As /Film’s Chris Evangelista has noted, “The Omen” was part of the late ’60s-’70s wave of Christian-themed horror films. The trend began in literature; one place to pin the kick-off point is Ray Russell’s 1962 novel “The Case Against Satan.” Then it spread to film, especially since novels like Ira Levin’s “Rosemary’s Baby” and William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist” swiftly became movies. (Insidiously, one can see how these movies spurred the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, but that’s a topic for another time.)
“The Omen,” which was not based on a book, was a trend follower. Directed by Richard Donner, the movie stars Gregory Peck as diplomat Robert Thorn. After his son is seemingly stillborn, Robert adopts an orphan, passing him off to his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), as their own biological son, Damien. As Damien (Harvey Spencer Stephens) grows up, strange things happen around him. His nanny dies by suicide, he freaks out on hallowed ground, and a priest named Brennan (Patrick Troughton) tries to convince Thorn that his son is evil. It’s gradually revealed that Damien is the Antichrist, born through an evil cult and placed with the Thorns so he will grow up near power; the story of Damien’s birth was told firsthand almost 50 years later in the immaculate prequel film, “The First Omen.”
At the end, the Thorns are dead, and Damien is adopted by the ambassador’s old college buddy: the President of the United States. The movie concludes with Damien smiling at the camera, his mischievous eyes concealing greater evil.
The similarities between Selim and Damien are obvious. (Can you say “Ave Homunculi”?) They even look similar; they’re short and wear boys’ suits. Selim, too, is the son of the Devil. (Father may resemble the Christian God, but he’s the root of all evil in Amestris and lives in a realm beneath Central City, evoking the common conflation of Hell and the underworld.) He’s been placed in disguise as the child of a politically powerful family, or a spot perfect to exert his influence; this time, the evil child’s stepfather is in on the plot.
Another difference is that while Damien in the original “Omen” does only have the intelligence of a human child, Selim is wearing a mask. He pretends to behave like a kid, but around people who know his true identity, he speaks like the centuries-old being that he is. He’s completely aware of what he’s doing and, unlike Damien, who unconsciously causes evil, Selim knowingly kills people when they threaten his Father’s plans.
But there is a deeper reason that Arakawa makes a character representing Pride have the body of a child. In “Fullmetal Alchemist,” Pride is a childish quality meant to be grown out of.
