'The Omen' remake is horror by the numbers

Like the original horror film, the remake of "The Omen" is all about Arabic numeral 6's. Three in a row to be exact.

Some time ago, somewhere deep in the bowels of Hollywood's Inferno, some marketing-minded money-grabber noticed that today would be 06/06/06, or, excusing all the zeros, the biblical mark of the beast. Which explains why a perfectly fine 1976 chiller pops up as the latest megaplex remake on a Tuesday, a day when movies traditionally never open.

20th Century Fox 'The Omen' C+ The verdict: An often identical retread of the original, but with some fine supporting performances and ghoulish deaths. Director: John Moore Starring: Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick Run time: 110 minutes Release date: June 6, 2006 Rating: R for disturbing violent content, graphic images and some language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'The Omen'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

The new "The Omen" is mostly identical in story line to the original — a diplomat (the capable and cardboard-like Liev Schreiber) and his wife (the equally capable and cardboard-like Julia Stiles) end up with a newborn son, Damien, who may or may not be the Antichrist. We, of course, know he is, without really having to go through the anxiety his unlucky parents face.

The movie is so like its original — growling dogs, strange deaths, a priest howling warnings — one might suspect this "Omen" to be a predictable retread.

It isn't.

This remake, though often noticeably inferior to the original, especially in those rather staid performances by its lead actors, has three elements that make it watchable:

•  The film's unsettling deaths, to be grotesque about it, are fantastic. It's no secret that, just like in the original shocker, there's a hanging, an impalement and a decapitation. Each has been filmed in fine, shockingly excessive detail.

•  The supporting cast is ripe with remarkable character actors — Pete Postlethwaite, David Thewlis and Michael Gambon — who impeccably deliver their lines.

•  Two words: Mia Farrow. As the film's dark-side nanny, Mrs. Baylock, she's perfectly sweet on the outside and so sinister-sour within. For those who've seen Roman Polanski's 1968 horror landmark, "Rosemary's Baby," there's also a side bonus — Farrow looks eerily young, the spitting image of the innocent she played in that film who was tricked by devil worshippers into becoming the mother of, well, the Antichrist.

These positives counterbalance much of "Omen's" faults, which are plentiful.

Past the hour mark, the film does begin to feel long. Director John Moore has also added more boo-scare images than were pumped into the 2000 remix of "The Exorcist." Remember how intrusive and ineffective those visions were in Linda Blair's film? In this "Omen," Moore could have achieved the same limp effect by tossing a black cat past his camera.

More alarming, the film's opening has been pumped up with various worldwide "signs" of the pending apocalypse.

At least one is momentarily upsetting and possibly offensive. As a Vatican priest talks of the book of Revelation and quotes the passage "mountains of fire came down," his proof that the apocalypse is at hand is footage of 2001's World Trade Center collapse.

There's also a problem with Damien, who during the course of the film is played by six different kids (four of them newborns). The last Damien is young actor Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick. He lowers his head, hardens his face and glares.

Big woo. The movie's dogs do a better job of looking sinister.