Flash forward a few years and all seems well. The happy family moves from Italy to England in order for Robert to be the American ambassador to England. So they're ridiculously rich and live in the middle of nowhere....
Flash forward two more years and little Damien is 5. It's his birthday and he's having a huge party all for him. He has a nanny who within minutes after looking into the eyes of a random Rottweiler on the property hangs herself from the top story of the house in front of everyone. And thus it begins....
I'd heard the director wanted it written vague enough to make it seem like the mother could be hallucinating it all. I kind of like that route. The whole time I'm watching it I'm thinking it's all the crazy fundamentalist adults who are blaming this poor little kid into being the AntiChrist.
The music is haunting. I loved the monk chorus. It was very haunting. The way the journalist dies was pretty crazy and spooky.
Overall I can see why it's a horror classic going along with pagan- like scares of the 60s and 70s with Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist.
I watched this for the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril challenge hosted by Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings.
I remember this movie scaring the Bejesus out of me when I was a kid, and think it deserves its rank in the top 100. That scene with the nanny hanging herself is one of the most chilling in cinema, imho. I even watched the remake of this movie about ten years(?) ago, and it wasn't that bad either, but not in the class of the first one.
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