her from the second she walked into their house, especially after what she does later on (more about that later). And the score scared the hell out of me (no pun intended). When Peck walks into his house for the last time and we hear a mixture of the dog panting and a choir whispering and chanting "Ave Satani," I had goosebumps. Some of the little bits I loved and/or that scared me (some spoilers): Robert's frustration that he has to stab Damien, when he and the photographer unearth the skeletons of both Damien's mother and Robert's real son with a hole in its skull, and Kathy's blue eyes widening under that veil-like cover-up as she sees the creepy nanny approaching with that sick smile (even though it was an awful part, I have to say that was when Remick looked the most beautiful, almost like an angel, therefore the nanny had to kill her). Also (BIG SPOILER), I felt Robert's pain when he was about to stab Damien as he said, "No, Daddy, no." And you have to love Damien's smile at the end....