One devil of a difficult child

Typical. You wait all year for a film about the Good Book and cowl-wearing evil-doers ensconced in the shadowy palaces of old Europe and then two come along at once.

True, the people behind this stately, picturesque remake of the 1976 horror classic probably would have preferred a bit of space between their product and The Da Vinci Code, but going for that uncanny release date (6-6-6) has forced their hand. The omens were just too good to ignore.

The Omen, by contrast, is easily shrugged off. The original script (by David Seltzer) has been treated with too much reverence. The plot - well connected diplomat and his wife get tricked into raising Satan's sprog - was always half-baked. Nothing much has changed.

Newly relocated from Rome to London, frowning Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) is persuaded by a demented priest that all is not right with his five-year-old son who has matricidal tendencies. So he leaves his paralysed wife, Katherine (Julia Stiles), to go halfway round the world with a journalist (David Thewlis).

The quest drags from the word go (Thewlis, forced to widen his eyes every other minute, looks miserable). Meanwhile, the few attempts to update the material miss by miles. Thorn, trying to make sense of the bible prophecy, decides that it contains a reference to the European Union. Of course!

The film works best when it sticks to the domestic details, whether the home-movie footage of Damien's early years, or the growing gulf between he and Katherine with the arrival of "super nanny" Mia Farrow. But this genuinely unsettling portrait of modern family life is overwhelmed by cheap-looking (but no doubt expensive) special effects and a just plain stupid finale.

The Omen
Cert: 15