After a franchise’s initial shine of success wears off, that’s often followed by several truncated follow-ups. “The Omen” franchise is a prime example, as the original trilogy led to two book sequels, a TV movie sequel, a remake movie, a TV reboot sequel and a prequel movie (in theaters now). And also a one-episode-and-done TV show, 1995’s “The Omen,” which I’ll look at here.
This show is a curiosity only in the abstract. By today’s standards – and even those of its time – there’s nothing curiosity-inducing about the show after a pretty decent opening scene where Dr. Linus (“Roswell’s” William Sadler) investigates a dark silo. As soon as the special effect of an entity stream jumping from a dying man to another man comes on screen, so does the feeling that this is dull and generic.
I assume writer John Leekley’s script is called “The Omen” only for name recognition. Someone says “omen” (in the lowercase sense) once, and – even though a priest (“I know that guy” character actor Norman Lloyd) is among the investigators — the famous 1976 events are never mentioned.
“The Omen” (1995)
Director: Jack Sholder
Writer: John Leekley
Starring: William Sadler, Brett Cullen, Chelsea Field
The plot is the same as the storyline of the Black Oil jumping from person to person around this time on “The X-Files” – which is likely the show Leekley and director Jack Sholder (“A Nightmare on Elm Street 2”) are trying to imitate.
Invasion of yet another body snatcher
Instead of being an alien, the body-hopping entity is a supernatural evil. Its goal in episode one seems to be to release a virus. Presumably it would’ve tried other evil schemes in further episodes, with Dr. Linus, Associated Press reporter Jack Mann (another “I know that guy” character actor, Brett Cullen) and one of the survivors of possession, Annalisse (Chelsea Field), tracking the entity.
The plotting is straightforward, but some specifics manage to be both bland and unbelievable, like the way Jack just walks right into a quarantine room containing Annalisse. No one seems particularly concerned that the door is unlocked, and Jack himself doesn’t seem concerned he’ll catch a virus. Many moments smack of people doing things because the script says they do.
“The X-Files’ ” Steven Williams plays a CDC agent who may or may not be part of the entity’s wider circle. A distinguishing point of the “Omen” series is generally that the Devil (in the form of Damien) has several helpers who are your basic office-seeking politicians or corporate-climbers. This TV pilot might’ve been building up a circle of power with the CDC agent and other characters who are vaguely unhelpful to Linus and Mann, but no scenes demonstrating the allegiance are shown.
While 2016’s “Damien” wasn’t perfect, it did hook me after one episode and kept my interest for most of its run. “The Omen” 1995 would not have hooked me if I had caught it on NBC’s airing. (It was not picked up as a series, but the one episode did air as a so-called “TV movie” – and it can now be found on, ahem, a certain online video service.)
It has a good, professional cast, but its “X-Files”-ian attempts at mood fall short. We’re left with an uber-generic, unscary possession tale, and – what’s worse – it’s so far removed from the core “Omen” lore that it’s not even much of a curiosity.