When it first launched, the Disney+ movie catalog included a strange assortment of titles. There were all of the animated classics, as well as plenty of Star Wars and Marvel content, but unlike streamers like Netflix and Max, the assortment of titles didn’t seem to be quite as random, or really offer something for everyone.
Thankfully, in the years since, the streamer has diversified the kinds of titles available thanks to its Hulu integration, and now, you can catch all kinds of genres on the streamer. If you’re looking for one movie to watch this October, though, you should watch The First Omen. This horror prequel is the perfect Halloween pick, and it will also leave you riveted. Here are three reasons you should check it out.
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It’s the best kind of prequel
The First Omen is ostensibly a prequel to The Omen, and it does check many of the boxes of a typical prequel. If you’re watching the movie and have never seen The Omen, though, you don’t really lose much.
The film tells the story of a young nun who begins to question her faith after discovering a sinister conspiracy buried inside the Catholic church that involves giving birth to the antichrist to bring people back to religion. That horrific premise, and the movie’s general cynicism about religion, gives the movie weight that has nothing to do with its status as a prequel.
It features a revelatory performance from Nell Tiger Free
The entire cast of The First Omen is excellent, but Nell Tiger Free is in a class by herself in the central role. As Margaret, the nun uncovering this conspiracy, she manages to create a character who feels real, and who uncovers genuinely startling revelations about the world she believed she was inhabiting.
It can be difficult to play a good person, but Free manages to do exactly that, creating a compelling heroine who wants nothing more than to do what is right, and is finding herself stymied by the very organization she believed in more than anything else.
It’s terrifying without leaning in to horror conventions
Directing an effective horror movie can be done in dozens of different ways, but the hardest task for every horror movie is to do something that feels not just scary but genuinely unsettling. Director Arkasha Stevenson manages to do exactly that, chronicling Margaret as she uncovers dark forces and realizes that the young girls who have been convinced of their own evil are being manipulated by those around them.
There is plenty of horrific, supernatural stuff at work in The First Omen, but some of the film’s darkest and most upsetting moments come when Margaret discovers what the people around her are willing to do.
The First Omen is streaming on Disney+ via the Hulu bundle.