The First Omen ending spoilers follow.
Hot on the heels of Immaculate, The First Omen delivers another slice of religious horror led by a fearless performance from Nell Tiger Free.
She plays Margaret, an American sent to work at a church in Rome where she reunites with Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy) who she met at the orphanage she grew up at. But the Cardinal is far from the holy man she thinks he is.
The Cardinal is part of a sinister conspiracy to bring about the birth of the Antichrist in order to create something for people to fear, therefore uniting the church and growing their followers.
And Margaret comes to realise she has a big part to play, leading to a reveal that both connects to The Omen and also changes what we thought we knew.
In order to delve into the big Damien reveal though, we need to go into some major spoilers, so look away now if you haven't seen The First Omen yet.
The First Omen ending explained
As in The Omen, it's Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) who is trying to stop the conspiracy, warning Margaret that one of the girls at the church, Carlita, is going to be used as the mother of the Antichrist.
He wants Margaret to bring him Carlita's file to confirm his suspicions as it's getting near to June 6. When Margaret finds Carlita's file though, she discovers that the girl is only one of a number of girls, all with the surname Scianna, with Carlita being the 14th.
A photo is missing for the fifth Scianna baby and when Margaret takes the files to Father Brennan, she discovers that she's actually the fifth Scianna baby. What's worse: Margaret is already pregnant with the Antichrist.
She has a flashback to the night she went out to the disco with her roommate Luz (Maria Caballero) shortly after her arrival at the church. Margaret couldn't remember much of the night, putting it down to alcohol, but it's revealed she was drugged and raped by a jackal.
The previous attempts to create the Antichrist by using a girl at the convent and a jackal only resulted in girls. Cardinal Lawrence and the others involved in the conspiracy then decided what they needed to do was use one of the Scianna offspring instead as the conduit for the Antichrist.
This revelation comes too late for Margaret to do anything as her waters soon break as it hits midnight on June 6. She's abducted by the Cardinal and the other priests, who all watch on as Margaret gives birth... to twins, a boy and a girl.
The Cardinal intends to kill Margaret and the girl, but Margaret breaks free and stabs the Cardinal. She can't bring herself to kill the baby boy though (where's Sydney Sweeney and a giant rock when you need one?), and Margaret is stabbed by Luz.
As the vault burns down, Margaret and the baby girl – as well as the jackal – are left to die. However, Carlita arrives in the nick of time to save the two of them, but they leave the jackal, aka Damien's father and grandfather, to burn to death.
We then see Father Spiletto given the baby boy with instructions to make sure he ends up with ambassador Robert Thorn (we see an archival photo of Gregory Peck from the first movie), tying The First Omen neatly into The Omen.
The First Omen then cuts to five years later when Father Brennan visits Margaret at her home, a remote cabin in the woods where she's living with her daughter and Carlita. He tells Margaret about her son and what they've named him which is, obviously, Damien.
This ending scene would take place just before Father Brennan goes to warn Robert in The Omen, which didn't end too well for either of them. The twin retcon is likely a way to establish a way forward for a sequel, although it would likely have to ignore the established sequels if it was to happen.
The First Omen also finally resolves the jackal mystery from The Omen where the corpse of a jackal was found in the grave of 'Maria Scianna', supposedly Damien's mother. It was speculated that Damien was born from a jackal, which is now only half-true.
That jackal was actually his father, the one who burned to death in the crypt, given that his mother (Margaret) is now established to still be living at the time of The Omen – and with Damien's previously-unknown twin sister.
Director Arkasha Stevenson – who also co-wrote the movie – told The Hollywood Reporter that she'd be keen to tell the story of what happens next after the twin revelation.
"While the big question of how Damien came into the world was answered, so many other questions popped up for me as an Omen fan," she explained. "So being able to explore this universe [some more], there's just so many different avenues you could take."
The First Omen is out now in cinemas.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
