The 'devil was at work' on 1976's The Omen — from cursed lightning strikes to horror car crash
In retrospect, The Omen never should have been made, according to developers of the classic film. It joined a list of films that are filled with eerie curses on the cast and crew
In 1976, The Omen stunned horror movie lovers as it joined the ranks of some iconic scary watches, but it also left the cast and crew shaken to their core.
The movie was directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. The plot follows events that transpire after a child dies shortly after birth. The baby's father secretly replaces the kid with another. However, as the new child grows up, the family become surrounded by strange happenings and death. It is soon revealed that their replacement son is actually the Antichrist himself.
An immediate misstep was made by The Omen's team as they seemed to make their own curse. Its original release, in the United Kingdom, occurred on June 6, 1976 before later being released in the United States. However, the peril lies in the date itself — 6/6/1976. The prevalent "666" within the date has ties to the occult and is largely associated with Satan.
It was cursed before it even began. Bob Munger, who concocted the idea, warned that making The Omen would come with terror. According to The Herald, He said, "I warned Harvey at the time. I said, 'If you make this movie you're going to have some problems. If the devil's greatest single weapon is to be invisible and you're going to do something which is going to take away his invisibility to millions of people, he's not going to want that to happen'."
The first true hint that something demonic would haunt the movie was when the lead actor, Gregory Peck, was struck with tragedy just two months before filming when his son shot himself.
A curse seemed to wash over the cast and crew of the movie. Perhaps the most obvious was the redundant lightning strikes that various individuals experienced. Lightning storms are often associated with the paranormal and demonic energy. Lead actor Gregory Peck, producer Mace Neufeld, and screenwriter David Seltzer all had their planes struck by lightning after the movie, a statistical unlikelihood.
In a separate incident, special effects designer John Richardson was involved in a car crash. His assistant was decapitated while the artist lived. However, yet again, the 666 numbers popped back up with even more of an eerie connection. The car accident occurred 66.6 kilometers from a town called Ommen in the Netherlands. Even more unsettling was the date of the crash: Friday the 13th, 1976.
Producer Harvey Bernhard concluded that the movie was never meant to be. He began to wear a cross on the set and, according to The Herald, he said, "I wasn't about to take any chances. The devil was at work and he didn't want that film made. We were dealing in areas we didn't know about and later on in the picture it got worse, worse and worse."