31 Days of Horror: Day 11 Movie: The Omen (1978)

31 Days of Horror: Day 11 Movie: The Omen (1976)

Every year we have a tradition in the Forto house where we celebrate the greatest month of the year, October, with scare your socks off, hide under the covers, turn on all the lights, sleep with one eye open, fright fest, movie marathon every night of the month! We call it 31 Days of Horror.

 

31 Days of Horror: The Omen

 

Day 11 Movie: The Omen (1976)

I saw this movie when I was a little kid (I guess that tells you everything you need to know about my childhood). In fact what is bizarre, my friends and I used to play “Damien”. I didn’t have a Rottie attack dog like in the movie. My dog was a mutt, about 15 pounds and named Sugar. We would even act as characters from the music group KISS. I always wanted to be Gene of course. My friend had and RV and we used to use it as our make-believe tour bus. We were all too young to have girlfriends, so we didn’t have any groupies. Things were different in the 1970’s weren’t they? We didn’t have a lot of money, we shopped at Sears where my grand-aunt, or whatever she was, worked and a pair of toughskins pants lasted for the entire year. We didn’t cut our hair and every red-blooded-American male was in love with Marcia Brady!

 

 

Gene Simmons of KISS

 

 

"Marcia Brady"

 

Things were different in the movies too. It seems to me back then the horror gene flourished and the movies actually had plots, unlike todays “fake” hauntings and slasher flicks.

The Omen, directed by Richard Donner, soon to be known for Superman (1978) and later for X-Men and Superman Returns among other blockbusters, told the story of a demented little kid named Damien who is said to be the Devil himself!

That is one scary little kid!

A couple pieces of trivia about the film:

After the movie was released there was a surge in Rottweilers’ popularity.

When the fishbowl falls to the ground, (dead) sardines painted orange were used in place of actual goldfish, which director Richard Donner, refused to kill for the sake of making a movie.

More than twice the film’s original $2.8 million budget was spent on the film’s advertising and promotion.

A stunt double was badly injured while filming the dog attack scene despite being properly prepared for the stunt.

What is your favorite scary an/or Halloween movie? I would love to hear from you!

Day 1 Movie: Trick ‘r Treat

Day 2 Movie: The Exorcist

Day 3 Movie: Nosferatu

Day 4 Movie: White Zombie

Day 5 Movie: The Serpent and the Rainbow

Day 6 Movie: Creepshow 2

Day 7 Movie: The House of 1000 Corpses

Day 8 Movie: The Blob

Day 9 Movie: The Devils Rejects

Day 10 Movie: The Shinning

Day 11 Movie: The Omen

Robert Forto | Team Ineka | Alaska Dog Works | Mushing Radio | Dog Doctor Radio | Denver Dog Works

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Dr. Robert Forto is a musher training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner and the host of the popular radio shows, Mush! You Huskies and The Dog Doctor Radio Show