Chris Evangelista de AS / Film noted, “The Omen” was part of the wave of horror films on the Christian theme of the 1960s. The trend began in literature; A place to pin the kick -off is Ray Russell’s novel in 1962 “The Case Against Satan”. Then he spread to the film, especially since novels like “Rosemary’s Baby” by Ira Levin and “The Exorcist” by Ira Levin became movies. (Insidiously, we can see how these films stimulated the satanic panic of the 1980s, but it is a subject for another time.)
“The omen”, which was not Based on a book, was a trendy follower. Directed by Richard Don, the film features Gregory Peck as diplomat Robert Thorn. After his son is apparently stillborn, Robert adopts an orphan, transmits him to his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), as a biological son, Damien. While Damien (Harvey Spencer Stephens) grows, strange things happen around him. His nanny dies of suicide, he panics on sacred terrain, and a priest named Brennan (Patrick Troughton) tries to convince Thorn that his son is bad. It is gradually revealed that Damien is the Antichrist, born by an evil cult and placed with the thorns, he will therefore grow up near the power; The story of Damien’s birth was told first -hand almost 50 years later in the film Immaculate Prequel, “The First Imen”.
At the end, the thorns died and Damien was adopted by the former friend of the Ambassador’s college: the President of the United States. The film concludes with Damien smiling on the camera, his mischievous eyes hiding greater evil.
The similarities between Selim and Damien are obvious. (Can you say “Homunculi”?) They even look similar; They are short and wear boys’ costumes. Selim also is the son of the devil. (The Father can resemble the Christian God, but he is the root of all evil in Amestris and lives in a kingdom under the central city, evoking the common confusion of hell and the underground world.) He was disguised as a child of a politically powerful family, or a perfect place to exercise his influence; This time, the bad child’s stepfather is on the plot.
Another difference is that while Damien in the original “omen” do Having only the intelligence of a human child, Selim has a mask. He pretends to behave like a child, but around people who know his true identity, he speaks like being the centuries he is. He is completely aware of what he does and, unlike Damien, who unconsciously Difies evil, Selim knowingly kills people when they threaten his father’s plans.
But there East A deeper reason why Arakawa makes a character representing pride has the body of a child. In “Fullmetal Alchemist”, Pride is a childish quality intended to be growing.
