MONSTRUM v9 n1 (June 2026)

A PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL OF STUDIES IN HORROR AND RELATED AREAS

vol. 9, no. 1, June 2026 | ISSN 2561-5629

The Omen @ 50: Reflections on a Horror Franchise
Edited by Simon Brown

Editor-in-Chief: Kristopher Woofter
Associate Editors: Lynn Kozak, Alanna Thain, Mike Thorn
Assistant Editor: Sid Fiore Branca | Reviews Editor: Anne Golden

OVERVIEW

Welcome to Monstrum 9, Issue 1, a special issue celebrating 50 years of Richard Donner's 1976 classic horror film The Omen, along with the franchise and cultural legacy it spawned. Guest-edited by horror scholar Simon Brown, this issue (published fifty years from the month of the film's release) presents seven feature essays on a film series known as much for its chilling choral and symphonic score as for its stunning scenarios of spectacle horror and dread.

The issue covers the Omen franchise from a broad range of perspectives. Feature essays focus on the transmedial legacy of the films from music (Angelini and Leman Riley) to novels and novelizations (Brown), religious despair and resistance (Hansen), failed moral purpose (Phillips), women's roles and motherhood (Foletto Lucas), the 2006 remake (Mee), and the transatlantic tensions arising in the film's ties to British cultural and aesthetic traditions (Melia). The issue concludes with a critical review of the most recent film in the Omen franchise, 2024's The First Omen.

— Kristopher Woofter

Contributors: Sergio Angelini, Simon Brown, Bruna Foletto Lucas, Regina Hansen, Lynn Kozak, Laura Mee, Matthew Melia, Kendall Phillips, John Leman Riley, Alanna Thain, Kristopher Woofter

Acknowledgments: Monstrum would like to thank our editorial board, as well as our collaborators, contributors and peer reviewers. Special thanks to Ildikó Glaser-Hille, Felicia Solomon, the Dawson College Office of Academic Development, and the Collective for Research on Epistemologies and Ontologies of Embodied Risk (CORÉRISC).

Cover design and illustration by Dayna McLeod
(https://daynarama.com/)

Monstrum is published by the Montréal Monstrum Society (MMS). We are grateful for the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). | Monstrum est reconnaissant du généreux soutien du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada (CRSH).

FEATURE ESSAYS

Click the titles for a full-text PDF.

INTRODUCTION: The Omen @ 50
SIMON BROWN

“The beast has no Brother”: Evil and Resistance in the Omen Franchise
REGINA HANSEN