“The First Omen”'s Surprise Ending Explained: How It Connects to the Original 1976 Horror Classic

The Nell Tiger Free-led ‘First Omen’ dovetails with the events of the original ‘Omen,’ as director Arakasha Stevenson has revealed

With The First Omen scaring its way into theaters, audiences may be wondering about the film that launched such a devilish horror franchise: 1976’s The Omen.

Spoilers follow: The First Omen, led by Servant star Nell Tiger Free, is the sixth film in the franchise but serves as a prequel to all installments. Its final scenes connect the plot directly to the 1976 original starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Spencer Stephens.

Arkasha Stevenson, making her feature directorial debut with The First Omen, tells PEOPLE that the filmmakers wanted to “earn our place in the franchise and have a conversation with the 1976 version.” Her script, co-written by Tim Smith and Keith Thomas, “seamlessly dovetailed into the story of The Omen that I knew, but gave us a lot of ground to play with.”

Related: The First Omen Star Nell Tiger Free Says Her Dad 'Nearly' Fainted Seeing Her Horror Movie (Exclusive)

The Richard Donner-directed original film’s story of a “creepy kid” who turns out to be a prophesied Antichrist was “such sacred ground,” she says. 

The Omen follows a couple in London, American Ambassador to the U.K. Robert Thorn (played by Peck) and his wife Kathy (Remick), whose 5-year-old son Damien (Stephens) begins behaving strangely. After various animals menace the family and several disturbing deaths occur in his presence, they learn he was conceived as a manifestation of the Antichrist — a nonhuman terror designed to wreak havoc.

Father Brennan, played in the original film by Patrick Troughton, attempts to warn Damien’s parents about his origins: on June 6, their child died and chaplain Father Spiletto (Martin Benson) convinced Robert to swap in the infant demon without informing Kathy.

The First Omen serves as an origin story for Damien, following his birth mother — spoiler alert! — novitiate Margaret Daino (Free). In addition, Ralph Ineson plays Father Brennan at the beginning of his mission to unearth what turns out to be a conspiratorial faction of the church dedicated to birthing the Antichrist. Their goal is to bring about a supernatural evil that would enable the church to maintain an influence on the increasingly secular world of the 1970s.

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1976’s The Omen, Stevenson says, was “speaking to very specific cultural fears and anxieties of the time. It was really important for us to do that with The First Omen. And I think this very much is speaking to a lot of communal fears about what's going on with the female body right now and body autonomy.”

She continues, “The big question you have coming out of The Omen is, where did Damien come from? So it's inherently a story about birth and possibly forced reproduction.”

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Margaret learns of the conspiracy not long before realizing she is in fact one of the children of the demonic jackal, forcibly conceived as a potential mother for the Antichrist — oh, and that she is suddenly pregnant just before the prophetic June 6. It was the nuns and cardinal she trusted at her Roman orphanage who facilitated her sexual assault at the hands of the animalistic entity. 

After birthing what turns out to be twins, a boy and a girl, the orphanage Abbess (Sônia Braga) orders her followers to burn down the building with Margaret and her new daughter in it. They can be seen bringing her son — Damien, who Margaret didn’t have the heart to kill — to Washington D.C. and handing him to the family they’ve coerced into adopting him. (Peck’s image can be glimpsed on a file that indicates the nuns had planned for Robert to be their target.)

But in The First Omen's final surprising twist, Margaret and her daughter survive the fire. Five years later, Father Brennan tracks them down, revealing their quiet life with their savior Carlita Skianna (Nicole Sorace), another of the church’s planned offspring and potential mothers of the Antichrist.

Considering the catastrophic events of the original Omen conclude with Damien smiling fiendishly — into the camera! — at the funeral of his adoptive parents alongside the U.S. President and First Lady, the evil church faction has achieved their sinister goals.

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But could Margaret, her daughter and Carlita thwart the Antichrist in further additions to the Omen universe? Could The First Omen spawn its own sequels? 

As Stevenson tells PEOPLE, “You are dealing with heaven and hell and man's relationship to it, so you could explore that for eternity… I'd love to continue going on.”

The First Omen is in theaters now.

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