The Omen

The Omen is a 1976 horror film directed by Richard Donner and starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Stephens, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Martin Benson, and Leo McKern.

Novels

• David Seltzer, The Omen. (Futura, 1976).
• Joseph Howard, Damien: Omen II. (Futura, 1978).
• Gordon McGill, Omen III: The Final Conflict. (Futura, 1980).
• Gordon McGill, Omen IV: Armageddon. (Futura, ??)
• Gordon McGill, Omen V: The Abomination. (Futura, 1985).

The first Omen movie was based on a novel by the same name, also by Seltzer. Among the adaptations was a name-change for Damien's father (from Robert to Jeremy). The second and third novels were novelizations of their respective movies, and reflected movie continuity (for example, in the matter of the name change).

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The fourth novel, Omen IV: Armageddon was entirely unrelated to the fourth movie, but continued the story of Omen III. Its premise was that Damien Thorn's one-night stand with a journalist resulted in an act of sodomy, and thence the (rectal) "birth" of another diabolical entity called "the abomination" (presumably after the "abomination of desolation" from the book of Daniel). This novel attempted to patch one of the Omen series' more glaring plot-holes, namely the question of whether the Antichrist could be slain by one of the seven "daggers of Megiddo" (which occurred in Omen III) or only by all of them (as stated in the first book and movie). The solution reached was that one dagger could kill Damien's physical body, but not his soul.

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This story was continued in the fifth novel, Omen V: The Abomination, which resulted in the death of that character.

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