transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:03] Hello? Hello, Sidney? What is up, you spooky bitches? We are back with another episode of The Hello Sidney Podcast, your podcast for horror lovers where we discuss any and all things horror. And it's me, your girl, Sidney. Happy Wednesday, happy end of April, pretty much already. This is just, this is the time of year when it flies by, which like, this is the time of year I'd like to slow the fuck down. You know, it's finally getting nice out. I'm not freezing. I have a will to live again. Like, maybe that's why it's speeding by. That's probably why. How is everybody? What's been going on? What have you all been up to? What have you been watching? I went and saw Lee Cronin's The Mummy yesterday, and it was fine. I mean, I feel like it was fine. I do feel like it was just literally another Evil Dead Rise, cause it's the same director, same universe, but it was literally just Evil Dead Rise like an Egyptian element added to it, which is fine. Again, like I didn't dislike it, but I'm like, okay, I've seen this before. And it's also like two hours and 14 minutes long, which I just think is absurd. I think it was dragged out a bit much, could have been shorter, but I'm all for making movies shorter. Unless it's something like Sinners, where you fill that two hours and you fill it well, and it doesn't feel like it's two hours, do not make a two hour movie. It's usually not necessary. But yeah, I watched that, and then what other new movie did I watch? This movie Hive on Tubi, which is definitely a FTK movie. It's about these kids, like these killer kids, but it's like the playground possesses them to be killed. It's kind of a unique and different concept. It's one of those movies that's like low key so bad, it's good. So I actually didn't mind Hive. It was a fun watch. It was entertaining. Other than that, I have just been watching Omen after Omen after Omen, because I'm prepping for next week's episode too, because I'm going to be away next week, because I leave on Sunday to go to Manchester, UK to film Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey 3, which I am so excited about, but I'm getting everything in order. So I got to film next week's episodes first, including the first episode for next month, which I will give you guys the theme for next month. In this month's last episode, I think you guys are going to like it. So I'm excited to tell you, but we'll see. But today we are talking about a religious horror movie that is very highly regarded in the horror community. It's a staple in the horror community. This is a movie that I think everybody needs to see at least once if you're a horror fan. And of course, I'm talking about the original Omen from 1976. And the Omen is directed by Richard Donner written by David Seltzer. And it's starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. And Gregory Peck when he was in this movie, it was kind of shocking for a couple of reasons. One, at this point he had already kind of been in retirement. So we technically came out of retirement to do this movie. Two, he wasn't known for doing horror movies. That was not his thing. So to see Gregory Peck, a very decorated, well-respected actor, do a horror movie was very shocking for the time. And three, at the time that this movie was filmed, Gregory Peck had had a son who actually recently committed suicide, sadly. So they were hesitant, like the director and the producers, they were hesitant about even sending him the script because they knew what had happened. But he actually accepted the role despite that. And one of the reasons it said that he accepted the role was because he and his son hadn't really had a relationship at the time that his son committed suicide. So I think he saw this role as a tortured father and felt like he could really resonate with that. And I think that's or they say that's partially why he took this role. And I think him being in this movie is a huge part of it being as successful as it is. So with that, let's get into The Omen. So The Omen is about an hour and 51 minutes long. It has a 7.5 on IMDB and an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is very good, but I honestly expected higher because again, this is a very well-respected, well-regarded movie in the horror community, I feel like. So I'm actually surprised it's not higher. But the movie opens up, we see the opening credits and we hear this like ominous choral music like a chorus chanting and singing. It's like these deep voices chanting in Latin, it sounds like. So immediately just super ominous. And as the opening credits are playing, we see this image of a little boy, his shadow. He's standing there and his shadow casts the shape of a cross. But from the audience's perspective, the cross is upside down. So immediately setting the stage. But eventually we cut to the actual movie. We see a man in the back of a car. This car is speeding. This man looks super nervous. And we see that we are in Rome, and it is June 6th at 6 a.m. So 6 6 at 6 a.m. And we hear a voice echoing. And this voice is saying, the child is dead. He breathed for a moment, then breathed no more. So this man who is going to be our main character, Gregory Peck, who plays Robert Thorn, he gets out of the car. He enters the hospital. There's nuns and priests everywhere. And we see Robert Thorn speaking to one of these priests. And he's saying, I'm afraid it's going to kill her. She wanted a baby so much. And he asks the priest, what can I possibly tell her? And the priest is like, well, you could adopt. Like there's always that option. And Robert says, yeah, but she wanted her own. And we see a baby being held by a nun. And Robert is looking at this baby through the glass window. And the priest is with him. And the priest says to him, it even resembles your wife. She need never know it would be a blessing to both her and the child. So Robert confirms, he's like, what about this baby's parents? Does it have no relatives? And the priest tells him, none. Its mother died in childbirth, and God has given you a son. So Robert hesitates, but ultimately he agrees. So he's not gonna tell his wife that the son that she actually birthed died in childbirth. She's going to present him with this baby and tell her that this is their baby to save her from the heartbreak, which I'm conflicted on this, because obviously that's a fucked up thing to do. But at the same time, this man just loves his wife so much and he sees a right solution, what seems like the right solution at the time. And everybody benefits. They get to keep their son, this baby gets to have a family, all is well, right? No, of course not, of course not all is well. So we see Robert holding this crying baby and he enters the hospital room and he sees his wife whose name is Catherine and he gives the baby to her and this happy music plays and they're all happy holding their son. And we now cut to a few years later because the son whose name of course is going to be Damien. Damien is a little older. He's probably like three or so at this point, but we see Robert get home. Catherine is there with Damien and Robert gives her the news that he has been appointed the new ambassador to Great Britain. He got the job. So she smiles, she hugs him. They're celebrating. It seems that they have a perfect life at this point. So eventually this car that they're in, because they have a driver, of course, car pulls up to this big, beautiful house. And it turns out, it's a new house they're looking at to buy. And Catherine wants it. So Robert says, okay, Robert loves his wife. Anything his wife wants, he's like, yes, baby. Like, you got it. So he's like, okay, if you want it, we get it. So she shows him what his day room is going to look like. And outside, we see Damien being held by the nanny, and the two of them wave inside. Robert kisses Catherine. They joke about him being the future president, and she's going to be the future first lady. And we cut to them with Damien walking through a field. They're just going on this little walk as a family. Again, everything is super happy. They're setting the scene that this is like a perfect family. And as they're walking, Catherine is saying to Robert how she's going to miss him so much because he's going away and he's going to see his college roommate. He wants her to come with him, but she says, no, she's going to stay behind with Damien. And then they say Damien and they're like, wait, where is Damien? And they turn around and he was right behind them. But then they start panicking and they're yelling his name and they're near this stream. They're looking in the stream thinking the worst, of course. But then suddenly Damien comes out laughing from behind a tree and they run over to him and they hug him and they all laugh. And again, perfect family. And we see all these perfect family photos of the three of them. And eventually we cut to Damien's fifth birthday party. And that's where that's the age he's going to stay for the rest of the movie. So we're at Damien's fifth birthday party. Again, clearly they are a very well-off couple. I would say they are a very rich couple. They have this big ass house, this big ass yard, and they're throwing this huge birthday party. There's kids everywhere. And Damien blows out the candles on his cake. There's a photographer there taking pictures, kids running around, having fun. There's like all these rides. And eventually Catherine looks around and she spots the nanny whose name is Holly holding Damien. So she goes over and she takes Damien from her. She wants to be with her son. So she walks off and Holly walks away, but then suddenly she stops and we see what she's seeing, and she sees this Rottweiler behind a tree. And she looks almost hypnotized as she stares at it. And we cut back to Robert and Catherine. They're with Damien. He's jumping on a trampoline. He's on a carousel. He's riding all these rides, having the time of his life. But then suddenly we hear a woman's voice starting to call Damien's name. And everybody looks up and this voice is saying, Damien, I love you. Look at me, Damien. It's all for you. And we see the nanny, Holly, standing on the edge of the house, outside of a window with a noose around her neck. And she jumps after she says, it's all for you. And when she jumps, her body hits a window which smashes the maid inside their screams. And everybody at this birthday party watches as this woman jumps to her death. She hangs herself in front of everybody at this five-year-old's birthday party. The kids are watching, horrified. Everybody's watching, absolutely horrified. And they scream, they look like they're in disbelief. Robert runs over to Catherine and Damien and hugs them. And then this photographer takes pictures of her body and then takes pictures of them in grief, like of Robert, Catherine, and Damien in grief. Even though Damien's not really grieving, Damien has no reaction here. He looks like he doesn't give a fuck. And as a matter of fact, Damien looks over his mother's shoulder and he sees that same Rottweiler that Holly just saw. But we don't see him in a trance-like state like her. Instead, we see him giving this like thousand-yard stare, sure, because he's a little weirdo. But then he smiles and he waves at this dog and it runs away. So eventually we see Robert get to work and the press are all waiting outside, asking him questions about the nanny and what happened. And he tries to ignore them. And as he's frantically running into this building, he runs into that photographer that we had seen at the party. And this causes the photographer to drop his camera. And Robert is like, I'm sorry, I'll pay for it. And the photographer tells him, it's all right, let's just say you owe me, which is super fucking ominous. But Robert just continues on and he's in his office. And eventually he gets a call from his secretary that there is a priest here named Father Brennan, and he says it's a matter of urgent business and something about a hospital. And Robert is hesitant, but he's curious. So ultimately he has him sent in. So Father Brennan comes in and he tells Robert, you haven't much time. You must listen. You must accept Christ as your savior. So Robert, of course, is like rolling his eyes. He's like, I thought you said this was urgent. And Father Brennan is like, you must take communion. Only if he is within you, can you defeat the son of the devil. He killed once, he will kill again. Only through Christ can you fight him. And at this point, Robert calls security like anybody would, because at this point, this just sounds like the ramblings of a crazy man. And again, me as somebody who's not religious anymore, I'm like, okay, this is just a person in fucking religious psychosis, which scares the hell out of me. Yes, we're calling security. But then Father Brennan says, I was at the hospital the night your son was born, I witnessed the birth. So Robert calls off security because this has piqued his interest. Because obviously Robert has a secret that this is not actually his son, and only he and the other priests know that this is a different priest. And Robert looks at him and is like, what do you want? And Father Brennan says, to save you, so Christ will forgive me. Interesting. And Robert asks him, what do you know about my son? And Father Brennan says everything. I saw its mother. And fucking Robert plays it off. It's like, he knows, dude, like you don't have to do this, but he's like, oh, my wife. And Father Brennan is like, no, I saw its mother. And he's like, my wife, then you saw my wife. Like, he's still arguing back and forth as if he knows that Father Brennan isn't real, isn't telling the truth. And at one point, Robert is like, this is blackmail. And Father Brennan goes to yell, his mother was a Jap, and he gets cut off because at that moment, security breaks in and grabs him. And Robert has him taken out. And as he's being dragged out, Father Brennan tells Robert, accept Christ each day, drink his blood. So as Brennan is being dragged out, he passes that photographer again, who takes a picture of him as he's going by. And we later cut to that photographer at home, developing these pictures. And he looks at this photo that he took of Brennan. And behind Brennan, it looks like there is like a pole or something driving through his head. It's like a shadow of something. This always reminds me of Final Destination 3, when she's looking at the pictures and can tell how everybody's going to die. Obviously, The Omen did it first, but that's what we're getting here. So Robert eventually gets home, and he's with Catherine, and this woman comes in. I'm guessing this is their maid or something, even though she's not in a uniform. I don't know what she is, but she works for them, obviously. And she comes in, and she tells them, Mrs. Balock is here. And they're like, who the hell is Mrs. Balock? And the woman says, she's the new governess. So they're like, okay, so Mrs. Balock comes in, and she tells them, I'm here to take away some of your troubles and help your little boy forget what happened, obviously knowing about the birthday party incident. And she says, some of our nannies get sick and like have boyfriends and get caught up with things, but I left that all behind. So will you let me see your boy? And Catherine is like, yes, sure. Like I'll bring you to him. And Mrs. Balock insists, I would like you to leave us alone for the first visit to get acquainted. I promise he won't be shy around me. And Catherine hesitates, but Robert jumps in and is like, yeah, it's okay. Which like, bro, I get it's the 70s and everybody was a lot more like trusting and looser, but what? This woman is fucking sketchy off the rip. Like I want to take away some of your troubles. Who are you? How did you get here? And they do realize that. So like, I take that back because they say it's okay, or he does. And this other woman escorts her to go find Damien. And Catherine and Robert look at her, look at each other, and they're like, I like her, where'd you find her? And they both ask the other one, where'd you find her? So now they're both confused. So we see the maid or whoever, said Mrs. Balak upstairs, and Catherine and Robert come after her. And they're like, wait, we're confused. Like, how did you get here? And she says, oh, the agency, they read about what happened in the paper, and they sent you another nanny because of it. And Catherine is like, oh, okay, like that makes sense. I'll call them to confirm. And Mrs. Balak hands over her references. So seems like, okay, this is somewhat normal, this somewhat makes sense. And they let her go see Damien. So they do still just let her go on and meet their son alone. But Mrs. Balak goes in Damien's room, and this ominous music starts to play. And she looks at Damien and she says, have no fear, little one, I'm here to protect thee. And Damien just looks at her and smiles like a little fucking creep that he is. They got the perfect kid for this role, by the way, which I'll talk about that more, like how he got this role at the end, but perfect kid for the role. And he also has these big piercing blue eyes, so when he's doing that thousand-yard stare, it's even scarier because have you guys seen those TikToks about when you're talking to a blue-eyed person? And it's like they're looking into your soul, which is true. And as somebody also with light eyes, I have very light green eyes, I feel like I can also look that way. So no hate to blue-eyed people, but you guys do look creepy as fuck sometimes, and Damien looks creepy as fuck in a lot of these moments. So we cut to the end of the hallway and we see Mrs. Baylock standing in Damien's room, and the door seems to close on its own. That's what it looks like to me. It looks like the door closes, but Mrs. Baylock isn't the one turning it to close it. So we then cut to sometime later, we see Catherine and Robert, they're getting ready for an event, they're all dressed up, and Catherine asks Mrs. Baylock for Damien. And Catherine is like, he would rather go to the park, he is much too young for church. Which this is the moment I fire this bitch, because what do you mean you're trying to tell me what my son is too young and too old to be doing? And Cathy is like, no, he's coming with us, have him dressed at once. And Mrs. Baylock again pushes back, and she's like, do you think a five-year-old will understand an Episcopal wedding? And Catherine just looks at her and is like, have him dressed and in the car in five minutes. Like she just very sternly gives an order. So she obviously does that. And we cut to in the car, and the family is being driven to this wedding, and this ominous music starts to play. And Damien is wearing this top hat, like a little fucking weirdo that he is. It's actually his father's top hat, he has it on, but Cathy takes it off of him. And then we get like this iconic image of him just staring ahead, like such a creep. Like if you Google images of the omen, it's probably one of the first ones that comes up because his parents are behind him. And again, with these big piercing blue eyes, he's just staring forward and just has this serious look on his face. And he looks like a little fucking creep because he is. So we see what he's staring at, and we see that they're coming upon the church. And he turns and he looks at his parents, and Catherine immediately knows that something's wrong. She's like, it's just a church. What's the matter? And she holds him and she's saying to Robert, he seems scared to death. He's trembling all over. And she's holding him and eventually they pull up to the church, and Robert opens the door. And the moment they do that, Damien starts screaming. He starts flailing. He's attacking Catherine. She had this cute little like wrap on her head. He pulls it off. Her hair is all a mess. He's pulling at her. He's biting at her. He's clawing at her. And as this is happening, there is a crowd outside the church, and they're all now looking in the car, seeing this. So Robert immediately gets back in the car and he tells the driver to go, and they drive away. So eventually we see them back at home. And Robert is like, are you sure you don't want to call a doctor for Damien? And Catherine is like, no, he's fine. He's asleep, insists he's all right. She's like, he's never been sick. And Robert is like, yeah, you're right. He has never been sick. Like, isn't that a little bit strange? And Cathy doesn't think so. She kind of just moves on. She's like, oh, he's just a healthy child. I have nothing to worry about. He just had a bad moment. And she goes to bed. So they don't really think anything of it, or at least Catherine doesn't. Robert is kind of suspicious. And we cut to Robert walking through the hall that night. And suddenly he starts to hear a growling noise. And sure enough, he comes across a Rottweiler standing in front of Damien's room. And he's startled by it. And Mrs. Baylock comes out and tells the dog to be quiet. And Robert's pissed. He's like, what is this? And she says, I found him outside. I thought we could use him as a watchdog. And Damien loves him. And Robert is pissed at first, but then he kind of relaxes. And Mrs. Baylock is like, I think you'll be grateful when you're on long trips away that you'll have a watchdog for your family. And he very calmly tells her, we don't need a dog. So tomorrow morning, you will call the pound or call whoever, and have him collected and found another home. And Mrs. Baylock reluctantly accepts and agrees. So we see Robert then go into Damien's room, and he kind of just looks at him in bed as he's asleep. Like you can tell like the wheels are turning. He's suspicious. So we then cut to another day and we see Catherine and Damien, and they're going to the Safari Park for the day. And they drive in and we see that Damien is wearing this little suit and a turtleneck like a fucking lawyer at five years old. He looks like he's about to like take over a law firm or something. And he goes up to look at the giraffes. But when he gets over to their enclosure, Cathy is watching behind as this happens, the giraffes all notice Damien and they all run away at the same time. And Catherine is super confused by this, and she goes to get Damien and she's like, okay, like, let's just go see the monkeys. So as we see this, we cut back to Robert and he's driving away from the house or he's being driven. And as they're driving away, he passes father Brennan, who is just staring at him, standing there staring at him as he drives away. So this guy is obviously trying to get his attention, obviously needs to talk to him. So we cut back to the zoo and Catherine and Damien are driving through this little monkey area and it's all these baboons everywhere. And the radio is saying baboons are dangerous, keep your windows closed. So they continue driving and as they do, one runs in front of the car. So Catherine slams on her brakes and this intense music starts to play as the baboons all begin to freak the fuck out. Like they're looking at this car and they're like screaming and they start backing away and they're grunting and they're growling and Damien is watching them all smiling. But then suddenly they all start charging at the car and they're jumping all over the car, they're on the windshield, they're on the hood and Cathy grabs Damien and holds him and the two of them scream as these baboons viciously attack the car. And Cathy eventually is able to drive away and she leaves them all behind. But how fucking terrifying. These things are vicious and aggressive as fuck. They didn't do that to any other car, though. Obviously, there's a reason they did it to Cathy and Damien's car. So that night, Cathy and Robert are in bed and Robert asks her what's wrong. She insists that everything's fine. And he asks if Damien's fine, and she says, yes, he's all right. And he obviously knows that she's lying. And he's like, if there was something wrong with Damien, like you would tell me, right? Like, tell me what it is. I know that there's something. And Cathy just says, I think I need to see a psychiatrist. I just have such fears. And he asks her what kind of fears. And she's like, I don't want to tell you because you'll lock me away. And she just asks him to help find me a doctor. And he says, of course I will. And it's at this point, this is what makes me say that Robert is obsessed with his wife. He loves his wife because this is the 70s. Mental health is not an acceptable thing. And she's saying she wants to go see a psychiatrist. And instead of shaming her or telling her no, he's like, yes, I absolutely will help you find a doctor. He's great, but then there's something that he says later that also takes that back. I'm so conflicted about him every time I watch this movie. So we cut to the next day and we're at a rugby game. Robert is there watching with some of his friends and that photographer that we've been seeing is also there. So eventually the game ends and Robert's walking away and Father Brennan shows up and he goes up to Robert and he tells him, meet me in the park in five minutes, your wife is in danger and she will die unless you come. And then he runs away, he walks away and as he's walking away, the photographer takes another picture of him again. So we then see him develop this picture and we see another image of what looks like a pole behind Father Brennan and he holds it up next to the other one and he examines and it looks like going right through his head in both photos. So Robert obviously freaked out by what he just said, ends up meeting Father Brennan at the park. And he goes up to him and he's like, okay, what do you have to say? And Father Brennan starts reciting a Bible passage about him rising, turning man against brother till man exists no more. And it's a passage from Revelation about the Antichrist and the end of the world. And he tells Robert how according to Revelation, in a human personality, Satan will wage his last defense. And he tells Robert that he needs to go to the town of Megiddo and Jezreel and he needs to look for a man named Bougainhagen. And that man is going to describe to you how the child must die. And Robert, of course, thinks this is fucking ridiculous. He tells him to stop and he's like, you said my wife is in danger. That's the only reason that I'm here. And Father Brennan tells him she's pregnant and he will not allow the child to be born. He will kill it while it's in the womb. And Robert is confused. He's like, that's not possible. And Father Brennan tells him, your son is the son of the devil and he will kill the child and then your wife. And when he's certain to inherit what's yours, he'll kill you too and establish his counterfeit kingdom on earth, receiving his power directly from Satan. He must die. And of course, Robert just looks at him and tells him that he's insane. And Father Brennan continues and he says, see Bugenhagen before it's too late. And Robert just tells him, I never want to see you again. And he starts to walk away. And as he's walking away, Father Brennan calls out to him, you'll see me in hell. We'll share our sentence, which interesting. Why would a priest think he's going to hell, right? But we see Brennan holding a crucifix and he gets up. And as he gets up, Robert's gone. The wind around Brennan starts blowing very aggressively. And he starts to walk and he starts looking all nervous. The wind gets stronger and stronger. And at this point, he's like fighting against it. And suddenly lightning strikes a tree right next to him and a limb falls off it right in front of him. So Brennan makes a run for it. And he sees a church in the distance and he runs to this church, but the gate is locked. So he goes to climb over the gate and the sky at this point is turning black. The wind is blowing and lightning strikes the gate at this point, but it just misses him. He manages to make it over before that happens. So Brennan runs up to the church, runs up to the front door, but it's locked. So he's banging on the door. He backs up, looks up. He goes to another door, which is also locked and then lightning strikes the top of the building. And Father Brennan looks up to see where this happened, and he just screams out, no, because he sees that the lightning has released this metal pole that is now flying down towards him, and it impales him, and it kills him standing up. This is a cool death, because the way that it impales him, like kind of through the chest, and then it lands in the ground, so it kind of leaves him in this like standing position as he's dead. It's honestly iconic. So we now cut back to the Thorn residence, and we see Damien is in this little day room. He's yelling, he's playing, like kids do. But Kathy, his mother, is calling for the nanny. She looks like she has a headache. She's asking Damien to be quiet. She calls for the nanny. Robert comes in and plays with Damien, calms him down a little bit, and Kathy eventually tells the nanny to take Damien out of here, and she's kind of angry about it. So the nanny takes him out, and as he's walking out, he stops and looks at his mom, and she avoids eye contact, kind of like she's ashamed for the fact that she doesn't want him around right now. But once they leave, Kathy says to Robert, I don't know what's wrong with me. And Robert holds her and tells her that he loves her, and maybe I should talk with your doctor. And she says, well, there's something that he wants to talk about with you anyway. I don't ever want to have more children. And Robert says, okay, like that's fine. And then she says, so you'll agree to an abortion. And he pauses, and she says, I'm pregnant. I just found out this morning. So at this point, the look of fears in Robert's eyes, because Father Brennan was right. And the phone rings at this point, and Robert goes to answer. And we can't hear what the other person is saying, but we can hear Robert, and we see that he seems confused as this other person talks to him. And eventually he hangs up. And Robert says to Kathy, because she asked who it was, he says, I don't know, but they said something about the newspaper. So he looks at the newspaper, and sure enough, he sees an article about Father Brennan. And on the front page of the newspaper, they have the image of his body, which was that a thing in the 70s where y'all just put in fucking dead bodies on the cover of magazines, or not magazines, Jesus Christ, how old am I? Were you putting dead bodies on the front page of fucking newspapers? I doubt it, that's low-key insane. So Robert's obviously freaking out. And the next day, we see him go to talk to Cathy's doctor. And the doctor is telling him, she knew how much he wanted one, but now she can't cope, and she's having fantasies that your child is evil and that he's not even hers. And Robert questions this. And the doctor says, at this point, I think another child would be disastrous for her. And Robert just goes back to the evil thing. He's like, in what way is he evil? And the doctor at this point says, it's just fantasy. She also thinks he isn't hers. But again, Robert is Robert and the priest are the only two people in the world that know that it's not hers. So he's now freaking out. He's all stressed out. And the doctor tells him, it's important for you to agree to her having an abortion. And Robert says no. And this is the point I was talking about that kind of doesn't do the whole like looking for a psychiatrist thing because what the fuck? And the doctor says, why? And Robert says, it was foretold that this pregnancy would be terminated. I'm going to fight to see that it's not. And he leaves, which like, I'm pretty sure Kathy can do whatever the fuck she wants to do. But like, okay, like her and her doctor are both telling you like, this is probably for the best. And you're like, no. So that's definitely some points against Robert here. Like he's been doing well. And that's points against Robert. What the fuck? So we cut back to the house and we see Damien riding around in his room on this little tricycle and we see Kathy tending to these plants. And now the way that their house is laid out, she's on the second floor and there is this railing all around. And in the middle of this is like the bottom floor. So it's like basically a big balcony that goes all around the second floor of the house. And there's these plants that are hanging. And at one point she gets up on a stool to water or cut or whatever these hanging plants. She's standing on a stool. And now the nanny, Mrs. Balock, this weird ass motherfucker, is watching Damien and she's smiling as he rides around in his tricycle and this orchestral music starts to play. So we know nothing good is coming. And as we see Cathy get up on that stool, we also see the nanny open up Damien's bedroom door, which allows him to ride his bike out into the hallway. So he's riding around the hallway and sure enough, we see him go directly for his mother and he runs right into the stool that Cathy is standing on, which causes her to fall off of it, and she falls off the balcony, but she manages to hold on. She's holding on to the railing and Damien just watches her as she slowly loses her grip and she falls to the ground and she is knocked unconscious. And Damien just looks down at her and then runs away, leaves his trike behind, runs away. So we eventually see Robert go to the hospital. There's press all around asking for developments. He ignores all of them and he goes into the ICU. And he meets with this guy, Dr. Becker, who tells Robert that she is going to recover, but she has a concussion, a broken bone, and she also has internal bleeding. So Robert questions that because he's like, well, she's pregnant. And the doctor says, no, not anymore. She lost it. So he apologizes for their loss. And he says with proper care, she can still have children. But I don't even think Robert hears that part because at this point he's realizing again, Father Brennan has been right about everything. And Robert goes into Cathy's room and she wakes up and she just looks at him and she says, don't let him kill me. And she repeats that twice. So Robert now goes home and he's in Damien's room and Damien is asleep and Robert hears something. And he looks at the window and suddenly he sees that fucking Rottweiler rise up and start growling at him. And the phone rings. So Robert goes to answer it. And this man introduces himself as Keith Jennings. And it's the photographer that we've been seeing all over. So we finally have a name for him. And he asks if Robert can come to his flat to have a word with him. It's about the death of the priest. So Robert doesn't hesitate. We cut to him at Keith's house and he's showing him a picture of the nanny at Damien's birthday party before she hung herself. And it looks like there is a shadow of something that looks like a noose around her neck. And then he also shows the pictures of Brennan and how it looks like there was a pole impaling him. So now we understand that these photos are foreshadowing these people's deaths. And Keith also tells Robert that the coroner report shows that Brennan had cancer. So he knew that he was dying. And Robert is like, that makes sense. He said that he wanted to be forgiven. And Keith shows Robert the autopsy report and shows him that on the inside of Brennan's right thigh, he had a mark and that mark was three sixes. And the biopsy, it says it's just a birthmark, but what the fuck are the odds of that? So Keith takes Robert to Brennan's room, and it's a cross from this church, and there's Bible pages covering the walls, like the whole, like it's wall papered with Bible pages, and there's also 47 crosses on the wall. Keith said he counted there's 47, and he's saying how it seemed like he wanted to keep something out. And Keith explains that the police let me come here after the death because they ruled out foul play, and I found a diary, and the diary is all about you talking to Robert. It's been keeping track of where you were, and the last entry says that he was meeting with you in Bishops Park. So Keith then shows him a newspaper article, and it's a clipping from Astrologer Monthly, and it's about this comment that was last seen 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, the day that Jesus was born, and there was another one seen on the other side of the world five years ago, and it would have been on June 6th. Does that date mean anything to you? And Robert says yes, because of course, that was the day of the birth of his son and the birth of Damien. So another clipping is a birth announcement, and of course, it's on June 6th, the sixth month, the sixth day, was he born at 6 a.m.? And of course, Robert confirms that yes, he was. And he admits to Keith, he says, my real son is dead, I don't know whose son I'm raising. And Keith says, well, I would like to help you find out. And Robert is hesitant at first. He says, no, it's my problem. But Keith says, if you're wrong, it's my problem too. I took photos and I caught my own reflection in the mirror, and he shows this picture that he took of himself in the mirror. And there is a line going through it that looks like he's being decapitated. So basically he's like, if we don't figure this out, I'm fucked too, because my death was also foretold. So we cut to Robert going back to the hospital, and Kathy is telling him how she's so frightened, she's terrified, and he tells her, you'll be all right. She's being wheeled into her own private room. And he tells her that Mrs. Horton will look after Damien, like, don't worry about him, just stay here. You're going to be safe. So Robert goes home and he's looking for Mrs. Horton, but Mrs. Baloch shows up instead and tells him, oh, Mrs. Horton left and she left an address to send her last wages to. There was no explanation, like she just walked out on her job, but it's okay, I can manage. And Robert is confused, but he ultimately accepts about this. And then he asks about the dog again. And Mrs. Baloch tells him, oh, he's gone now. They came and took him this morning. So Robert is just like, okay, he just accepts that and he walks away. And now we cut to Robert and Keith and they're showing up to this address, and they're confused because it used to be a hospital, and now it's not. And the driver tells them that there was a fire at the old hospital and it burned down five years ago. And Robert and Keith just look at each other super suspicious because they know that that's, that can't be right. Like that is not a coincidence. And they eventually go inside and they talk to this nun and they ask if there's still any records. And she says that everything was destroyed. And Robert says, I adopted a child here and I'm searching for the records. And the nun is like, no, like there were no adoptions here. And Robert insists, yes, there was one. I'm looking for birth records. I do have an exact date. But at this point, Keith comes up and he's like, it's useless because the fire started in the basement where all the files were kept and it was a total inferno and there was nothing left. So Robert asks that same nun about the priest who used to work here. And they narrow it down to which priest it was. And she informs him that he was in charge and he's alive. He somehow survived that fire. People call it a miracle. But ever since then, he lived through the fire and he's at this monastery. And she tells them where the monastery is. So Keith and Robert go to this monastery. And while they're in the car, Keith is looking at this Bible and he finds the passage that Brennan had recited to Robert. And he's explaining how these words, like scholars say that it's supposed to symbolize the birth of the Antichrist. And there has been a comment, that comment that they were talking about from five years ago. And they break down the passage and how theologians interpret it. And basically, the devil's child will rise from the world of politics. That's how scholars have interpreted what the Revelation is saying. And at this point, they have the realization that Robert is a fucking ambassador. He's in politics. So they continue driving. Eventually, they get to this field with a bunch of sheep. And there's this big isolated monastery down the hill. So they go to it, and they find a bunch of guys praying, and they see the priest from the hospital. And this guy looks half catatonic, and they eventually get to the front of him, and they see that half of his face is burned. And Robert is completely shocked. So obviously, this happened in the fire. And another priest comes up to them and tells them that since the fire, he hasn't spoken, we feed him, we take care of him, and he owes penance. And Robert is like, why would he owe penance? And the other priest says, he says that he abandoned God. He can't speak, but he has some movement in one of his hands, and he was able to write that down. And he shows Robert and Keith what the priest wrote down, and it's the number 666 in a circle. And the way that this mark is, it's like the bottom of the sixes are all touching each other, like they're all in this circle. And the priest explains how this number signifies the devil, the antichrist, and the false prophet. Now Robert goes up to the catatonic priest who again, this is the guy that was there the night that Damien was born. He's the one that suggested they switch babies and that Robert just take this baby. So Robert goes to him and he says, there was a child. I want to know where he came from. You confess to them, now confess to me. And as he's not getting a response, he's getting more and more upset. And he's saying, where is his mother? And he's yelling at him to answer, but this guy can't speak. And now there's church bells in the distance and the priest lifts his hand. And the other priest realizes that he's trying to write something. So he puts a pen in his hand and he writes and they all watch. And eventually they see that he writes C-E-R-V-E-T, Chervée. And the other priest is like, that's an old cemetery. And it's nothing but ruins now. But Robert asks where it is and the priest tells them, and he and Keith go off. So they get to the cemetery and it's dark when they show up, but they climb the gate, they jump it, they go in, and Keith finds something and calls Robert over. And what they're looking at is this grave for a woman named Maria Schiana, and she died on June 6th, five years ago. And there's also a grave for Bambino Schiana, which means a baby boy, and the date is the same. And at this point, Robert realizes that his son is buried here because they switched the babies, and his son is buried here. And this woman could be the mother of the child that you adopted, Damian. And Robert wonders like, why would they be buried here? So they begin to bust the grave open. And when they do, they are horrified to see that inside the coffin of this woman is the skeleton of a jackal. So this goes back to when Father Brennan first met with Robert, and he's in his office, and he's like, his mother was a jack, and he doesn't finish his sentence. What he was going to say was his mother is a jackal. And sure enough, they see that that is indeed true. The skeleton of a jackal is in this coffin, not the skeleton of a woman. And then they go to bust open the little coffin, and that one, sure enough, is a baby. So Robert knows that this is his son. And it's at this point that Robert realizes that they murdered him. They murdered his son as soon as he was born, which I do indeed think that that was true. And I think that the reason that they murdered him was to have him raise the Antichrist, because the Antichrist is supposed to, again, live from, like, rise from the world of politics. They targeted him specifically. And I also think that's why the priest, the one that's burned in Catatonic, had said he owes penance for the evil he's done or whatever, because he was in on it. I think he was in on it. Otherwise, why would he have possibly suggested that if he wasn't told to suggest that? Now, I'm not entirely sure why they chose a jackal, but just looking at some of, like, the symbolism of the jackal. So in ancient Egypt, the jackal is associated with Anubis, who is the god of the afterlife. Jackals are usually symbols of the transition between life and death. In the Bible, jackals are mentioned and usually they are meant to represent desolation, loneliness, and the untamed nature of society, I guess. So yeah, I guess it's associated with death and desolation. So that's probably why they picked the jackal. I can't really find a specific reason, but I'm assuming that's why. So anyway, after Keith and Robert make this discovery, they look up and they see that there are two rottweilers growling at them, and they cover the graves back up again, and the dogs start barking, and Robert and Keith start to back up slowly as the dogs now surround them. There's like three of them now, and eventually the two of them, they do run, but they both get jumped by these dogs, and they are both on the ground. They're being bitten. They're trying to fight these dogs off. It's absolute chaos, and eventually Robert manages to break free, and he climbs the fence, but as he's dropping to the other side, he gets caught on one of the spikes, and meanwhile, Keith runs, and he climbs the fence too, but the dog is trying to drag him down, but he manages to kick it off and make it over the fence, and he helps Robert get unstuck from this spike, and they go to the car as the dogs bark at them through the gates. So they make it out somehow, even though they're all fucked up, they're all bitten, they're all bloody. But we now cut back to Kathy in the hospital, and her phone rings, and it's Robert, and he tells her to do what he says. He's like, you need to do what I say. You need to leave London now. And Kathy's confused, and he says, I called the embassy, someone is gonna come meet you and bring you here to Rome, get ready to leave. And she's like, I can't move. Like, why do I have to do this? And he's just like, just do it. Like, I just need you to do it. So she senses his urgency and she agrees, and they hang up. So Kathy sits up, she's got like one arm and a cast, she's all sorts of fucked up, but she sits up and she slowly starts trying to get dressed, and somebody, we can see behind her, somebody enter the room. And this intense music starts to play, and Kathy turns and sees that it's Mrs. Balock, who proceeds to look at her and just push her through the window. So Kathy was standing in front of this big glass window as she was trying to get dressed, and Mrs. Balock pushes her through it. And we cut to the front of the hospital, the outside of the building, and sure enough, we see Kathy fall to her death on top of this ambulance, and she falls with such force that she falls through the roof of the ambulance into it, and we see her dead body laying in the back of this ambulance. RIP, Kathy, and fuck you, Mrs. Balock, you crazy bitch. So we cut to Robert, and he gets a call, and he's informed about what happened to Kathy, and he's obviously devastated. He's sobbing, he's devastated. And eventually sometime later, Keith comes in and he finds Robert laying in bed, and he says that he found out about Megiddo, and it's derived from the word Armageddon, which means the end of the world, and this specific place is south of Jerusalem. And Robert just says the name Bougainhagen. That's the name that Father Brennan told him he has to find. And Keith is like, yes, I found him. He was an exorcist. And Robert starts reciting that poem that Brennan had said, like how you and I must die from eternal sea. He rises, creates armies, turning man against each other till man exists no more. And Robert eventually tells Keith that Kathy is dead and he says, I want Damien to die too. Because now he has nothing else to lose at this point. So we cut to Jerusalem and we see Keith and Robert arrive. And they show up at this dig site and they meet with Bougainhagen. And he tells them that this is the place where Christianity began. And he begins asking, is Brennan dead yet? And they tell him yes. So it's like he also knew that Brennan was meant to die. And Bougainhagen tells Keith that this is for Robert alone and has Keith leave. So Keith leaves and now it's just Bougainhagen and Robert. So Bougainhagen looks at Robert and tells him it must be done at hallowed ground. The blood must be spilled at church on the altar of God. And he pulls out these daggers and he says, this first knife is most important. It extinguishes the physical life and it creates the center of the cross. And the second knife extinguishes spiritual life and should radiate outward. This isn't a human child. Make no mistake. And Robert is super nervous at this point. He's like, is there proof? And Bougainhagen tells him, yes, he bears a birthmark, three sixes. And Robert is like, he doesn't have it. I know every inch of him. And Bougainhagen says, he must, if it's not visible, it'll be beneath the hair, remove it and you must be devoid of pity. The woman talking about the nanny is an apostate of hell and she will die before permitting this. She's sent to protect him. So Robert leaves, Keith asks him what he said. And at first he's hesitant to tell him, but then eventually he's like, he told me that I'm the one who's supposed to kill him. And these knives is what I'm supposed to use. He wants me to murder a child. Maybe he's wrong. I can't murder a little boy. And he throws the knives like in a fit of rage. And Keith runs to go pick them up. And he just says to Robert, if you don't do it, I will. And he goes to this like digging area where the knives were thrown and he starts picking them up. And as he's doing that, this truck starts to roll backwards towards him. And he looks up at the last minute just in time to see a glass plate fly off the back of this truck. And it flies out and it decapitates him. And he fucking dies. And it cuts to Robert just absolutely horrified as he's watching this. Now, when you're watching this movie and you see this, you can very clearly tell that the head, the decapitated head that flies up is a dummy. But honestly, it doesn't make it any less shocking, I don't think. Also, the guy who plays Keith Jennings, his name was David Warner, and he actually kept the severed head for years until he got divorced and his ex-wife got custody of it, which is insane. Like, what is the craziest thing anybody's ever wanted in a divorce battle? Probably this fake severed head of your ex-husband. That's insane. So we now cut to Robert on a plane, and we see that he's sitting there looking super nervous and he's holding the daggers, like he's got them wrapped up and he's holding them. So obviously he's decided what he has to do. And if you're wondering, how did he get these on a plane? One, he's on a private plane, but two, this was also the 70s, when you could literally bring a loaded gun on a plane. They ain't care about anything. So Robert is sitting there in silence and he's deep in thought, but eventually he gets home and he slowly goes inside, and we see that the fucking dog is still there. And this music starts to play, and it's this low whispering and these low chants that we've been hearing this whole time. And Robert starts to walk slowly down the hall, and we see the dog slowly walking down the hall as well. So we know that Robert knows the dog is there, he's trying to avoid it, and Robert eventually manages to trap the dog. He like leads it into the basement and then manages to close the door and trap it. So now he doesn't have to worry about the dog. And Robert goes to his room and he gets a pair of scissors, and he goes to Damien's room while he's sleeping, and he looks at Damien's scalp and he cuts away some of his hair, and sure enough, he reveals the mark of 666. And he's absolutely horrified because he realizes that everything he's been told is absolutely true. And as he's realizing this, suddenly Mrs. Balak runs in and jumps on his back and starts attacking him. She's clawing at Robert's face. He's trying to get her off. Damien wakes up and is just watching this and like hides behind a chair. And eventually he manages to throw Mrs. Balak off of him, and she grabs at his legs and she's literally biting his leg. He kicks her off and he manages to grab Damien, who's screaming at this point. And he runs with him, but they fall down the stairs in the struggle and in the chaos. And we see that Damien is passed out. Robert gets up and he starts to drag Damien out of the house. But Mrs. Balak comes again and once again attacks Robert. And Robert and her fight again, the struggle ensues and they're fighting in the kitchen. And during the struggle, one of the kitchen drawers falls out. And there's like a bunch of like kitchen tools, like a fucking pick, like those things that you like stab into the turkeys to like pick them up, whatever the, so she grabs one of those. And meanwhile, he grabs another knife and she tries to stab him. But ultimately, Robert is able to stab Mrs. Balak first in the throat and she dies. Which like fucking finally, this crazy bitch. But Robert gets up and he leaves and he grabs Damien and he puts him in the car and he drives to a church, that church that's down the street. And he's speeding, which like this is the thing that pisses me off. Dude, don't speed. Don't bring attention to yourself. He's speeding and this grabs the attention of cops. So now a cop starts following him and he recognizes the car as the car of the ambassador. So he calls in for backup because he says that it's a possible diplomatic incident. So now a bunch of cops are following him to the church. And in the car, Damien starts to wake up and scream and struggle and the cops are following and Robert doesn't stop and eventually he pulls up to the church and he literally drags Damien kicking and screaming into this church. And he brings him up to the altar and Robert pins him down and he takes out the daggers and he holds one above Damien. And Damien looks at him and is like, please daddy, no, which like obviously, this little fucker is trying to manipulate him. And Robert just says, God help me. And he goes to stab Damien. But a cop comes in at this point and tells him to stop. But Robert just looks up at the cop and goes to bring the knife down. But before he is able to stab Damien, the police shoot him and Robert dies. This is one of the most devastating fucking endings in a horror movie for me, because let me just get there first. Let me get there. So Robert's dead. We cut to a funeral for him and Kathy because they've both died in the same day. And we see that at this funeral is the president and the first lady. And they're standing there and standing with them is Damien. And Damien turns and he looks directly into the camera and he just smiles as this music plays. And we cut to this quote and the quote says, Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding doubt the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man and his number is 666. And it's a passage for Revelation. And we cut to black and the movie ends. First of all, one of my favorite fun facts in a movie, and I remember seeing the director talking about this in a special, it was either like the Bravo scariest movie moments or some sort of like movie moments thing where he talks about this. So this ending scene where this little kid who plays Damian, which his name is Harvey Stevens, by the way. But in this moment, Richard Donner originally had it that he was just going to turn and straight face into the camera. Like he wanted him to just turn and look into the camera with a straight face. And then he wanted the movie to end. But every take that he kept doing, the kid kept laughing because he's a kid. Like it's, you know, he kept laughing. So at one point he looks, they do a take and he looks at Richard Donner and he's straight faced and Richard Donner is like, don't laugh. Don't you do it? Don't laugh. Like he's trying to tell him not to. And he starts to smile because he's trying to stifle his laugh, but he can't help from smiling. And that's the take that was used. So he wasn't supposed to smile. So this is one of those accidental things that worked out because I think that makes it so much fucking eerie because that smile to me that's looking in the face of all the audience, breaking the fourth wall, by the way, I love a fourth wall break, breaking the fourth wall, looking directly at the audience. And that smile is basically the smug ass little smile telling us that evil prevailed. Evil won. You didn't get your happy ending. Evil has won. That's what I get from this. So I think that was a great mistake. That was the best mistake that could have possibly been made. I think it's wonderful. The smile is so fucking eerie. It really just is bone chilling. It's so good. Now on the topic of this kid, Harvey Stevens, let's talk about how he got this role. Because during auditions, Richard Donner had told the boys to come at him, to attack him. And a lot of the boys were hesitant and they held back. But Harvey Stevens attacked the fuck out of him. Like he jumped on him and he was screaming and clawing at his face, and he kicked him in the groin. And Donner, Richard Donner eventually managed to get him off of him. And he immediately was like, yep, dye this kid's hair black and he's hired. Because he naturally has blonde hair, I guess. So they dyed his hair black and was like, yep, that's our Damian. But so basically the audition scene was the scene where he attacks Kathy in the car. That's what they were doing. So that's what he was trying to gauge, like a kid that could actually do this and how they're going to do it. And the second that this kid attacked him, he was like, yep, that's our fucking Antichrist. Now let's talk about Mrs. Balock. So in the original script, Mrs. Balock was actually supposed to be like really warm and inviting, like a very friendly nanny, because they wanted to throw us off that she was part of this whole thing. But the woman who ended up playing her, her name was Billy Whitelaw. And when she came into her audition, she significantly changed the dialogue. She took the initiative, and she did a completely different dialogue, and she made the character just cold and just really fucking menacing. She's immediately, like I said, when you meet her, she's immediately off-putting. And that's ultimately what they ended up going with. And there was a point when the producers had been debating taking her out of the movie. They wanted to cut the character completely, because they wanted to keep you guessing if this was true or not. And she's very much a tell that obviously this is the fucking Antichrist and this is real. But Richard Donner loved the character and loved the actress and what she did with the character so much that he said he couldn't let her go. So that's why she ended up staying in the movie. And I like that she's in the movie. I do agree that it kind of killed the ambiguity of it, because I feel like without her, you would kind of be guessing, is this the Antichrist? Is this real? But with her, it's kind of a surefire thing, because even she tells him, I am here to protect you. Obviously, we know that there's something. But I think that almost adds a scarier layer to it, because he has servants, like he has these adults who are going to protect him at all costs. And I think that just adds something eerie. I think it would have been a totally different movie without her character, but I'm happy with what we got personally. Her dog, by the way, the Rottweiler, not threatening at all. If anything, it actually was very difficult to make this Rottweiler seem threatening, because the dog just wanted to lick everybody and play with everybody, and wasn't threatening at all. So if you're scared of Rottweilers because of this movie, just know that you shouldn't be, because this dog was actually a fucking angel. Now, the original ending of this movie actually had Damian being killed. So I believe it was going to be that Robert did stab him at the end. But then Robert was shot after they came in and saw what he was doing. But the studio head, whose name was Alan Ladd, came in and he was like, no, I think this is a mistake because the devil is impossible to kill, or at least he should be impossible to kill. So we ended up giving Richard Donner more money so that he could go back and do reshoots because I think that's I think they shot that. They shot the original ending, so then they had to go back and reshoot so that it could be a more open-ended movie and Damien would survive. This movie came out only a few years after The Exorcist, which at the time obviously was horrifying to everybody and a lot of critics really condemned it for its use of gore and how gory it was. So on the opposite end, when this movie came out, it was kind of praised for its lack of gore because you really don't see any blood in this movie. Despite the very violent ways that people die, you don't see any blood. Even during the decapitation scene, not a drop of blood in that, but it almost got an X rating because of the decapitation scene, which like, wow, how times have changed. Like that alone almost got it an X rating. The chanting that I refer to a lot, like the orchestral choral chanting and these whispers and this chanting in a different language. That is actually a song that was written specifically for this movie. It's called Ave Satani, which literally means hail Satan. And it is iconic. Without that song, this movie, I don't think genuinely would be as successful as it was. And that song won a fucking Oscar, which is crazy. The composer of this movie, his name was Jerry Goldsmith, and he was nominated for an Oscar. He had already lost multiple Oscars before, so we didn't even want to go because he's like, there's no way I'm going to win for this. But he went with Richard Donner and sure enough, he fucking won and it was his only Oscar that he won throughout his career. And for a very long time, it was the only horror movie to ever be nominated for best original song. And I think honestly, the only movie that came in and changed that was Sinners just this past year. But it had been the only horror film ever nominated for best original song. And it was only the only nominee that was written and sung in Latin at the time because it's written and sung completely in Latin and it fucking won. So I think that's super cool. But at the end of this movie, it seems like Damien is in the care of the president and the first lady, the way that he's standing with them at the funeral, which would make sense in this movie considering, again, they said like the Antichrist will rise in the world of politics. This is the perfect way to rise in the fucking world of politics, be the first son. So that makes sense. But the second movie is going to come and change that because in the second movie which we're talking about next week, that is going to show how Damien actually ended up going to be raised by his uncle. I think this is a movie that did not need a sequel. I think the first one is perfect and just like that ambiguity and the implication of he's now being raised by the president. He's going to go on and be the fucking anti-Christ and he can take over the world. I think that's a perfect ending. So I was hesitant honestly about even talking about the other movies, but we are going to talk about them next week. Now, something I find interesting about this movie is the birthmark that they found on Father Brennan because they found that he has the 666 birthmark which means was he also born of a jackal? Was he also born of this evil or does it mean that he was just touched by evil too? That's something that's never explained and the next movie we're about to talk about is The First Omen which is a prequel to this movie and Father Brennan is a big character in it and they never bring that up. So I think that is a plot hole that we never really discuss and we just avoid, but we will get into that. But the last thing I'm going to say about The Omen is, I think the second episode I ever did on this podcast was about cursed films, and one of those cursed films is The Omen. This movie is very well known for being cursed because a lot of weird shit happened. For example, when they were all flying to the UK to film this, Gregory Peck and David Seltzer, who's the writer, both took separate planes, and both of them were struck by lightning, which is a very rare occurrence, so very weird that it happened twice. And one of the producers was nearly struck by lightning while in Rome filming this as well. Richard Donner was staying at this hotel that ended up getting bombed while he was there. He wasn't hurt, luckily. He was also hit by a car. Gregory Peck then was supposed to get out on another flight to Israel and he canceled last minute, like the day, the morning of the flight, and that flight ended up going down and killing everybody on board. So he was supposed to be on that. There were car crashes and even like a year after this movie came out, there was a special effects artist whose name was Josh John Richardson. And he and his girlfriend were in a car accident and she was beheaded. She was decapitated, like similar to Keith Jennings. He was very severely injured. And there is a rumor, this hasn't been confirmed, that the place where this happened, they were in front of a sign on the road that said, O-M-M-E-N, which is a town somewhere in a different country that they were. So if that's real, that makes it even more fucking eerie. But yeah, Richard Donner said that he literally feared for his life while he was working on this film because they knew that something was wrong. They were absolutely fucking terrified. And it actually ended up going really well for him because this film was so successful and led him to have a really great career after it. So I guess in a way it wasn't a curse for him. It was actually a blessing. So decades later in 2024, we get the movie The First Omen, which is a prequel to the original Omen. And they said that some weird shit happened on the set of this movie too, but nothing like what happened on the set of The First Omen. So I wouldn't consider this to be cursed. Like I could, I honestly consider the first one to be cursed because what the fuck? Like that can't all be a coincidence. So that leads us into The First Omen, which came out in 2024 and it's about an hour and 59 minutes long. It has a 6.5 on IMDB and an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is interesting because the 83% is very similar to what was The First Omen, 86%, not The First Omen, the original Omen was what, 86%. So it's really not too far off, which is pretty impressive to me. I really enjoyed this movie. I think it's a great prequel. However, it does change some things that I think aren't necessarily explained and honestly don't entirely make sense to me. So we're going to work it out together. But The First Omen opens up and we see, we hear church bells tolling and we see this town covered in fog and this priest walks through a graveyard and he watches as this like religious painting is being raised up on a scaffolding by workers outside of this church. And this priest stops to look up. And this priest is going to end up being Father Brennan. He's one of our main characters in this movie. And he looks up at this and we cut to black. We then hear a man's voice saying, I told you not to look for me. We then cut back and we see that Father Brennan is in a confessional. And this other man gives him a photo and tells him, it's all I have. It's the only proof of what they've done. And Father Brennan looks at this and is like, she looks so human. And he turns over the photo and on the back of it, it says Skiana, which we know is the name of Damien's mother that was buried, the jackal from the first movie. And we see the silhouette of this other man on the other side of the confessional and he says, don't let yourself be fooled. She wasn't conceived naturally. They found a volunteer, someone devoted. And as he's saying this, we're getting a flashback of a woman being dressed and made ready. And she's laid down naked on this table. And this black cloth is put over her face and she is tied down to this table. And she starts breathing heavy like she's nervous. And we cut back and this other mysterious man is saying, the pregnancy happened quickly. And as he's saying this, we see an image of blood falling down between this woman's legs. And he goes on and he says she would be in her teens by now. And they're waiting till she's old enough. And Brennan asks for what? And the other guy won't answer. And we see his face and he just says, I can't do this anymore. And now we hear a woman's voice crying and she's saying, I can't do this anymore. And we cut back and it's the woman on the table. It's that flashback again. And she says, please don't let it touch me again. And we hear growling as something gets closer to her. So we cut back to Father Brennan and we see that the other guy he's talking to is another priest and his name is Father Harris. And he's gone. So Father Brennan chases him out. And he tells him that hiding won't solve your sins. And Father Harris says, do you think I want to be forgiven? I don't, I want it to be over and you'll understand soon enough. And at this point, they're standing outside the church under that scaffolding and they hear a crash from above. And Father Brennan looks up and he watches and this is slow motion, this is a cool scene. He watches in slow motion as glass shards start to rain down around them. And we look up and we see that these guys have dropped that portrait, the one that they were carrying. So the glass from the frame is breaking all around them, and a pipe also flies down and seems to impale Father Harris through the head. And Brennan at first can't see this, like he just looks up and he's like, Oh my God, Father Harris, are you okay? And Harris just says, I'm fine. And he turns to walk away and we follow him with the camera, so we don't see the back of his head yet. But we can see Brennan behind him, do the sign of the cross and start praying when he sees the back of Father Harris. And eventually, Father Harris turns to the camera, and we see that his head is split open in the back. And it looks kind of vaginal. And I think this was done intentionally. I couldn't find anything to confirm that, but it literally looks like a vagina split open in the back of his head. And this movie is all about birth. And so I honestly think that was intentional. So we see Harris turn around back towards Brennan, and he just smiles at him, and there's blood all in his teeth, and we don't see him die. But obviously, we can assume that this killed him. And this also is foreshadowing Brennan's future death, because this is exactly what's gonna happen to him, like him being impaled with this pole. Obviously, it hit Father Harris in a different place, but it's all the same. So we now get a title card, and we see that we are in Rome in 1971. So it takes place prior to the events of The Omen, which the main events, Damien's fifth birthday, that takes place in 1975. And I'm not entirely sure why they changed it by a year, because by the Skiana gravestones you see at the end of the first, the original Omen, you see that they died in 1970, meaning Damien would have been born in 1970. So I don't know why they changed this year. It should be 1970, but whatever. It takes place in 1971, which I guess they were going off the fact that the events of The Omen take place in 1976, which is when the movie was released. So that would make sense. But regardless, it takes place five years before the events of The Omen. So we know that Damien has not been born yet, but he will be born soon. So we see a young woman dressed as a nun, and she is smiling as she arrives at this train station in Rome. And she waits, and eventually this priest, Father Gabriel, comes up to her, and her name is Margaret Dano, and he was sent to come pick her up. So they leave, and she's greeted by Cardinal Lawrence, who greets her and welcomes her. And he's like, oh, I haven't seen you in a year. Like you've grown up so much since then. Let's show you to your new home. So they're driving through Rome, and it's a bustling city, of course, and Maggie is just admiring everything. I'm gonna go between Margaret and Maggie because Cardinal Lawrence calls her Maggie. Everybody else calls her Margaret, but Maggie was honestly just easier for me to write down. So Margaret, Maggie, all the same. But she's admiring the city, and Cardinal Lawrence is like, I'm so happy that you're taking the veil here. I knew you were destined for great things. And as he's saying this, outside the car, we see that there are people protesting. And Cardinal Lawrence is explaining how people are protesting about wages. Students are protesting the rejection of authority, including the church. And Cardinal Lawrence goes on to say, the younger generation no longer turns to us for guidance, but we will try to earn back their trust. Now, this is historically accurate, and I will read you this. So after the social revolution of Paris in May, 1968, this extended to other countries in Europe. In Italy, it lasted from 1969 to the late 1980s, and it was a period known in the country as the years of the lead. So there was some political unrest and some riots in Rome at this time, so this makes sense. So eventually, they arrive at this orphanage, and there's a bunch of little girls watching from the window as Margaret gets out of the car, and Sister Silva comes out and greets them, and she hugs Maggie for a ridiculously long amount of time. It's a very long hug, and she ends up giving her a tour. And she's explaining to Maggie how they take care of 62 girls, and the ages range from babies, newborn babies, to 18 years old, because we also take in unmarried women about to give birth. And we have birthing facilities here, and she shows her the birthing room, and there's like this window to look in, like it's a fucking zoo or something. And she notices that. We notice that too, and that will come into play later. And they also see this pregnant woman, who Sister Silva starts speaking to in Italian. It's not translated, because this is another one of those movies where Maggie doesn't fully understand Italian. So a lot of the times when Italian has spoken around her, it's not translated, because I think they want us to be in her position of not really knowing. So as she's talking to this pregnant woman, Maggie looks into another room and sees a priest sitting at his desk, and he just kind of looks at her, and he will come back to play later as well. But eventually, they continue through, and they run into this other nun whose name is Sister Angelica. She's another young woman, and Sister Silva introduces her, but Angelica says nothing. She just stares, and Sister Silva tells Maggie how she grew up here, she was abandoned on the front steps, and she's a little bit odd, but the kids are, she's devoted and the kids love her, so she's harmless. So eventually, they hear a girl start to scream, and Sister Silva is like, oh, let me go check on that, just wait here. So Maggie waits in the hall, and as she's doing that, she looks at all these drawings that are hung up, and she notices one done by somebody named Carlita Schiana. And this drawing is of these five girls, and then there's another woman seemingly floating above them. So Maggie goes into this room that's right in front of her, and she sees this girl sitting on the floor behind her bed. And eventually, this girl slowly looks up at Maggie, and she just stares at her. And Maggie asks her her name, and she tries to ask it again in Italian, thinking maybe this girl doesn't speak English because she's not answering. But either way, English and Italian, she's not answering. She's just drawing on the floor of this room. And this is such a creepy little scene, like it's such a simple little touch, but we're kind of like the camera is like we're from Maggie's perspective. She's gotten down on the floor now. And this girl who was looking at her above the bed, now looks at her underneath the bed. Like she crouches down and she looks at Maggie from underneath the bed. And she starts crawling towards Maggie, and she gets up really close to her, and she grabs Maggie's face and licks her, like just licks her right on the cheek as Maggie starts struggling against her and eventually pushes her off. Now, Sister Silva comes back and she asks if Carlita is behaving. And Maggie doesn't answer, but she asks Carlita if she did the drawing of the girl floating, like, oh, I thought it was nice, which nobody thinks that's nice. It's fucking creepy, but okay. But Carlita grabs a paper that she was drawing and she hands it to Maggie, and Sister Silva takes Maggie out and Carlita watches them leave. So as they're walking out, Margaret asks Sister Silva, why is she kept alone? And Silva says, it's safer. She hurt another child yesterday. And she moves on past that and she ends up introducing Maggie to Luca, who is going to be her driver because Rome is dangerous with the protest. They don't want her going around alone. So that night, Maggie is taken by her driver and she's dropped off at an apartment. And she goes in and it is just so 70s. I have so many ideas for the aesthetic that I want my house to have. And I go back and forth and this is one of them. I love a 70s aesthetic. I think this is so cute. But there's a cigarette in the ashtray on the table and there's music playing. So obviously somebody else lives here too. But Maggie looks around for a minute, and eventually she goes to her room, and she starts putting her stuff down, and she pulls out that drawing that Carlita had given her, and it's a drawing of these four dark figures and a girl floating in the middle. So it's super fucking ominous. But Maggie continues on, she unpacks, and she hangs up her nun habit. So you all know what a nun habit looks like. It's black. It's just black dress. And she hangs it up in the corner of her room, and immediately it looks like a dark figure. Like it just looks fucking scary. And she turns her back to it, and she kneels down and she's saying her prayers. And this is one of those moments where your eyes play tricks on you. I think this is a brilliantly crafted scene because all you can focus on is over her shoulder, this habit, this black figure that's on her wall, because you're expecting it to move. And I swear to God, when you're watching this, you're like, it's moving, it's moving. It's not actually moving, but it feels like it is because you're expecting it to. But then as Maggie's praying, she hears a click from outside her door, and she stops praying, and she looks at her door. And then suddenly she hears a woman's voice saying, Margaret is one of our worst behaved. If she has another episode, you just tie her to the bed, I'll show you how. And as she's listening to this, Maggie looks fucking terrified. And she looks around her room, and we now focus on this dark corner. And next to that dark corner is this fucking dark figure, the nun outfit that's hanging up. And her window is open, so the wind is blowing, and it blows the curtain into the frame. And when the curtain flows back, sure enough, the nun habit is now an old woman nun who charges at Maggie, and she gasps, but then she hears footsteps, and she looks, and her roommate is home. And she looks back, and her nun habit is just that again, just a nun habit. This is a great jump scare, even though you're expecting it, because you know something is gonna happen with this thing, it still got me, honestly, the first time, and even the second time I watched it for this. It's a good jump scare, I think. So Maggie goes out to meet her roommate, and it's this young girl named Luz, and Luz is dressed in fishnets and makeup, and Maggie looks confused because this is another girl that is going to be taking her vows, like is gonna be becoming a nun. And she notices that Maggie looks confused, and she says, well, I'll be hiding my body under a habit for the rest of my life, so why not let it breathe? And Maggie kind of loosens up and she laughs. And we see the girls having coffee together, and Luz asks her, how does a girl from Massachusetts end up here? And Maggie explains that Cardinal Lawrence was a priest at the orphanage that she grew up in, so she got really close with him, and she was a problem child and got punished a lot. And Luz asks how she got punished, and Maggie says, well, they didn't beat me, but I had an active imagination, and I was convinced that what I was seeing was real, and they would have to subdue me, but Cardinal Lawrence helped me to see that it was all in my head, and things got a lot better. And now Luz tells her story, and she says how when she was 16, she was kicked out of her house, and it was so cold she didn't know what to do, but then suddenly this warm wind came out of nowhere, and she heard this voice, and she took it as the voice of God, and she says it was all around me, and it told me that my true home was with him, and for the first time, I felt like I belonged on Earth. So we then cut back to the orphanage, and we see all the nuns, they're peeling potatoes, they're laughing, they're having fun. It's mostly older sisters, and then Luz and Maggie. And the sisters actually talk about how Luz and Margaret are taking the veil alone, basically because nobody's turning to the church anymore. People aren't really becoming nuns anymore. And now we cut to some of the young girls, and they're teaching Maggie Italian. And as they're teaching her this, Carlita is sitting silently in the corner. And they teach Maggie this phrase, and they like tell her that it means, I am a teacher and I love to teach. And they kind of laugh about this, and this is gonna come back up later. But eventually we cut to nighttime again, and we see the nuns putting the girls to bed, and Sister Silva is praying over the intercom, leading everybody in prayer. And Maggie notices that there is one empty bed. So she starts to walk through the hallway because she's suspicious of this. She knows that this bed is supposed to be Carlita's, and she's nowhere to be found. So Maggie starts walking through this hallway, and she has a lantern because it's mainly just candle lit. Like, I don't know if this place just doesn't have electricity or what. No fucking idea. But she's walking through, and she starts to hear a woman praying. And she looks in this door that is cracked open, and sure enough, she sees that they have Carlita pinned down on a bed. She's breathing heavy, and the nuns are restraining her to this bed. And one of the nuns looks up and sees Maggie watching, and she goes and closes the door. So Maggie sees that, and then suddenly she starts to hear giggling from down the hall behind her. And she turns, and she sees this creepy, weird bitch Angelica, Sister Angelica, emerge from behind the wall. And the way she does it is super creepy, because first she puts her hand around the wall, and you're like, what the fuck is this going to be? And it turns out it's a human, she's just a weirdo. But she comes out from behind the wall and she's laughing. But then suddenly she goes completely straight faced and a tear falls from her eye. So we already know that something is up with this bitch, she's insane. But then Luz suddenly shows up and startles Maggie and takes her away and tells her that she has a surprise for her. So we see the two of them at home, and Maggie is now dressed in a low cut sleeveless top, looks hot as fuck, honestly, great shirt, great look. And Luz is wearing a blonde wig, also all made up, all dressed up. And you can tell Maggie is super fucking uncomfortable, but Luz tells her like, you look great, puts heels on her. Maggie tries to put her shirt together because obviously she's uncomfortable with how low cut it is. And eventually she tells Luz, like, I can't do this. And Luz tells her, have you ever been to ask her if she's ever been to a bar or a disco or anything? And Maggie says, no. And Luz says, yes, because you've wanted to give yourself only to him. And I know it's scary, but look at you, you're beautiful. And you have to understand that and know what it means to give that up. So let yourself feel it and be brave. And Maggie smiles. So this pep talk works. And we eventually cut to a club, and there's very loud music playing, everybody's dancing, and Maggie and Luz enter. And Maggie is shocked. This is like a total culture shock for her. She's never been anywhere like this. But they go to the bar, they take a shot, which makes Maggie cough. She's like fighting for her life, which honestly, same. But eventually these two men approach, and they start talking to Luz and Maggie, and they offer to buy them another shot. And these two guys are Alfonso and Paolo. And they offer to buy them a drink, Luz smiles. And we cut to Luz dancing with Alfonso. And now Maggie is watching, and Paolo is standing next to her also watching, and they're not speaking. But eventually, Maggie turns to Paolo and asks him if she can take a sip of his drink, and he gives it to her. So that kind of breaks the ice. And then we cut to them sitting together, talking about how he loves Barbara Streisand and this movie that she's in. They're talking about movies. And then Paolo asks Maggie what she does. And she looks at him, and she hesitates. But in Italian, she says, I am a butterfly and I must fly. Because that's the phrase that the girls taught her, and they told her that it meant I'm a teacher and I love to teach, but it obviously doesn't. But he kind of laughs about this. And in Italian, he says, I must not keep you from flying. And she doesn't know what he says, but eventually he gets up and he's like, let's dance. So he asks her to come to the dance floor, and we see that Maggie is super nervous. But she eventually takes off her coat, and she reveals this hot top that she has on this low cut top. And she goes and she dances with him. And at first, she's super awkward. But eventually, we cut to them after a while. And you can tell she's a lot more comfortable, and she's getting into it, and they're getting closer, and he's touching her head and touching her face, and she's touching him too. And eventually, they start to kiss, and we see her lick his face, kind of like Carlita licked hers, and then we cut to black. And when we come back, we see a spider crawling, and we get this beautiful shot. This is honestly, I think, one of my favorite shots in a movie ever. Because Maggie wakes up in bed, and we see a spider crawl across her face, her bedding is all purple, and she has black hair, and she has mascara all over her face. She looks a mess. But the way that her hair is spread out, it almost, she looks like a spider herself. It's just such a cool shot, and just such a beautiful shot, I think. It's so pretty to look at. But eventually, she gets up, and we see that she's still in her outfit from the night before. There's sweat all on her sheets. She's confused. We've all woken up like this at one point. If you drank, I just woke up like this in fucking New Orleans the first night I was there. The hand grenades got to me, man. Shout out to my friends for putting me to bed. Sometimes you got to do that. But Maggie eventually goes out to the living room, and she sees Luz, who smiles at her and asks if she has fun. And Maggie says she did, and then she's like, I didn't do anything embarrassing. Like, did I embarrass myself? It's that fucking anxiety. Again, been there, done that. And Luz tells her, no, you were well-behaved mostly. I found you before anything got out of control, and you came home with me, but it wasn't easy pulling you away from him, which of course we assume that she's talking about Paolo. And Maggie is like, what do you mean? And Luz says, let's just say you took my advice to heart. You were a brave girl. Don't worry. It's our secret. So we then cut to Maggie back in her room. She's kind of keeled over on the floor. She's crying. She's shaking. You can tell she's obviously ashamed and probably hung over as fuck. So we then cut to church. We see Maggie praying, and Father Brennan is watching her, and she doesn't notice him. But then we see Maggie sitting in the town square, and this orchestral music, this like choral woman's music starts playing, these women's voices. And Brennan approaches Maggie, and he introduces himself as Father Brennan, tells her he knows who she is, and she works at the orphanage. And he tells her that it's about Carlita, and you have to be careful around her because bad things will start to happen. And Maggie at this point is uncomfortable. She tries to leave, but Brennan is like, come with me, please come see me tonight, and I will tell you everything. So Maggie eventually leaves. She's at the orphanage, and she just seems off. And somebody notices this, and she just says that she's tired, and she wonders where Carlita is. And somebody tells her that she's in the bad room. So we cut to Sister Silva, and Maggie goes in and tells her that Carlita is locked in a room, thinking that Sister Silva is going to be concerned. But instead she's like, yes, she bit another sister this morning. And Maggie asks her, why is there a bad room? And Sister Silva just says, because some girls are bad. So we cut to Carlita, she's in this bad room. She is drawing furiously underneath this rug that's in there. And somebody starts to open the door, so she stops and she covers it up. And Maggie and Sister Silva come in, and this room is entirely bare, with the exception of a metal bed frame and this bare, dirty-ass mattress, which is fucking disgusting. And eventually we cut to sometime later, and we see that Carlita has been let out of this bad room. And Maggie asks why they put her in there, and Carlita just says, I'm bad. And Maggie says, well, I was too. So now she's relating to her, she's trying to comfort her, and Maggie tells her, I was bad too, but I realize I'm not bad. They just tell you you are, because you aren't doing what they want. And I thought something was wrong with me, and Carlita asks what she did. And Maggie says, I tried to run away, but it didn't fix the feeling, and I think you feel the same way I did, but you're not scared. You fight, like you're different from me, because I was always so scared. You're not scared. You fight back. And now, as they're speaking, suddenly they hear a woman scream, and it startles them. And Maggie tells Carlita to go to her room, and she runs into this building, and she sees that the screams are coming from a woman who is giving birth. And she watches through this viewing window, which is insane. If I was giving birth and there were viewing windows, no, absolutely fucking not. I'm going somewhere else, bitch. Fuck that. Like such a private, intimate thing, which I mean, I've never given birth. Maybe it's not private and intimate because you have a million fucking nurses and doctors in there anyway. But no, like random strangers watching you give birth? No. But what Maggie sees is this woman who is strapped down to this bed, to this hospital bed, which I've never known anybody giving birth to be fucking strapped down, but okay. But she's strapped down to this bed and they start putting these forceps in her. And we don't see them, thank God, go in her because we do see another thing come out of her soon. But we don't see that, but we do see her screaming and they put this like gas mask on her to give her medicine, whatever this might be. And eventually she calms down and she starts laughing. And Maggie watches this absolutely horrified as this woman starts laughing more and more. It gets like more and more maniacal. But then it turns into her grunting and thrashing and screaming. And eventually Maggie sees the birth and we do too. And this is one of the toughest things I've ever had to watch in a horror movie because birth scares the fucking shit out of me. I don't ever want to watch it. I don't ever want to do it. Anybody who's given birth is a way stronger woman than I am because I just simply, it scares the shit out of me. But we literally get a close up of this woman's vagina and we see her start to give birth. But what she gives birth to, what we see and what Maggie sees, is not a head. A head does not come out. Instead, what comes out is a knuckle and this demonic ass hand covered in blood and goo and it out stretches and it has these long ass fingers and these long fingernails. And Maggie watches this and she passes out, which honestly, the audience probably was feeling like they were going to do too. I know I was. This scene is fucking disgusting. But eventually Maggie wakes up, she's being examined by a nurse because she passed out. And then Cardinal Lawrence is there and she apologizes. And he's like, oh, don't apologize. Like birth can be messy, nothing to apologize for. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. But we cut to the nuns outside and they're playing with the kids. They're all having fun. And Maggie goes to sit with Carlita. But as she's walking up to her, she notices that Angelica is suddenly sitting next to her because she wasn't there a second ago and suddenly she's there. And she's touching Carlita's back and she whispers something to her. And Maggie approaches and asks if she can join them. And Angelica hands her a drawing of a woman strapped down to a bed with a baby in her belly. And Angelica points to the baby and says, this part is mine, il regazzo. Which I know for my four years of taking Italian class, that means a boy. So Maggie just looks at her at this point and is like, I don't think that that's appropriate. And Angelica looks pissed off and she crumples up the picture and she touches Carlita's cheek and she gets up and she goes up to Maggie and she grabs her and kisses her on the mouth, just plants one on her and fucking walks away like nothing happened. And Maggie like wipes off her mouth and is just absolutely shocked. But eventually we see her and Carlita, they go to join the girls playing in the yard and they're kind of doing this ring around the rosy thing. So they put Carlita in the middle and all the girls join hands and they're like running in circles around her. And suddenly we cut to Angelica, who is now wet, like she's, she was dry a second ago, she's now wet and she's smiling and she's looking down at the yard, like she's up on a balcony and Carlita looks up and she's the first one to see her. But then all the girls look up and see her, including Maggie and Angelica looks up. And we see that she's standing on the balcony above them and she's smiling, and she waves, and she whispers, it's all for you, while looking at Carlita and Maggie, and she lights a match and she goes up in flames. That's why she was wet, she's covered in fucking lighter fluid or gasoline. She goes up in flames, the girls all start screaming, and as she's on fire, Angelica jumps and we see that she also had a noose around her neck, and sure enough, she hangs, and it's the same formula as the first movie. She breaks a window when she jumps down, and everybody screams and runs away as Angelica's flaming body swings back and forth, and obviously she's fucking dead. I do like how they recreated this because that is probably the most iconic moment from the original movie, so I like that they recreated it, but they added an element that made it stand out, like the fire element made it even fucking more intense. So I like how they redid that, but still kept in the original. They paid homage, obviously, to the original scene with that, so I love that scene. It's shocking. But we then cut to Maggie. She's walking through a dark alley because this made her believe that Father Brennan might have some valuable information. So she's going to his apartment. He lets her in, and Brennan can tell that she's off and asks what happened. And she tells him about what happened to Angelica, and she also asks him about Skiana. And Brennan gives her the Polaroid of that baby that we had seen in the beginning. So this baby is being held by a priest, and she recognizes this priest as the guy that she saw in the orphanage the first day that she was there, the guy that she saw briefly. And she also sees that Sister Silva is in this picture, and on the back of this Polaroid, it says Skiana. So Brennan says, I think the baby is Carlita, and I think that she's in danger. And Maggie is denying this. She's like, the sisters are women of God. And Father Brennan says, there are two churches, one you and I are a part of, and the other is the church that will turn a blind eye to torture and rape, and they will commit murder in the name of God. And what do you think that church is most afraid of? And Margaret says, the devil? And Brennan says, secularism. We live in unprecedented times. The culture is rebelling. People are turning away from the church and belief is power. How do you control people who no longer believe in stories of fire and brimstone? These people don't fear anything anymore. So you have to create something to fear. And this church has had powers for thousands of years, and it'll stop at nothing to keep it that way. So a small, powerful group of priests, bishops, and even higher decided to do something drastic, and they believe that they can birth the antichrist and then control him and allow him to bring his dark forces to the world, to drive them back to the church, to drive people back to the church, make them scared of something, and make them religious again. And if no one believes that such a thing can exist, who will stand in their way? And he tells Maggie that he was excommunicated, so his contacts are all limited, and this photo is all that he has to go off of, but he believes that the little girl in the picture is to be the mother. And Maggie says, the mother of what? And he says, the antichrist. So Maggie thinks that he's fucking crazy, and Father Brennan is like, if I'm right, Carlita will have been born on the sixth day of the sixth month at 6 a.m., and she will have a mark of the devil on her, the 666, and they are keeping her files locked away, and I need you to get them so I can know how she was born. A beast, a jackal, is the father. And Maggie at this point goes to leave. She doesn't believe this, but he stops her, and he's like, if Carlita is the mother, the evil inside her will continue. We must destroy it. And she's like, she's a little girl. She's not pregnant. And Brennan says, it's not a human child. It's almost June 6th. So he's saying that the child, the antichrist, is going to be born on June 6th. And she says, you need a doctor. She's like, you need help. I can't help you. And she ends up running out. So we end up cutting to Carlita, and she's on a bus with all the other girls. Maggie is there too. They're going on a field trip. And Maggie is kind of just staring at her. And she goes over to sit with Father Gabriel. And she asks him if he knows about Carlita or her history, or how she got to the orphanage. And he says no. And she's like, well, where would I find that information? And he just looks uncomfortable. And he says, this isn't my area. And they noticed that Sister Silva is staring at them, looking suspicious. So eventually, the bus pulls up to this museum, and Maggie and Carlita get off together, and they walk by these cops because there's these protests happening, and they all go into the museum. And Maggie is staring at Carlita, who asks why she's staring at her. And Maggie's like, oh, no, I'm not. Like, girl, yes, you are. You're making it so fucking obvious. But eventually, Maggie asks Carlita to come with her, and they go up to this balcony area, and Maggie tells Carlita that she can trust her, and she asks if anyone has ever done anything to her that scared her or upset her. And Carlita is like, I don't know. And Maggie says, what don't you know? And Carlita says, sometimes I get bad feelings, and I see things, and she starts to breathe heavy like she's getting nervous. And she tells Maggie, I can't tell if they're real or not. And Maggie says, when I was young, the same thing happened to me. I had horrible visions, and I was convinced that they were real, but I learned that they were just lies in my brain because I was unhappy. And Carlita says, it's not a lie. And Maggie says, how do you know? And Carlita just gets upset and runs away. So Maggie goes to look for her, and she's walking through the museum, and eventually she sees her on a bench, and she's keeled over, and she's crying, and she starts walking towards her. But then suddenly, she sees a hand reach out and touch Carlita on the back. And when she turns the corner, she sees that it is a ghostly version of Angelica sitting next to her. And Maggie is watching this horrified, but then suddenly Sister Silva snaps her out of it because she grabs her, and she tells her, a riot broke out, we have to leave now. So she looks back, and Carlita is alone. So she grabs Carlita, they all leave. It's absolute chaos out on the street. There's smoke, and the girls are yelling, everybody's running, everybody's pushing, the girls run back to the bus, and Maggie gets separated from Carlita. And people start grabbing at Maggie and pushing her in the crowd. And she sees this image of a priest in this very elaborate robe in the middle of the crowd. And she starts to have all these hands like groping her. And we see that one of these hands is the devil's hand, the same one that was birthed from that woman. And then we see a slimy tongue lick her on her face as she screams. And we cut to this white light. And eventually we fade back in and we see Sister Silva watching as Maggie stands in the street alone. Like there's people running around her, but nobody's pushing her, nobody's touching her. And she screams and she shakes and she looks fucking insane. And she touches her face. And it's at this point that I think she realizes, and we all realize, that she was imagining this, she was just seeing the shit. Choice Hotels get you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. So that night, they're back at the orphanage. The sister prays over the intercom again, and one of the other nuns tells Maggie that Sister Silva wants to see her. So Maggie goes into Sister Silva's office, and Silva tells her, I have to look out for the well-being of those in my care, and I'm concerned. And Maggie is like, oh no, I'm fine. And Sister Silva is like, let me rephrase, we are concerned, myself and Cardinal Lawrence. We think that you should take a step back, and we think that we should postpone your vows, and we're concerned about your attachment to Carlita. And Lawrence told me what happened to you when you grew up, and perhaps being around Carlita isn't right for you because she's disturbed. So they think that being around Carlita is making Maggie go backwards, like she's undoing her progress. And suddenly Maggie starts to zone out because we hear Sister Silva's voice kind of drown out, and Maggie starts looking at all these paintings on the wall behind her, and she starts to hear these whispers. But eventually she snaps out of it, and she says, I'm not ill. I'm the only one who cares about her talking about Carlita. So she and Sister Silva kind of argue back and forth, and Sister Silva again says she's sick in the head talking about Carlita. And Maggie says, yeah, because of you. And you can tell she regrets it immediately. And Sister Silva tells her, you're clearly unwell. And Maggie ends up storming out, and Sister Silva says, you will keep your distance from Carlita, or there will be consequences. So we cut back to Maggie, she's in the car, she's driving through town to go back home. And suddenly she sees something and she tells the driver to pull over, and she tells him she'll walk. So she runs after Paolo, turns out she saw him. So she gets out, she runs after him, who sees her and keeps walking. He looks terrified and he's trying to obviously run away from her. But she continues to follow and he tells her like, leave me alone. I'm sorry, I didn't know. And he asks to stop following me. And she asks what's going on. And he turns around and looks absolutely terrified. And he backs into the street and he just says, look for the mark. And the moment he says that, he is hit by a fucking truck. And Maggie is absolutely shocked. And she goes over to the truck, which has hit him into a wall. So Paolo is now pinned between the car and this wall. And the guy in the truck is trying to start it, but it's not starting. And Maggie goes over to Paolo to try to help him. And he's crying. He's like, I can't move. I'm scared. I don't want to die. And Maggie tries to comfort him. And she tries to pull him out. And she just goes one, two, three, and goes to pull him from his upper body. And as she does this, he detaches from the car. But then we hear somebody in the crowd scream. And sure enough, we see it's because she pulled him out, but she only pulled out his upper half. And she is only holding his top half, and he is severed at the middle from where this car hit him. And she looks down and she realizes, and she lays him down, and we just see all his guts hanging out of him, and he's obviously fucking dead. And Maggie screams. And now we cut to Maggie in a church, and she's praying frantically, like more and more frantic, and we hear this orchestral women's opera music playing, and we get these fast shots of the town from above, like it's very choppy, very chaotic, which is how Maggie is feeling right now. And we cut to Maggie in bed, and she's looking up at her ceiling, and we start to hear these whispers. And we also get this image of a bunch of spiders on a web. So again, like she's obviously mentally declining. That's what this is all showing me. But we cut to the orphanage, and the girls and Maggie looking at Luz, who is getting her hair cut, and she's getting ready to take her vows. She's getting dressed in a white gown. Today's the day. And we cut to the girls and the nuns, all in church, and Luz walks down the aisle, and she has this white gown on with this white veil. Like she's getting married because nuns see themselves as marrying Christ when they take their vows. And Cardinal Lawrence is waiting for her at the altar, and he leads the service. One of the nuns lifts up Luz's veil and removes her gloves, and the Cardinal puts a wedding band on her left finger and recites something in Latin. Because again, this is pretty basically like a marriage ceremony, but she's marrying the church. She's marrying God. And Maggie looks at Carlita, and we see Maggie kind of shed a tear as she's watching the ceremony. And eventually Maggie runs out, and she goes into Sister Silva's office, and she starts looking through her drawers, and she finds a key hidden underneath her desk. And she turns to the wall where the mural is, and she looks at the same images she had been looking at, but then she starts to feel around, and sure enough, she finds a hole in the wall, and she puts the key in, and it unlocks a hidden door that leads downstairs. So now we're getting intercut, Maggie finding this and loses ceremony, because we cut back to the ceremony, and we see that she's being dressed in a black habit with the white underneath, and it's pulled very tightly over her head and tied, and we see Maggie get down to this old, dark, dank basement, and she sees a filing cabinet, and she starts looking through it, and this is again intercut with Lou's getting her habit on and having completed her vows, and Maggie looks through this filing cabinet, and she finds a file for Skiana, and it says 13 on it, and sure enough, she looks in, and she finds that Carlita was born 666, June 6th, 6 a.m., 1959. And in her file, it says, must be kept away from other girls, and there's a picture of this baby, and we cut to Carlita, which is telling us this baby is Carlita. So back in the ceremony, we see Lou's, she starts walking towards the crowd, and then she lies on the ground, with her stomach down and her arms outstretched, kind of like she's creating the shape of a cross with her body. And now we cut back to Maggie, and she's looking through more files, and she sees another Skiana. This one was deceased after it was born, because it was deformed. And now back at the ceremony, all the nuns get on the ground in the same position, and they all start praying silently in Latin. And now Maggie continues to look through these files, and she sees there's multiple, one through 13. Carlita was 13th, and she flips through them, and all of them are saying deformed, died at childbirth, deformed. And Maggie eventually takes all these files, and she runs upstairs, and all the girls have gotten out of the ceremony, so she tries to cover up the files with a sheet, and she's walking through nervously, and she goes to grab Carlita and run off with her, but then she sees two nuns and Sister Silva kind of blocking the way. So they end up going into another room, and Maggie tries to barricade the door, and she tells Carlita that she's sorry she didn't believe her, but she does now, and she hugs her, and she tells her that she's gonna get her out of here. So the nuns start pounding on the door, and Maggie hides the files underneath the mattress. And as she does that, the nuns manage to break in, and Maggie takes a wooden post and starts like swinging at them, and she tells them like, I know what you did with the babies, and eventually they're able to restrain her. But as they have her on the ground restraining her, Carlita jumps on one of the nuns' backs, and she screams. And when she does, Maggie can see a birthmark, 666, on the roof of her mouth. So everything Father Brennan said is now confirmed. And eventually, Maggie is dragged out of the room and thrown into the bedroom and locked in. And she's pounding on the door. She's screaming, she's crying, but eventually she manages to calm herself down. And we cut to this mural of this demonic creature biting a woman's ear, and this woman riding on the back of a demonic creature. So we're seeing all these weird images, these weird murals. And we cut back to Maggie, and she's lying on this bare, dirty mattress, and she starts to hear whispering, which abruptly stops, but then it continues, and we hear that it's in Latin, and it's multiple voices now. So she's hearing shit. And she looks down, and she notices that there is something drawn underneath the rug. So this is what Carlita had been drawing, and she pulls the rug back, and she sees that it's this drawing of this big circle, and there's like these teeth at the center, and inside is all these shadow-like creepy figures. And we get flashes of a pregnant woman, and shackles, and screaming, and this demonic creature with horns, and fangs, and Maggie eventually snaps out of this, and she repeats to herself, it's not real, it's not real. But then suddenly, she hears a woman's voice whisper, what's not real? And she turns, and she's like, who said that? There's nobody in the room with her. But Maggie looks in the dark corner of the room, and she sees a shadowy figure, and this thing starts to move, and eventually it stands up, and we can see that it is a woman covered in black filth and burns. And Maggie stares as this thing starts to walk towards her, and Maggie just starts repeating, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, but eventually it gets up close to her, and we see, again, it's a ghostly dead version of a burned Angelica, and she starts laughing, and her face is like ripped off, partially ripped off, it looks like it at least, because it's burned off. And when she gets close to Maggie, she screams, which then causes Maggie to scream. So at this point, Father Gabriel comes in, and he tells her that he found the files, and they have to go. So she gets up, and he grabs her, and they run out. And Gabriel and Maggie go to Father Brennan, and they give him the files, and he is completely shocked. And Gabriel and Brennan know each other, because apparently Brennan had also tried to approach Gabriel to get him to take these files, but at the time, he thought that he was crazy, kind of like Maggie did at first. But Maggie is worried about Carlita and wants to go get her, but Brennan is like, we can't now. It's only a matter of time before they know that we have these files, and they will come for us, so we have to prove what they've done, or no one will believe anything. So the three of them start looking through the files, and again, they're seeing like all these stillborns and these deformed babies, and Maggie is super confused. But then Brennan is like, they need a male. They only got females, and the only baby to survive is Carlita. And they believe that the only way for the Antichrist to be born is for the beast to reproduce with its own offspring. So essentially, the jackal is a male in this situation, and it produced with this woman who was a volunteer, like they said at the beginning, we saw that woman, and they, this woman birthed a daughter, but only daughters were being birthed. They were trying to birth the Antichrist, who has to be a male, but it wasn't working. The jackal and the volunteer were only having daughters. So they discovered that the only way to birth a male, the Antichrist, is for the jackal to then reproduce with his own daughter. And the daughter that was born of the jackal and the jackal can then birth the male, the Antichrist. So Maggie looks at that Polaroid that Father Brennan's been carrying around, but she notices something because she sees that the Polaroid, this baby in the Polaroid, the 666 is on the baby's head. And Maggie is confused because she's like, that's not where Carlita's mark is. And she shows the file, Carlita's file, and they see that the baby in this file has no mark on its head. So the baby in the Polaroid isn't Carlita. What does that mean? And they keep looking through everything. And Maggie is like, we have to find the baby with the mark on its scalp. We must have missed something. And they keep looking, keep looking, and it's all deformed babies, no marks on the scalp. It's always on their arm or their chin. And Brennan says, they're deformed because the father isn't human. And eventually, they find a file that has no picture in it, and it looks like it's been ripped out. So sure enough, Maggie takes this Polaroid and she sees that it fits right in, and the back of the Polaroid is ripped like it was ripped out, and this baby was marked healthy. So at this point, they realized there was another survivor. And Maggie looks at this Polaroid, and the baby has the mark on the scalp, and it looks like she's realizing something. And she has a flashback to Paolo saying, look for the mark. And Maggie starts to shake, and she says, how did he know? And then she realizes he knew where it was. And we cut back to them dancing in the club and him like touching her head and touching her scalp. And this ominous music starts to play as Maggie starts feeling her own scalp, and then she looks dead into the camera. I love a fourth wall break, and it's always so eerie to me because as she's realizing, the audience is realizing, and it's like she's looking at us like, yeah, you guys fucking know this too. It's crazy. So fourth wall break looks dead into the camera, and we flash to her at the club, all messy and smiling and looking directly into the camera still. And we cut to Maggie in her club outfit, so we see what happened this night when we just thought that she was drunk and blacked out, but we see her being lowered down somewhere, and we see this priest in an elaborate robe, which is the same one that she had seen in the crowd, and we get this POV of us approaching him. This man is bald and scary looking as fuck, and we're approaching him, and he goes to put a black covering over the face of whoever is approaching him. So we cut to Maggie laying on a table. She's surrounded by priests and sisters who are chanting, and she sees Paola was there too, looking terrified, and this black covering is put over Maggie's face, and everyone touches her forehead, and the chanting speeds up, and we zoom in on this doorway, where through it we see the mural of a demonic creature devouring someone, and we cut to an eye, no Irish, just whites. So we obviously know this is some sort of creature. Maggie on the table starts to breathe heavy, as this demonic hand starts to touch her stomach, and we see through the black sheet, like we're getting the POV as if we have this black veil over our face, so we're seeing what she sees, and we hear this creature growling, and start to see this creature crawling on top of her. But we can't really see what it looks like, because again, we're looking at it through this black veil. But now we understand what happened. Margaret, the night that she blacked out, is raped by the jackal, who is also her father, and she is pregnant with the antichrist. And we cut to Margaret, screaming, as she remembers this, and she realizes this as well. And Father Brennan and Gabriel calm her down, and Brennan looks, and sees that she has the mark on her scalp. And he's absolutely shocked. And now Brennan is like, it makes sense, because she has been a ward of the church her whole life. And they brought her back to Rome too, and he kind of trails off, and they're like, to what? And he doesn't answer. And Margaret panics, and starts to leave, and Brennan stops her, and she turns and threatens to kill him. She's like, let me leave, and she cries. And Brennan just tells her that he's sorry, and he reminds her that it is about to be June 6th, that midnight, and they are going to be coming for you. And she says, if it's true, and if I'm pregnant, I need it out of me now. So we cut to Maggie Brennan and Gabriel in the car with the driver, and they're driving, and Maggie asks Brennan if this doctor knows what he's doing, and he confirms yes, he does. And we see Maggie suddenly start to grunt like she's in pain. And we notice that there's a car speeding up behind them, following them, Brennan tells the driver to keep going, but then that car behind them turns, so they relax. But then Margaret starts coughing, and then she starts vomiting, and she looks at Father Brennan and she's like, what is happening to me? And suddenly, as she says this, a car comes out of fucking nowhere and crashes directly into them, like T-bones them at the side, and the glass shatters and flies everywhere, and the car is completely totaled, the windshield is broken, we see blood all over it, so I'm assuming that the driver, Luca, died, Father Gabriel's passed out, Father Brennan's passed out, and Maggie crawls out of this car, and in front of her is a church, and the bells start to ring because the hour has now struck midnight, and it is officially June 6th, and Maggie stands up super fucking unnaturally. It's like she kind of crawls up. It's really creepy, and this actress who plays her, whose name is Nell Tiger Free, which is super cool and unique, should have gotten a fucking Oscar nom for this, for real. I think she's so incredible. So she stands up unnaturally, and she inhales, and she starts to shake, and she starts to convulse. And it's at this point that they recreate the iconic scene from Possession, which you guys know I hate Possession if you listen to that episode. The movie's dumb as fuck, but Isabella Gianni's performance, also Oscar worthy, and she pulls it off perfectly here. She recreates it beautifully. So she's acting her ass off, okay? She's screaming, she's grunting, she's convulsing, and suddenly this car full of priests pulls up and stares at her terrified, which I love as a woman being the most scary person around. I love that. Like she is literally being targeted and expected to birth the Antichrist, and these motherfuckers are scared of her. And I think that is such an accomplishment. So she eventually like is convulsing as she's standing, and then she gets on the ground and liquid starts to come out of her from her vagina, and she starts to rip her shirt off, and we see that her belly is starting to expand into a very pregnant one, and blood is pouring out of her, and eventually people approach her and she screams and we cut to black. And when we come back, we see Maggie waking up in this dark basement, there's candelabras lit everywhere and she is on a hospital table, and she's wearing a white gown and Cardinal Lawrence is there. And Maggie looks at him and says, I can't tell if this is real or not. And he just says, it's very real. And she asks if he can untie her and he just says, soon it will all be over. And Maggie cries and Cardinal Lawrence says, don't be afraid. I won't let anything bad happen to you. I have watched over you since you were a little girl from the first moment we met. And I always said that you were the bravest girl I had ever known. And now you know how special you are. And the baby that you're going to bear will redeem the church and bring the people back to God because of you. Your whole life you've been waiting for this and you've been waiting to hear his voice. The truth is, it was always there with you and he brought you here. He chose you. So Maggie is now injected with some sort of drug to calm her down and she smiles a little bit and Cardinal Lawrence says, you're ready now. Know that I love you and I'll be right here. So the hospital table starts to rattle as Maggie is getting rolled somewhere else. And there's all these murals all around on the ceiling. And it's the murals that we had seen earlier, like those demonic figures, like the figure with the woman on its back and the one that's like licking the woman's ear, whatever. We're seeing all those. And Maggie is rolled underneath this doctor spotlight. And she looks up at it, and it kind of looks like it's a light from above. And Maggie looks next to her, and she sees like all these tools, like these scalpels and forceps. And she starts to breathe heavy because she realizes what's about to happen. And the nurses unbutton her shirt and reveal her giant pregnant belly that just came out of nowhere. And she starts to cry. And the doctor takes a scalpel and starts to cut her open. And she's breathing heavy, and she doesn't scream, almost seemingly like she can't feel it. But the doctor starts to reach into her stomach. And we're seeing all of this. Like, they don't cut away. We're seeing the doctor reach into her stomach as she's crying. And we see that around her is all these black hooded figures, including Luz, this fucking trifling ho trader bitch, and all the nuns, including Sister Silva. They're all part of it. And they watch as Maggie begs to be untied and she cries. And eventually we see the sack being pulled out. I didn't know that the baby came out in a sack, if it's a C-section, unless this is not accurate, but I feel like everything else is relatively accurate. But the doctor pulls out the sack and puts it on the table and it's all gooey, and he pierces the sack and all the fluid comes out. You're seeing all this, it's fucking disgusting. Again, as somebody who was terrified of birth. But Sister Silva asks, is it a boy or a girl? And one of the babies starts crying because we cut, and we see that there's two. And the first one they see is a girl. And Sister Silva asks the other, and this dramatic music plays, and we zoom in on the doctor, and he says, a boy. And Maggie sobs because she knows that this is the Antichrist. And the moment he says a boy, Ave Satani starts playing. Boom, chills, full body chills. It's the first time that they play the same song from the original movie, the Oscar-winning song. So they start playing Ave Satani as he says it's a boy. Maggie sobs, the nuns and the priests are all rejoicing. We have him, Silva goes over and takes the boy, and this music continues to play. And the baby starts to cry and everyone touches the baby's forehead. And Maggie looks at the other baby that is left crying on the table. And she also looks over at the scalpels as she's being sewn up. And Maggie looks at Cardinal Lawrence and asks him for help. And he comes over and Maggie asks if she can hold him. And he's like, are you sure? And she says, yes, I'm his mother. So Cardinal Lawrence has Sister Silva bring him over. And Silva says, it is important for a child to bond with his mother. So she gives the baby over to Margaret. And she says, we all need the comfort of our mothers in the beginning. You did so well. So they're all praising her, even though this was completely against, like not her choice. And Cardinal Lawrence tells her, you're doing God's work. Can't you hear his voice? And Maggie looks at him and says, no, I only hear my own. And she stabs this motherfucker in the throat with one of the scalpels. And he bleeds out and everybody screams. And Maggie struggles, but she manages to get up off the table and she's holding the baby. And they all watch as she holds the scalpel to the baby's neck. And he starts crying. And Sister Silva approaches and she's like, stop please. And Maggie's crying. And Silva tries to get her to give her the baby. And Margaret is shaking and she hesitates and she screams. And Silva at this point charges at her and grabs her. And suddenly Margaret goes to turn and she comes face to face with Luz, who stabs her in the stomach. And Maggie collapses. Again, what a fucking betrayal. This trifling fucking hoe bitch. I hate her. But they all leave because they all are like, okay, well we have the baby, who cares what happens to her. So they all leave and Sister Silva tells somebody, burn everything and leave them both to die. Talking about Maggie and the other baby. But as they're all leaving, we see Carlita and she creeps around the corner. She's been there the whole time. And this beautiful music starts to play as somebody drops a lighter and the place goes up in flames and Maggie is not moving and the fire is blazing all around her and the baby cries in the distance. And we think Maggie is dead, but then suddenly she blinks, she's alive. And she slowly manages to get up and she takes her other baby, the daughter. And Carlita runs into the flames and around them, the murals are burning, the tapestries are burning and Maggie screams and Carlita grabs her and gets her up and they make a run for it. And now Maggie looks back and she sees a demonic, inhuman creature burning in the flames. And she hears screaming and we fade out. So now we cut to Rome and we see a priest in the back of the car and he's looking at a picture of the ambassador. So this is the priest that Maggie had seen and the one that is in the picture, the Polaroid holding the baby. I don't think we ever get a name for him, but regardless, he's in the car. He's looking at a Polaroid of the US ambassador, which of course is Robert Thorne. So they have a Polaroid picture of Gregory Peck, which I love how they wrap this all around. And he gives the picture to Luz, who is now holding the baby. And the priest tells her he will be the new father, and he and his wife will suffer a tragic loss and be in need of a child, and the boy will inherit their privilege and power. So now we're understanding that this was all set up. Like I said in the last movie, it was all a setup. The other priest was part of it, everybody was part of it. And we see this stillborn baby in the hospital be switched out with Damian, and we know what happens from there because that's where the first movie starts. And the priest says soon his power will spread and the world will be saved and we cut to black. But it's not the end yet because we come back for a minute and we're on a snowy mountainside, and we see a fire burning inside this little cabin and Carlita is sitting in front of it. And with her is Maggie and her daughter at the table. And you can tell her daughter is a little bit older now, probably four or five, and Carlita is helping care for her. And they just seem like a happy little family. They're all laughing. They made it out, they escaped. And suddenly Maggie goes still like she can sense something. And sure enough, outside, we see a man approach the cabin. And Maggie surprises him from behind with a fucking shotgun right in his back. She's like, turn around. And he turns and it's father Brennan. And he just says, I'm sorry, I tried to leave you, but I can't. And she tells him to leave. And he says, I came to warn you that they know that you're alive and you weren't supposed to survive, especially the girl, she's gonna be important. And Maggie says, I just want to be left alone. And father Brennan tells her, they will come for you. And she cocks the gun and he goes to leave, but then he turns around and he says, they've even given your son a name, Damien. And they zoom in on Maggie and we cut to black and the movie ends. And I think that is an iconic fucking ending. Cause like you're watching this and obviously you know that this is Damien, but just to get the confirmation, they gave him a name Damien. And to end with that name, I think was such an incredible decision. I think that was great. So now a couple of things from this movie that don't make sense in comparison to the original. One, the fact that in the original father Brennan is said to have a 666 birthmark on his thigh. So that would imply that he was also born of the jackal, which doesn't make sense because the jackal in this movie only had girls and they never talk about why Brennan had that birthmark in this movie, like, they kind of just ignore it. They bypass that. I guess the way that I explain it in my head is that in the original, they say that he had the birthmark too, meaning he was touched by evil. So I think maybe Brennan wasn't necessarily born with this birthmark, but because of what he got into and like trying to expose the church and everything and getting so close to like these fucking antichrists and these people that were born of the jackal, maybe that's why he just like developed this birthmark. That's the only way that I can explain it. Honestly, the other thing that they also changed massively was the fact that in the original movie Damien's mother is a jackal and in this movie, they changed it to be that the father is a jackal. And I guess the way that I can explain that is that they would have lied about that. Like obviously in the original movie, they didn't know that there was going to be a prequel fucking like 50 years later. But the way that I can explain that is in the original movie, they would have lied to Gregory Peck's character, to Robert Thorne and what he's actually looking at, like when he sees this skeleton, it's the skeleton of the jackal that seemingly died in the fire because when she looks back and she sees this creature screaming, I take it as that's the jackal dying. So what was actually buried in that cemetery was the jackal, which is the father. They made up this name Maria Schiana, which is on the gravestone in the first movie so that Robert Thorne and nobody would ever know that the mother actually survived. So that's how I explain that away. Again, obviously I think it's simply just a plot hole. I think it's something that they changed and never really fully explained. But I mean, I can make it make sense logically in my head. And again, it's a movie about the birth of the fucking antichrist and a jackal being a father. So nothing is really logical anyway. I will say this prequel makes a lot of sense though, in terms of the fact that it's a conspiracy within the church. Because that explains to me in the first movie, why the priest would have been involved in it and why like the nuns in this hospital seem to be involved in this conspiracy because obviously, the priest's idea for Robert to take this child in place of his own. So I think this how they explain that aligns a lot more with the first movie, whereas the second and third movie change that plot and kind of make it like a cult thing, which I guess doesn't necessarily change the plot because obviously, the religious people could be involved with this cult as well. But it's supposed to be like a Satanist cult, whereas in the original and in the prequel, it's showing us that no, this is all like a within the church thing. This is the church is doing, it's an inside job. So that's why I say the prequel was made as if like the second and third movies don't exist because that would change the plot entirely. And that's why I spread it out where I wanted to talk about these two movies in this episode and then we'll talk about movies two, three, and four next episode because those go together and these two go together better, I think. So yeah, that was The Omen and The First Omen, which despite like the couple little plot holes, I honestly think they did a really great job with it. I really enjoyed the movie. I think it explained things. I love how they brought it back to the Thorn family and how they just picked this random poor motherfucker that was like completely unsuspecting, poor Robert. But yeah, I really enjoy these movies, but you guys will see next week how The Omen, two, three, and four totally changed the story. But again, like they kind of follow each other better. I actually have never seen The Fourth Omen and like reading the summary, it's not about Damien. We're gonna get to that. But before we end today's episode, of course have some Kofi shout outs that are due. And first we have Krista. And Krista says, I first found your content on TikTok and now I'm binging your entire podcast. I love horror and it's fun to listen to your content before seeing the movie sometimes, because it makes me think about it on a deeper level. It inspired me to make my own content about horror on TikTok. That is amazing. That makes me so happy. I love when people like listen to me and wanna like do this themselves, because why not? Just start fucking yapping. It's so fun. I just love people who yap about what they're passionate about. So Krista, that is amazing. I hope that is going well. Thank you so much for being a supporter on TikTok, on here. You're a queen, and I love you. Thank you. Next, we have two from Alex, and Alex says, Hi Sid, you've inspired me to watch The Shrine. I'm Polish and somehow never heard of it before. I just finished it, and I'd like to report that only three people were actually Polish. The rest of them were speaking kind of broken. I was still able to understand everything, but you didn't miss out on much. Anyway, I remember you saying you'd like to know what were the last words of the dying priest. He said, finish it, passing the holy water. There, nothing special, but I hope you can sleep well knowing what he said. Lots of love from Scotland. Alex, you're a fucking queen for doing that. That is amazing. Thank you. I knew it couldn't have been anything too important, obviously, that would have moved the story along, but that is comforting to know. I'm glad to know that, I'm glad that I inspired you to watch it. So thank you for doing the Lord's work and telling us all what the translation was. That's amazing. Now I can sleep at night. No, but thank you so much for that. And thank you so much for your support and for being here. You're a queen. Love you. Next, we have Justin and Charlene, who I met at Overlook. Oh my God, that was amazing. That made me so happy. I'm sorry, guys, if that was so chaotic, but film festivals are just fucking chaotic. I wish I could have seen you guys more. But Justin and Charlene say, Hey, Sidney, my wife and I were so happy to meet you at the Overlook Film Festival. It was an amazing experience with both scary and hilarious films. Also, thank you for the recommendation for Bruceard's. It was one of the best dining experiences we had there until next year. I love that you guys loved it. I also went to Bruceard's. That's a staple. I have to go there every time I go to New Orleans for jazz brunch. I'm just obsessed with it. Their cornbread is like the best thing I've ever eaten in my whole life. But I'm so glad I got to meet you guys. I hope you guys had such a wonderful time, and I can't wait to see you there again next year. I just love Overlook. I love New Orleans. It's so much fun. So I'm glad that you guys got to experience it and that you had fun. But thank you guys for being so nice and so cool, and for your constant support. You're a king and queen. Love you guys. Thank you. Next, we have four from Katie B. And Katie says, watch the new Anaconda the other night with Paul Rudd and Jack Black was all right. Some parts were hilarious. Some were just pointless. But I do miss a good terrifying animal hunting you kind of horror. Don't see much of the snake kind of like Jaws, which really added to it. If you can make a horror based on an animal, what animal would you want hunting you? I know there's a New Zealand movie called Black Sheep about killer sheep, freaked me out as a kid. Their eyes are super freaky. I have a quick response for this, like as in I already knew what I was going to say. I don't have to think about it because fucking hippos. Hippos are literally the scariest fucking animal on this planet. And I one time saw a video of a hippo running under water. And it genuinely keeps me up at night. It's the scariest shit I ever seen. I actually did hear recently that there is going to be a hippo movie, a horror movie coming out called Hungry. So I'm like, finally, I feel like this is such like a, we don't use the opportunity to fucking make horror movies about hippos. They're scary. The movie writes itself. So yeah, definitely a hippo. But Katie continues and says, just finished watching something very bad is going to happen. Loved it so much, but fuck Nicky. He's up there with Bev Kean and that dick businessman from Train to Busan, literally watched it and said to myself, limp dick baby man. I agree. He's a fucking loser. Had to get a root canal done this week. I don't know if I was just that exhausted or slightly unhinged, but kind of napped through it. For some reason, I also decided to start humming love roller coaster because I just thought of final destination, hashtag delirious and slightly spicy. I love that. And I'm sure the doctor loved that as well. Totally normal thing to do. No, that is so funny. I love that. But I'm glad that you watch something very bad is going to happen. I also really enjoyed that show. I love how it unfolded and I loved how it ended. And also, yes, fuck Nicky, fucking loser. But Katie, as always, thank you so much for your support and for being here and for listening. You're a queen and I love you. Thank you. Next, we have three from Sayana, which is a beautiful name. And Sayana says, hey Sid, long time TikTok and pod lover and brand new horror fan. You have inspired me to create my own list of movies and start watching them because they used to terrify me. The Conjuring movies are my all time faves and I can and have fallen asleep to them before. I did some research for you after listening to your insidious eps about why the music was changed and turns out it's because Patrick Wilson wanted to incorporate music that reflected the emotional journey that the characters went through. Okay, I guess that makes sense, but still like an insidious movie without that, like bone chilling music, it's still a little disappointing, though it does make sense and I respect him, so that's fine. Sayana also says, also wanted to ask if you would ever think about doing an American Horror Story set of eps. Thanks, stay spooky my love. I absolutely would because I love American Horror Story, especially season one, Murder House. It's my favorite season. It's one of my favorite seasons of a show ever, period. I love it. I was so obsessed with it when it came out when I was younger. So yes, that is definitely something I would consider doing in the future. So Sayana, thank you for that recommendation and for your support and for being here and for listening. You're a queen. Love you. Thank you. Next we have Xena and Xena says, first time twig giver, OG listener of the podcast. Just wanted to say, I am so excited for the Exorcist 3 episode. It's so slept on, it's legit scary and really funny. The bathtub story from the cop was so unexpected and delivered so straight, it gets me every time. Yes, I am so very excited to talk about the Exorcist 3. I feel like that movie has such a cult following and people just love it so much, myself included. And I think it is an incredible sequel to the Exorcist, way better than whatever the fuck the second Exorcist was. We don't talk about that. I don't even remember a fucking thing about that, other than it's just bad. So yes, I'm very excited to talk about the Exorcist 3 as well, which we're doing on Friday. So can't wait for that. But Xena, I'm so glad to have you here. Thank you for being here since the beginning and for your support. You're a queen and I love you. Thank you. And finally, we have five from Ally. And Ally says, hi Sid, hope you had a wonderful birthday. Funny enough, one of my most anticipated games, Tamadachi Life, Living the Dream, came out on your birthday. It's kind of like Nintendo's version of The Sims, where you can create characters and have them live in your island. I'm planning on adding some of my friends and characters from shows, games, and movies I like, from Michael, Jason, Freddie, Chucky, Carrie, Megan, Gladys, and even Mrs. Carmody. I may add a certain horror mother in my island, points to you. That is a fucking honor, and I love that. Also, speaking of birthdays, I'm also an April girlie on Friday the 24th, so hearing that you're releasing an episode on that day feels like the ultimate birthday gift. Ali, happy birthday. Consider the Exorcist 3 episode for you. That is amazing. I hope you have the best day. Ali also says, and finally, have you heard the news about a potential longlegs sequel? I have mixed feelings about it since Longlegs is one of my favorite movies and thought it should just be a standalone, but I am curious on what's next. Maybe prequel or just him haunting Lee. I find it funny how both Longlegs and Gladys are getting another installment of some sort as the two of them are oddly similar. Two kooky old individuals terrorizing families with their dark magic. I never thought about that, but that is so true. A double feature with Longlegs and weapons sounds perfect. Honestly, I agree, it does. I don't know why I never considered that before, but that is so true. Yeah, I honestly am just really excited to see Nicolas Cage reprise that role again, because I think he's so fucking freaky. So kind of like Gladys, I'll watch anything that he's in. I'll watch anything where he plays that character and when Gladys is in a movie. I just love the two of them. Maybe they should meet up. Maybe they're soulmates. Maybe they would fall in love. But no, I'm super excited about that, even though yes, I think Longlegs should be a standalone, but I also think most movies should be a standalone. I rarely ever think a movie needs a sequel, but most all of them get them. So I'm not surprised by it, and I absolutely will be watching it. But Allie, happy birthday again. I hope you have the best day and the best year ever. Thank you for being here and for your support. And again, I hope you just have the best day. You're a queen. Love you. Thank you. Thank you to everybody who sits here and listens to me every week. I will continue doing this forever. On Friday, like I already said, we're gonna be talking about The Exorcist 3, and then next week we'll be finishing the month with The Omen 2 through 4, which that one is being recorded in advance. I'm literally gonna start recording it after I'm done finishing this. And so there will be no shout outs for that because I will be away. I will be in the UK getting killed by Winnie the Pooh, which I am very excited about. So if you guys like this episode and you haven't yet given me a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, wherever you're listening to me, it will be super helpful. Helps push me out to the algorithm and find other people to join our lovely little growing community we have here. So until next episode, you guys know where to find me. It's horror underscore Chronicles on TikTok and Instagram. I post every day so you can go keep up with me there. And until next time, watch more horror movies and stay spooky, my friends.