The Omen by David Seltzer, 1976
A must-read for any lover of horror, David Seltzer’s classic, The Omen, begins in a hospital in Rome, where Katherine Thorn has just lost her first-born son. Before she makes that discovery, however, the nurses usher the infant away from her as the hospital chaplain, Father Spilletto, breaks the news to her husband, United States Ambassador, Jeremy Thorn, in another room. Not only has the child died, says the chaplain, but complications have made it impossible for Kate to have any more children. Father Spilletto then urges Jeremy to adopt another infant whose mother died in childbirth — and Katherine will be none the wiser. Knowing how much his wife longs for a child, Jeremy reluctantly agrees, and raises little Damien as his own.
But it isn’t long before things start falling apart.
On his fifth birthday, Damien’s nanny hangs herself, and a new caretaker, Mrs. Blaylock, comes along unannounced. A mysterious Catholic priest begins following Jeremy, warning him of his son’s evil origins, and a photographer notices strange shadows in photographs that he believes are tied to the mysterious deaths surrounding little Damien. Meanwhile, at home, Katherine begins to fear her son — and even suspects he may not be hers.
As Jeremy investigates, he begins to believe his son is the antichrist, and when a trip to the cemetery where his real son was buried reveals a heinous cover-up, Jeremy knows he only has one choice: He must destroy his son.
David Seltzer’s The Omen was adapted into film not once, but twice — the first in 1976, starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, and then again in 2006, starring Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow, and Liev Shcreiber. The first version spawned several sequels (most of which aren’t half-bad) and in 2016, A&E premiered the series, Damien (more loosely based on David Seltzer’s book than the films) starring Bradley James and Barbara Hershey. All of these further cemented The Omen as an unquestionable classic in the annals of horror — but it all began with David Seltzer’s novel.
Here are the reasons why our reviewers at Darklight Book Reviews have placed The Omen by David Seltzer on our list of Best Horror Novels of All Time:
It’s genuinely scary. In the bottomless well of horror novels claiming to be scary, we’ve found that it’s rare to find one that actually delivers — and boy, does The Omen deliver. The Omen is the kind of book that gets under your skin and makes you think about things you probably don’t want to be thinking about — and we like that.
The stakes are as high as they can go. When he wrote The Omen, David Seltzer wasn’t fooling around. He made sure the risk was real. We’re not talking about saving a single life here, ladies and gents — in The Omen, the whole of humanity hangs in the balance.
The Omen movies — both versions — are equally as good as the book. That’s not something we can say about many film adaptations, but luckily for us (and David Seltzer) it’s true in this case. Whether you’re watching the 1976 version or the one made in 2006, it’s a hell of a ride — and we think that deserves some props. If we were David Seltzer, we’d be proud!