In film, the horror genre is characterized by the attempt to make the viewer experience fright, fear, terror, disgust or horror. Its plots often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, sometimes of supernatural origin, into the mundane world. OMEN 666 The Omen was characterized by the chillingly effective use of symbolism, such as the birthmark of the number 666 on Damien´s scalp, the effective use of crucifixes and statuary for foreshadowing, and the wallpapering of a room with pages from a Bible to ward off evil spirits. The premise of The Omen comes from the end times prophecies of Christianity. The story tells of the childhood of Damien Thorn, who was switched at birth with the murdered child of a wealthy American diplomat. Damien´s family is unaware that he is actually the offspring of Satan and destined to become the Antichrist. The movie followed at the tail end of a cycle of "demonic child" films such as Rosemary´s Baby, To The Devil A Daughter, and most notably The Exorcist, and was itself followed by sequels and a number of copycat films. DAMIEN The name "Damien" sounds vaguely like the English "demon," but is not at all etymologically related. Damien is the French form of the English name Damian (Latin Damianus), popular as the name of a martyred Christian saint of the third century. Another prominent Damien was Father Damien of Hawaii, who died while establishing leper colonies there - a saintly rather than demonic figure. Damien is also the first name of Father Karras in The Exorcist. MUSIC An original score for the film was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, for which he received the only Oscar of his long career. The score features a strong choral segment, with a foreboding Latin chant. The refrain to the chant is, "Sanguis bebimus, corpus edimus" (Latin, "We drink the blood, we eat the flesh"), interspersed with cries of "Ave Satani!" (Latin, "Hail, Satan!"). Aside from the choral work, the score includes lyrical themes portraying the pleasant home life of the Thorn family, which are contrasted with the more disturbing scenes of the family´s confrontation with evil.

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