The Curse of The Omen
Do you believe you can conjour evil just by making a film about it?
I think most of us believe that true evil exists. How we believe it manifests itself is another story. Some of you will believe what you are about to read is the work of the Devil and some of you will chalk it all up to bad luck and coincidence. Whatever you believe the events surrounding the filming and production of this movie are chilling.
The 1976 horror film The Omen starring Lee Remick and Gregory Peck was the brainchild of a business man named Bob Munger. The idea came to him while crossing the street in L.A. He said he thought to himself what if the Devil were already here on Earth in the body of a child. Like many other horror films dealing with demonic presences (The Exorcist, Poltergeist), there is a purported curse upon this film.
The first event was the suicide of Gregory Peck’s young son three months before filming began. Filming was to take place in London in the Fall of 1975. Both the writer David Seltzer’s flight to London and the producer and director’s flight were struck by lightning. These were two separate flights from LAX to London. Once the cast and crew arrived in London, a plane both the producer and director were set to fly on in order to shoot some aerial footage crashed and killed everyone on board.
The film was also plagued by several crazed animal attacks, including a keeper at the zoo they shot the safari scenes at being killed by a tiger shortly after shooting ended there. It was at this point Lee Remick, who was initially scheduled to do her own stunt in the scene where she falls from the balcony, refused to do it. She had become so spooked according to the director that she was convinced something bad would happen if she did her own stunt.
In two more bizarre incidents, a hotel the cast and crew were staying at was blown up by the IRA right after they left and a restaurant the cast had reservations at was blown up minutes before they arrived. Somewhere along the way the producer started to wear a crucifix. They all made it back alive to the States and the film was released on June 6, 1976. It was made for 2 million dollars and made $100 million worldwide in the first six months. Apparently Bible sales went way up!
Finally, John Richardson the set designer who created the decapitation scene was in terrible car accident in August 1976. He and his assistant were involved in a head on collision on Friday the 13th near a road sign with 666 on it. His assistant was cut in half and killed. Richardson survived with injuries.
If you examine each of these events individually they can all be explained away by nature, politics, and just plain bad luck. I don’t know of anyone who would blame a tiger attack or lightning strike of a plane on the Devil (pretty sure he has bigger fish to fry). However, when you add them all together and consider they were happening to the same people surrounding the production of the same film the hair on the back of your neck may just start to stand up. Honestly, the car accident and suicide really give me the creeps. What do you think? Coincidence, bad luck or something more sinister? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
