The Omen (1976) is a supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer, starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw and Harvey Stephens. Peck plays American diplomat Robert Thorn, whose newborn son dies shortly after birth in Rome. Without telling his wife Katherine, he agrees to secretly replace the child with another baby whose mother supposedly died during childbirth. Five years later, after Thorn has become United States ambassador to Britain, a series of violent and increasingly inexplicable events begins to surround the boy, Damien. Thorn’s attempts to discover the truth gradually lead him towards the horrifying possibility that his adopted son is the Antichrist. The film became one of the defining horror films of the 1970s, helped enormously by Donner’s restrained direction and Jerry Goldsmith’s ominous choral score, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
The Omen (1976) was filmed primarily in England, particularly London and Surrey, with additional location work in Rome and Jerusalem and extensive studio filming at Shepperton Studios. Rome is used at the beginning of the story, with Piazza Mincio and its distinctive Fontana delle Rane appearing as Thorn arrives at his Roman residence after secretly adopting Damien. Once the family moves to Britain, the real United States Embassy on Grosvenor Square became Thorn’s workplace, while Pyrford Court near Woking in Surrey provided the imposing country home where much of the family drama unfolds. Parliament Hill Fields is seen during a family outing, and Guildford Cathedral provides one of the film’s most memorable early warnings of Damien’s true nature, as he becomes hysterical when Katherine attempts to take him into the church. The equally unsettling safari sequence, in which baboons attack the family’s car, was filmed at Windsor Safari Park, now the site of Legoland Windsor. Father Brennan meets Thorn beside the Thames in Bishops Park in Fulham before fleeing to nearby All Saints Church, where he is killed when a lightning conductor falls from the roof and impales him. Katherine’s hospital scenes were filmed at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, including the shocking moment when Mrs Baylock throws her from an upper-floor window. When Thorn and photographer Keith Jennings travel to Italy to investigate Damien’s birth, the exterior of Father Spiletto’s monastery was filmed near Rome, while its atmospheric interior was actually St Mary-at-Lambeth in London, now home to the Garden Museum. The ancient cemetery where Thorn discovers that Damien’s mother was a jackal was an elaborate set constructed at Shepperton Studios rather than the real cemetery the story places near Cerveteri. Thorn and Jennings later travel to Jerusalem to meet archaeologist Carl Bugenhagen, who gives Thorn the Daggers of Megiddo. For the climax, St Peter’s Church in Staines-upon-Thames became the church where Thorn desperately attempts to kill Damien, while the film’s chilling final funeral scene was shot among the military graves of Brookwood American Cemetery in Surrey, ending on Damien turning towards the camera with his famous smile.
All Saints Church, Fulham
All Saints Church, Fulham, is best known on screen from The Omen. It is one of the key Fulham locations used in the film, together with nearby Bishops Park.
Bishops Park
Bishops Park is best known to film fans from The Omen. The film uses several London and Surrey locations, and the Fulham section is one of its most memorable.
Guildford Cathedral
Guildford Cathedral is best known as a filming location from The Omen. The cathedral has also appeared in productions such as The Sandman and The Witcher.
Piazza Mincio
Piazza Mincio and the buildings directly facing it have appeared in The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), The Omen (1976), Inferno (1980) and many other movies.