This week, a pair of fantastic throwbacks grace NOLA movie screens.
THE FIRST OMEN
A sumptuous and terrifying free fall into a nightmare world of birth and brimstone, “The First Omen” shocks as one of the most effective, and gorgeous, studio horror movies in recent memory. Taking place months before the events of Richard Donner’s ’70s spook fest “The Omen,” this audacious prequel in the age of soft reboots and sanitized corporate requels dares to be something radical: very good and very scary.
Following the story of a young aspiring nun (Nell Tiger Free) as she visits Rome in 1971 and becomes embroiled in a carnal plot hidden within the bowels of the church establishment to birth the antichrist, “The First Omen” does not so much entertain the audience as it does CONSUME THEM. Director Arkasha Stevenson (Channel Zero) announces herself with bold, bloody authority in her feature film debut, offering a previously unseen and viscerally upsetting perspective to a film series that has long ignored the horrifying implications of a normal female body forced to birth a demon. Filming among the luscious chapels and basilicas of Rome, Director of Photography Aaron Morton (“No One Will Save You,” “Evil Dead”) frames sunlight and darkness as equally threatening, where even an innocent display of candles could spell damnation. This film, skimming against an NC-17 rating by the skin of its fangs, is drenched in historical subtext, taking its cues from some of the greatest Satan-sploitation cinema of all time; from “The Exorcist” to “The Devils” and especially “Possession.”
Joining “Ouija: Origin of Evil” on the all to short list of stellar recent prequels of preexisting films, “The First Omen” more than lives up to its apocalyptic foremothers, shattering expectations and birthing lasting nightmares that will haunt this writer for years to come.
“The First Omen” is showing at The Broad Theater and Prytania Uptown.
CHINATOWN
For those looking to mainline some ’70s era dread and pessimism, look no further than The Prytania Uptown where they will be screening “Chinatown” this Sunday and Wednesday. This totemic Jack Nicholson classic follows a private eye in 1930’s Los Angeles who goes looking for a man gone missing but quickly unravels an insidious plot of corruption, degradation, and murder against the backdrop of a bustling, baby Hollywood. Directed by pre-disgraced Roman Polanski and featuring one of the greatest screenplays of all time by legendary writer Robert Towne, “Chinatown” stands alongside “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Wild Bunch” as a pillar of the New Hollywood aesthetic; drenched in distrust, oozing intrigue, and eviscerating audiences with one of the most devastating endings in history.
If you’ve never seen this technicolor nightmare on the big screen, do yourself a favor and come by The Prytania Uptown.
You’ll be glad you did.
