Author’s Note

I’d never really sat down to study the Bible until I was searching for clues. I’d gotten a call from a Hollywood producer, after he’d seen the massively successful Exorcist, asking if I had a story about the Devil that he could bring to the screen. “Yes, Sir” I said confidently. But I didn’t.

I knew that, according to Theologians, The Holy Book was a treasure trove of hidden messages, filled with lessons about life, and metaphors that predicted future events. I was looking for a chapter on “How to Write a Successful Screenplay About the Devil.” Which, finally, I did. But not before filling my apartment with Bibles of every kind and description, from Old Testament to New King James, Middle English to Modern, Hebraic to Greek Orthodox - and, most importantly - stacks of scholarly, interpretive texts.

Ultimately coming to suspect that the treasure I was digging for would be found in the final chapter, The Book of Revelation. When God’s work would be undone by the Devil. The Apocalypse. Could there be an indication, in metaphor, of how that would happen, and when that would be?

“When the Israelites return to Zion?” The interpretive texts said this was a reference to the formation of the State of Israel. “When the Holy Roman Empire rises...? This was interpreted as the formation of the European Union. Is the Apocalypse about politics?

It was in The Old Testament, I found the key:

“The Beast will rise from The Eternal Sea.”

The “beast” refers to The Antichrist - the spawn of Satan. The “Eternal Sea,” interpreted to mean “the roiling broth of dissent and Revolution.” Politics! I got it! The Anti-Christ, son of the Devil, will be “born” into powerful political family - headed by a generous and kind Father (one like my favorite actor, Gregory Peck played in “To Kill A Mockingbird”) whose kindness would lead him to the disastrous mistake of being convinced, after his wife’s child died at birth, to pass off a Foundling, as their own.

Little did I know, I’d not only found the story, I’d already cast the damn thing. Gregory Peck, who played my favorite Father, Atticus Finch, in To Kill A Mockingbird, would come aboard to play Ambassador Thorn, who would secretly adopt Little Damien, giving this story its most powerful ingredient. An innocent villain.

As to when this would happen, I found that in the Bible too. At the start of the Book of Revelation: “Let him who hath wisdom, reckon the number of The Beast. It is a human number. Its number is 666.” All I had to do, was take those three numbers and turn them into a date, and time. June 6th at 6:00 AM. The moment little Damien was born.

Today, I see those three sixes printed on T-shirts, tattooed on biceps, featured in song lyrics, and scrawled on walls. Phone numbers and license plates randomly preassigned, with 666, are sent back for revision. So potent is the fear of these numbers, that Ronald Reagan, when he was President, had to change his triple-digit San Clemente California, address.

40 years after writing The Omen, I wonder if I was selected by the forces of Evil, to make the world aware that The Beast is omnipresent, in the land.

The book and movie end with little Damien at his parents’ funeral, having disposed of them, holding the hand of his next “Father,” the President of the United States.

We don’t have Theological Scholars to interpret Present Day events. But if they did, they might note the address of the building the President’s son-in-law owns. 666 Fifth Avenue?

Like the posters of the movie said:

“You Have Been Warned”