When David Seltzer’s novelization of THE OMEN was released 30 years ago to coincide with the now-classic Satanic shocker starring the great Gregory Peck, it sold more than two million copies. Today, that’s unheard of for a novelization. But now that the film’s remake has thankfully put Seltzer’s book back into print, it’s easy to see why it did so well.

Although he’s adapting his own screenplay, Seltzer’s novelization really feels like an actual novel, and not merely a quick-buck, copy-and-paste gig. It sticks very close to the film, but to his credit, he’s not above changing certain scenes in order to amp up the horror. For instance, the baboon attack from the film instead becomes a pen of crazed monkeys at the zoo. To me, it’s far more disturbing to imagine monkeys hanging themselves and smashing their bodies into pulp against the stone walls as the demonic child laughs.

For the very few who don’t know the plot, THE OMEN is about a politician and his wife who finally have a baby after years of miscarriages and dashed dreams. They name him Damien, a moniker forever ruined for real-life parents because as it turns out, he’s not really their child, but the result of a coupling between Satan and a jackal. Oops! Dear Dad conceals the deception from his mentally unstable wife, even with all the horrific acts – suicides, impalings, what-have-you – unfolding around them.

As you’d expect a screenwriter to know how to do, Seltzer keeps the proceedings moving at a quick clip, making THE OMEN one speedy read, and he’s able to get into angles that aren’t easy to explain on film, like the astronomical anomaly that sets the events in motion. It holds up remarkably well, even if you already know everything that happens. –Rod Lott

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