The First Omen has made headlines for a number of reasons, chief among them being the “gnarly violence” of that “gruesome birth scene.” We are, after all, talking about the birth of the antichrist, so it’s not quite the miracle of life that we usually associate with bringing a child into the world. This scene almost earned the film an NC-17 rating, but to be honest, I didn’t give it much thought. I was distracted by something else, something that most critics and audience members seemed to be missing on the first run: a close-up, highly-emphasized shot of an erect demon penis.
After screening The First Omen, I brought this shot up to my fellow journalists, who seemed to have no idea what I was referring to. Did I make it up? Have I gone mad? Is it possible that my mind simply fabricated a 20 foot demon penis in the chaos that was The First Omen’s disturbing imagery, and if so, what does that say about me? Well, I worked up the courage to ask the film’s director, Arkasha Stevenson, if I was in fact seeing things, and it turns out she had been waiting for somebody to bring it up:
Actually, you might be the only person who's ever seen it. It's so funny because we went back and forth with the ratings board on the birthing clinic scene for the one shot of the female anatomy, yet we have this jackal phallus that’s… yeah. It's there… I think it's silicone. Everybody was fascinated with it.
Jack phallus, demon penis, hell beast junk… whatever you want to call it, I’m simply relieved that the cast and crew shared in my fascination. I mean, if there’s a demon penis on set, of course everyone working on the film is going to be curious about it… right?
Before you accuse me of being immature, consider the idea that the mere existence of such a prop means that extensive conversations must be had behind the scenes regarding its look, feel, duration of presence, and of course, its size. So maybe it’s just the film buff in me that was eager for Stevenson to extrapolate:
Do you put texture on it? Do you ooze them up? You're shooting every single variation of a jackal phallus that you could ever imagine because you don't know what's going to be able to stay in the cut. It's kind of like in Fight Club, you know, it's just like this subliminal flash so I think we were able to go all the way with it. I've been wanting to talk about it for a very long time.
Movie magic; am I right? This question really couldn’t have gone better, as Arkasha Stevenson seemed eternally grateful that somebody finally brought it up. She even jokingly presented me with an award toward the end of our interview, with the bit of course being that said award is shaped like a jackal phallus. If you’d like to see me speak to a woman I’ve never met about demon anatomy, please do take a look at the video at the top of this article.
Of course, I don’t want to boil The First Omen’s cinematic contributions down to demon D and hellish nativity, as horror fans that have screened the film are stoked on its originality, style and awards-worthy performance from Nell Tiger Free. Our own Eric Eisenberg comments on its “excellent scares,” and Stevenson is already tossing around ideas for a possible sequel. While blockbusters are dominating the box office right now, this one could see the effect of word of mouth in due time.
You can see The First Omen, in all of its phallic glory, in theaters right now! With all of the scary movies coming our way in 2024, this is shaping up to be a good year for horror, and there’s plenty more exciting projects in general coming up on this year’s movie release schedule.
