Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Experience the ultimate in horror with four frightening films from the legendary “Omen” series. This set includes “The Omen” that started it all, plus “Damien – The Omen II”, in which Damien discovers his destiny, “Omen III: The Final Conflict”, in which he realizes his full power, and the recent remake of the original “The Omen: 666”.

Richard Donner began this great series of horror that turned into one of the better horror trilogies of its time. The original trilogy still stands up well today and anyone who loves religious horror tones should definitely give this one a look. I wasn’t that big of a fan of the recent remake, which is nearly a shot for shot update to Donner’s original vision, but it somehow missed the soul and creepiness of the original.

The first three films are largely the same in terms of video quality. Fox has done a great job with these restorations and I was impressed with the detail and depth these transfers offered. There are some moments when focus issues creep in, but they were hardly distracting. Fine detail in close ups was far better than I was expecting. Colors can be a tad washed out and show their age a bit but considering the age of the films I’d say these HD presentations defied my expectations. The more recent adaptation of the first film is identical to the previous BD release and sports an outstanding HD presentation with great detail, depth and dimension. Contrast is exceptional and fine object detail is first rate.

All of the films feature full 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mixes. The first three films sound a bit dated but fidelity overall improves a bit from film to film. Most of the mixes are a bit front heavy and thin at times but the front soundstage does have a pretty open feel for the most part. Dialogue sounds slightly bright at times but the balance within the mix is good. The new film is an obvious step up but I would expect that.

Extras revolve mainly around the original film which includes multiple audio commentaries along with an introduction from the director and several retrospectives on the film’s history, production and influence. The other films all get feature commentaries along with the theatrical trailers.

It is great to see this classic horror trilogy come to Blu-ray and right in time for Halloween. Fox has done a tremendous job with the video presentations, which are a clear step up from the DVD transfers I’ve seen before. While I wasn’t that big of a fan of the remake, I would definitely recommend this set for fans of the originals.