The First Omen(2024)
2024 · Arkasha Stevenson · 119 min
When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.
Horror
6.81.4k votes
TMDB score
4/5
Intensity
3/5
Gore
4/5
Stays with you
How The First Omen scares
There's a heavy, suffocating dread that builds slowly through most of the runtime, the kind that sits in your stomach rather than jolts you. Set in a convent in 1970s Rome, it leans hard into religious unease, body horror, and the feeling of losing control over your own body and mind. The scares are less about jump moments and more about slowly realizing something is deeply wrong, with a few intensely graphic, hard-to-watch scenes near the back half. It's a good pick if you want something that feels genuinely unsettling and thoughtful rather than a fun scream-fest, but it's not for the squeamish.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, The First Omen rates psychological 5/5, visceral 3/5, gore 3/5, lingering effect 4/5, and overall intensity 4/5.
- Psychological: 5 of 5
- Visceral: 3 of 5
- Gore: 3 of 5
- Lingering: 4 of 5
- Intensity: 4 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 25 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 15 of 100 — leans Supernatural
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 70 of 100 — leans Disturbing
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A slow, creeping unease that gradually tightens into a disturbing, intense back half with a punishing final stretch.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4.
How scary is The First Omen?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, The First Omen rates 4/5 — one of the more punishing watches in the catalog, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. The fear is mostly in your head — it unsettles far more than it assaults. Expect it to be moderately gory and genuinely disturbing. Expect it to stay with you for days.
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