[ad_1]
In the second half of the 20th century, the idea of satanism began to take hold as a threat to Americans, laying the groundwork for the infamous Satanic Panic of the ’80s.
Such talk of satanism increasingly terrified those who are easily terrified, with reports of satanic worshipping, hellish cults, and murders linked to their activities. Of course, it didn’t help that the Tate-LaBianca murders, 1973’s “The Exorcist” and 1968’s “Rosemary’s Baby” all seemed to bleed together in the minds of some, in discomforting ways conflating fact and fiction, murder, art, pregnancies, satan and cults.
When Roman Polanski (who would marry Sharon Tate in 1968, a year before her murder) released “Rosemary’s Baby,” it was a huge hit. The film starred Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as a young couple living in an upscale apartment in New York City. Featuring many cryptic, horrific moments that ultimately lead to Rosemary becoming impregnated with the son of Satan, decades later it still remains a discomforting watch.
In 1976, Richard Donner’s “The Omen” was dropped into the middle of this moment, with groundwork already laid for many of its terrifying themes. Following Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as they experience a deceptive childbirth that might just lead to them possessing the son of Satan, the theme was unmistakably similar to “Rosemary’s Baby,” even if the latter didn’t follow the child coming of age. Both films essentially tell the same story, ending on the same ominous idea: The antichrist has been born, and the world is about to be plunged into darkness.
[ad_2]
Source link