“It wasn’t just ticking off a box…” Nell Tiger Free on The First Omen

We’re heading back to the world of the Omen nearly 50 years after the first movie was released with new prequel horror The First Omen.

Starring Servant’s Nell Tiger Free and directed by Legion’s Arkasha Stevenson, The First Omen follows a young American woman who is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church. However, she soon encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

We sat down with Nell Tiger Free to find out more about the new movie and to take a deep dive into the Omen franchise…

What can you tell us about The First Omen?

It’s the story of how we got to that first scene in the original movie. My character’s name is Margaret and she is a young American woman who moves to Rome to become a nun. She begins working at an orphanage and the glittery seduction of Rome and the beauty of this backdrop starts to take a more macabre, sinister turn and everything begins unraveling around her and she has to frantically try and keep the pieces together.

Did you get to shoot the movie in Rome?

Yeah we shot the whole thing in Rome, which was amazing. I’m very lucky. I shot another movie in Rome, and I loved it. It was such an amazing place to live and to work. I was 16 when I did the first film I shot in Rome and then coming back as a 23-year-old woman and experiencing it like that was very different 16-year-old Nell Rome! But it was a fantastic experience and it really aids the film. These insane events that are happening, set to these iconic Italian backdrops… It’s a special combo for sure.

Had you watched any of the Omen movies before getting the role?

I saw them when I was very young. I was a real freak. I used to sneak off and watch horror films in like 100 parts on YouTube. I loved it. My parents would always catch me watching some freaky film that I was not supposed to be watching!

I’ve seen The Omen many times actually and I revisited it just before I went out to shoot, and it really stands the test of time. It was still just as terrifying to me now as it was to me then.

What were your thoughts on entering the horror juggernaut that is the Omen franchise?

I was elated. I’m such a horror fan. It’s my favourite genre. It was always my favourite to watch and has consequently become my favourite to make. I’m very lucky, it’s like playing dress up as my favourite thing all the time!

For me, The Omen is such a titan of the horror world and it felt like if it was done well it was going to be amazing. Obviously, there’s a propensity for it to not be because when the film is so perfect, you almost don’t want to touch it, but I think this film works and it occupies the space that the original Omen left room for, which is the story of what came before.

When I read [the script], I breathed a sigh of relief. I was like, ‘oh, thank God, even if I’m not in it I’ll definitely want to see it because it’s really good!’.

The Omen movies have many iconic scenes and set pieces. Do you have a favourite?

The monkeys on the car still freaks me out to this day. It’s done so well. It sounds like it should be ridiculous, but it’s so uncomfortable to watch, which is fantastic. Then those final moments of the movie with Patrick Troughton as well, when he gets the spire through… I actually live really close to the church where they shot that, so The Omen is linked to my life in many ways!

Would you say there are any scenes in The First Omen that will join those ranks of iconic Omen scenes?

I hope so! There are a few that definitely have the potential to be in those spaces. It wouldn’t be an Omen movie without them. It wouldn’t be an Omen movie without the peculiar deaths. So we definitely have a few…

The Omen was released back in 1976. What do you think it is about these movies that keep us coming back for more?

I think we’re all just a bunch of weirdos! There’s so much morbid curiosity in it. We all love the macabre, we love the darkness, we can’t help it. The fascination with things that you’re not supposed to talk about and that you’re not supposed to see is intrinsically linked to being a human being

There’s something almost hedonistic about it. The taboo of it all. The possibility of having to kill a child in the middle of a church because he is the first coming of the devil.

That is such a preposterous thought and the fact that it was done in 1976 is incredible filmmaking and incredible storytelling. I think because the original story is so strong, people can’t help but be hungry for more. We’re a greedy species, the human race, and when we see something we like, we just want more of it. I’m guilty of that, too. I’m very happy that there’s a new Omen movie with or without me!

The first movie had a real sense of dread to it. What horror elements can we expect from The First Omen?

It was really important to Arkaha [Stevenson] and to everybody behind this film, that that exact sense was replicated, as much as one can with a different team behind the project.

That slow-moving dread, that crescendo of awfulness is done so beautifully in the original Omen and it was something that was really important that we carried on into this movie, too. If you go and see an Omen film, you don’t want it to be a bunch of ludicrous jump scares for no reason. You don’t want those elements because they don’t belong there. They don’t belong in that world. Hopefully this movie has done it in a tasteful way and has done it in a way that is separated by those set pieces of intense violence. They’re like bookmarks into something that’s much more sinister, which is what you can’t see.

What do you want audiences to be thinking and feeling after watching The First Omen?

I hope they feel like they’ve seen a truly decent horror film and that they feel how much we all loved the original movie while making this one. Everybody involved in this movie really wanted it to happen. It wasn’t just ticking off a box and making another sequel/prequel for the sake of it. Real love went into this film and so I hope that everybody is scared shitless and walks away happy that this was a new instalment of the film and not really pissed off about it!