The Omen

This was a horror film based on the end times prophecies that were circulating at the time in fundamentalist Christianity. Unlike the Left Behind series, this movie had no obvious evangelical intent and its reading of the prophecies was fairly superficial, using them as a flimsy premise to unleash another supernatural menace on the hapless world. The movie told of the childhood of "Damien Thorne," adopted by a wealthy family who were unaware that he was the offspring of Satan, and destined to become the Antichrist.

Like most such pictures, it spawned sequels whose implausibility grew with each Roman numeral:

• Damien: Omen II (1978)
• Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)
• Omen IV: The Awakening (1991).