After I finished writing my review of Lavalantula, it was time to bitch about my sprained foot to anyone who would listen.  After that, it was time to have dinner and then it was time to lay on the couch and try to get some rest and finally, after all that, I got back to the task of cleaning out my DVR.  The film that I ended up watching was Ominous, a SyFy film which was originally broadcast on October 10th.

Ominous opens with recovering alcoholic Michael Young (played by Barry Watson) putting his car into reverse and promptly running over his six year-old son, Jacob (Gavin Lewis).  Michael and his wife, Rachel (Esme Bianco), rush Jacob to the hospital but it’s too late.  Jacob dies.  Later, as they’re driving back from the funeral, Rachel demands to know if Michael was drunk when he ran over Jacob.  Michael says that he wasn’t drinking and that it was just an accident and then, as if to prove that he really is the worst driver in the world, Michael promptly runs over a dog.

When they arrive home, a man is waiting for them.  Known only as The Stranger (and played, in properly sinister style, by Mark Lindsay Chapman), the man says that he can bring Jacob back to life.  All Michael and Rachel have to do is dig up their son and bring his body back to the house.  And then, to prove his point, the Stranger brings the dog back to life.

So, of course, Michael and Rachel go out to the cemetery and dig up Jacob.  They bring him back to the house.  The next morning, Jacob is suddenly alive.  Yay!  Of course, Jacob promptly re-kills the dog, which is our first clue that Jacob is not quite himself.

We then jump forward a few months.  The Youngs have moved to a new town and appear to be living as normal a life as you can when your six year-old son is demon-possessed hellspawn. (Actually, he’s the Antichrist and don’t even pretend like that was a spoiler.)  Michael fears his son, especially after Jacob has a seizure in church and causes a priest to burst into flames.  Rachel continues to make excuses for her son, even when he does stuff like summon a sudden dust storm that manages to kill everyone on a playground.

There’s a scene early on in the film in which Jacob asks his mother if they can get a cat.

“I don’t think so,” Rachel replies, “Daddy’s allergic.”

“What about when Daddy’s dead?” Jacob cheerfully  asks.

That scene pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Ominous.  This is an unapologetically over-the-top demon child film, one that doesn’t make much sense but which is never boring.  It’s easy to recognize which films are being ripped off — The Omen, The Visitor, The Birds — but the film is so shameless in its thievery that it’s easy to be forgiving.  Is Ominous a rip-off or an homage?  How about both?

Barry Watson actually does a pretty good job as a recovering alcoholic and his performance is reminiscent of some of Patrick Muldoon’s better work.  Mark Lindsay Chapman is properly intimidating as the Stranger.  Full of gore, melodrama, metaphysical posturing, and children with creepy demon eyes, Ominous is more entertaining than you might expect.