This article contains multitudes ofThe First OmenandImmaculatespoilers.
One cannot envy the strange limbo Arkasha StevensonsThe First Omenfinds itself in this weekend.
Not sinceRosemarys Babyhave we had such fascinating, and chilling, pro-choice horror films.
The influence ofRosemarys Babyon both movies is undeniable.
Rosemary, meanwhile, is saddled with a demonic child she didnt want but is forced to raise.
The one who wrote the majority opinion evenquoted a 17th century English judgewho hanged women for witchcraft.
The worlds obviously changed a lot between 1973 and 2022, or for that matter between 1968 and 2024.
In fact, she ironically is a devout Catholic with every intention of becoming a nun.
The metaphor is not subtle nor should it really need to be.
doctor (Michael Fassbender) attempts to drug her so shell carry the beastie to term.
Its the most disturbing and electrifying scene in the movie.
wants to force Rapaces archaeologist into alien motherhood because he thinks he is entitled to seeing the offsprings birth.
He does it because he can, with the proverbial mothers fate not even registering as an afterthought.
The idea of the woman making her own choices breaks his disintegrating mind.
Which makes these movies the most forcefully pro-choice horror films perhaps ever.
In both films, it is not Satanists but members of the Catholic Church clergy doing the Devils work.
It is not entirely a patriarchy in either film though.
Both movies seem to comment on how religion is used to control women if theyll let it.
At the end ofThe First Omen, the beats ofRosemarys Babyare played almost verbatim.
It is repeated among the zealots that its important for a mother to bond with a newborn.
So they hand the baby over.
I only hear my own.
It is then she cuts through the priests windpipe and comes close to doing the same to little Damien.
This is also whyImmaculatehas the better, and some might say more disturbing, ending.
The camera never cuts.
We just sit with Cecilia as she makes up her mind.
And she picks up a rock and smashes the unseen child into what is surely a red smear.
Cecilia, like Margaret, is not beholden to many male writers idea of maternal instincts.
They make choices for themselves.
After all,Immaculatestarted using the quote in their marketing.
And we expect they wont be the last horror films to find new ways of spreading the good word.
