By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit that they deserve. In this installment: producer Harvey Bernhard, the guiding force behind the smash hit Omen Trilogy.
In our column on Unsung Auteur Paul Dehn, we discussed the concept of auteurism when it comes to film series. Though certainly not as clearly delineated as, say, George Lucas with the original Star Wars films, Albert R. Broccoli with much of the James Bond output, or Peter Jackson with The Lord Of The Rings, we posited that Paul Dehn was, indeed, the ersatz auteur behind the bulk of the first Planet Of The Apes movies. While some series genuinely don’t appear to have a single, guiding voice (like, say, the Alien films), one driving force can usually be identified, whether it’s Vin Diesel on The Fast And The Furious or producer Kevin Feige on the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
An Unsung Auteur in this regard is producer Harvey Bernhard, who was the one constant figure in 1976’s The Omen and its sequels, collectively one of the most successful – and one of the first – cinematic horror franchises of all time. Before instigating this highly influential film series, however, Bernhard already had a very interesting life and career. Bernhard was born in 1924 in Seattle and served as a US Navy officer in World War II. He graduated from Stanford University in 1947 and acted upon his longtime interest in the entertainment industry by moving to Las Vegas in the 1950s and embedding himself in the rapidly growing leisure-based desert city. Bernhard eventually moved to Hollywood where he worked on early television documentaries with industry pioneers Sandy Howard and David Wolper before lighting out on his own to become an independent movie producer.
Displaying an obvious interest in content outside the mainstream, Bernhard produced a trio of fascinating films in the early seventies. 1972’s Sixteen is the kind of prurient, salacious exploitation flick you would never see today, as a backwoods family – and in particular their beautiful, virginal daughter – are manipulated by slickly avaricious outside forces. 1973’s The Mack, meanwhile, remains an essential entry in the Blaxploitation field with its lurid, hard-hitting tale of a powerful pimp, while 1974’s Thomasine & Bushrod couches the genre in a surprise western-style setting as an African-American couple in the early 1900s engage in a crime spree, robbing rich whites and passing on the proceedings to poor black communities.
In the mid-seventies, Bernhard would make the savviest move of his career when he acted upon a brief story suggestion from advertising executive Bob Munger which involved the concept of the Antichrist and the beginning of the end of the world. Though Jewish, Bernhard loved the idea and sensed the commercial possibilities in the very Christian-based concept. He was one of the key forces in bringing together the major studio horror film that would ultimately become 1976’s The Omen. Superbly directed by Richard Donner (Superman) and cogently written by David Seltzer, this surprise smash hit follows US Ambassador Richard Thorn and his wife Katherine (Gregory Peck and Lee Remick provide instant gravitas), who slowly, horrifyingly begin to realise that their adopted son Damien (Harvey Spencer Stevens) is, in all likelihood, the Antichrist, namely the force of true evil who will usher in the end of days. Filled with extraordinary, unforgettable kill-scenes, an air of bellowing dread and danger, and a true commitment to its florid subject matter, The Omen is one of the best examples of major studio 1970s horror you can find.
The film’s success saw a sequel greenlit, this time with a story penned by Bernhard himself, taking further ownership of the material. 1978’s Damien: Omen II was directed by Don Taylor (Escape From The Planet Of The Apes) after original helmer Mike Hodges (Get Carter) left the project. Bernhard assembled another strong cast for the sequel, with William Holden and Lee Grant providing the class this time as a thirteen-year-old Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) begins to fulfil his destiny as the Antichrist. A rock-solid entry that expertly follows the template set by the original while adding a few new wrinkles, Bernhard is on record, however, as stating that he regretted not making Damien older, as there were more possibilities in a seventeen-year-old Damien than a thirteen-year-old one.
Damien: Omen II was another hit, and led to another instalment in the series with 1981’s The Final Conflict, in which the now adult Damien Thorn (excellently played by Sam Neill well before he became one of the most beloved actors alive) assumes a position of power within the US Government and continues on his mission to bring about the end of the world. Inventive and theatrical kill-scenes abound in this visually arresting entry directed by first-timer Graham Baker, who would go on to helm the excellent 1988 sci-fi fave Alien Nation. Baker is on record stating that Bernhard was very much an active, hands-on producer, overseeing Andrew Berkin’s screenplay and ensuring that it adhered to the series’ themes and style, particularly with regards to its famously baroque kill-scenes. “Harvey was very supportive, and given to outbursts of enthusiasm,” Baker has said. “Our relationship was at all times productive to the point that it became as genuine a friendship as can exist in the hothouse of filming. I don’t recollect him ever being negative or resistant to my direction, although a couple of my touches were not to his taste.”
Though he developed another entry in the series with the belated 1991 telemovie Omen IV: The Awakening, Bernhard’s real achievement is with the trilogy proper. Imaginative, scary and thoughtful, they are great examples of studio horror, and prompted a flood of imitators (especially in Italy, the rip-off capitol of the cinematic world in the 1980s) nearly as heavy as those inspired by The Exorcist and Mad Max. Though the religiously-themed horror series appeared to be “cursed” (with many bizarre deaths and accidents occurring to those involved with the films), Harvey Bernhard certainly survived The Omen Trilogy. “Bob Munger warned us that he thought The Devil didn’t want us to make the picture,” Bernhard has said, “and that we would have problems.” Sadly, for many involved, Bob Munger was right.
Despite the creepiness that surrounds it, there is much to celebrate about this popular triumvirate. Sure, it inspired a tepid, same-titled 2006 remake and a negligible 2024 prequel in The First Omen, but The Omen Trilogy was also responsible for the unforgettable 1977 rip-job Holocaust 2000 (aka The Chosen), an extraordinary example of cinematic nutbaggery never mentioned alongside Kirk Douglas’s list of venerable movie classics, and delirious proof that blatant movie plagiarism can sometimes actually inspire surprising acts of creative originality.
While he would go on to produce other excellent horror flicks in 1982’s The Beast Within and 1987’s The Lost Boys, along with other Richard Donner-directed works in 1985’s Ladyhawke and The Goonies, Harvey Bernhard’s Unsung Auteur status is truly derived from his work on The Omen Trilogy. With this now somewhat underrated film series as his greatest capstone, Harvey Bernhard passed away in 2014 at the age of 89…in happily non-suspicious circumstances.
If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs Bert I. Gordon, James Fargo, Jeremy Kagan, Robby Benson, Robert Hiltzik, John Carl Buechler, Rick Carter, Paul Dehn, Bob Kelljan, Kevin Connor, Ralph Nelson, William A. Graham, Judith Rascoe, Michael Pressman, Peter Carter, Leo V. Gordon, Dalene Young, Gary Nelson, Fred Walton, James Frawley, Pete Docter, Max Baer Jr., James Clavell, Ronald F. Maxwell, Frank D. Gilroy, John Hough, Dick Richards, William Girdler, Rayland Jensen, Richard T. Heffron, Christopher Jones, Earl Owensby, James Bridges, Jeff Kanew, Robert Butler, Leigh Chapman, Joe Camp, John Patrick Shanley, William Peter Blatty, Peter Clifton, Peter R. Hunt, Shaun Grant, James B. Harris, Gerald Wilson, Patricia Birch, Buzz Kulik, Kris Kristofferson, Rick Rosenthal, Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah, Jerrold Freeman, William Dear, Anthony Harvey, Douglas Hickox, Karen Arthur, Larry Peerce, Tony Goldwyn, Brian G. Hutton, Shelley Duvall, Robert Towne, David Giler, William D. Wittliff, Tom DeSimone, Ulu Grosbard, Denis Sanders, Daryl Duke, Jack McCoy, James William Guercio, James Goldstone, Daniel Nettheim, Goran Stolevski, Jared & Jerusha Hess, William Richert, Michael Jenkins, Robert M. Young, Robert Thom, Graeme Clifford, Frank Howson, Oliver Hermanus, Jennings Lang, Matthew Saville, Sophie Hyde, John Curran, Jesse Peretz, Anthony Hayes, Stuart Blumberg, Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.
