by Chris Feil
Remember that time worshipping the devil got an Oscar nomination? And in Best Original Song no less? No, I’m not talking about The Greatest Showman last year, I’m talking about when The Omen made hell on musical earth with “Ave Satani”. In its Latin lyrics, the song hails the risen body of Satan, the coming Antichrist, and drinking blood. Yeah, this bonkers nomination totally happened.
I mean, how often does a musical composition meet the Venn diagram of approval from Anton LaVey (one assumes) and the Academy? Unsurprisingly, it's kind of rare. Unless the notorious founder of the Church of Satan is secretly super into Diane Warren.
Yes, folks are quick to forget that the iconic, horrific chanting that opens and recurs throughout The Omen is actually an Oscar nominated song. You could call it a rare bit of bravery for Oscar to “go there”, though it wasn’t even the first horror film mentioned in the category - though that honor goes to the more conventionally palatable “Ben” from Ben (sadly not written by anyone named Ben). It should be moreso thought of as one of the music branches more inspired calls, singling out one of the most memorable pieces of movie music. Scary or not.
If this reminder may have had the unaware clutching your pearls aghast, the iconography of “Ave Satani” should prove hard to argue with. Much of what continues to terrify us about The Omen, aside from how it taps into our earthly fear of primal evil as a natural element in our world, is what composer Jerry Goldsmith has created in its musical soundscape. His themes throughout the film were inspired by Gregorian chants and classical religious music, suggesting something fundamental that has always existed alongside the spiritual promise of salvation. It’s the stuff of nightmares.
The song and its effect on the film speaks for itself, as inextricable from the film’s frightening identity as Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho strings or the theme music to Unsolved Mysteries. Goldsmith transcends the religious hokum by lending the film something elemental, making Damien signify something more cataclysmic than monikers like "son of the devil". Try watching the film with the sound off and you’ll see what I mean - the music is its own indomitable force, a throughline of evil that is always announcing its presence in the most innocuous of spaces.
In fact, part of any hindsight surprise at this Original Song nomination could come the cohesion of “Ave Satani” to the rest of Goldsmith’s score. “Song” doesn’t even feel like the correct word, to be fair - what could we more aptly call it: devil movement, demon aria, black mass bop? It serves as the film’s overture, a title credits song that prepares us for the blossoming evil we are about to witness. And much as we might be quick to distinguish it from more traditional songs in this lineup like this year’s winner “Evergreen” (or even fellow nominee and lyrically-light “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky), it earns its place through impact alone.
Goldsmith won the Original Score Oscar for the film, and this Song nomination can’t help but feel like carryover awe even though it still feels wholly deserved. Doesn’t it also feel somewhat subversive to have something as severe as this made it into one of the categories most often associated with disposable rosiness, especially in the era when it was dominated by swoony ballads? It’s still too viscerally terrifying to call it “cool”, but “Ave Satani” is at the very least a fascinating and uncommon Oscar footnote.
Happy Halloween!
All Soundtracking installments can be found here!