Debuting feature director Arkasha Stevenson returns the unholy franchise to Rome, exploring the backstory behind the birth of the Antichrist Damien in this prequel to the 1976 horror classic.

Here’s a free tip to any nuns out there, or any young women thinking of becoming one: Whatever you do, don’t go to Italy, especially Rome. It’s not going to end well. Especially if you wind up pregnant.

The film provides the answer to a question most people probably weren’t asking but, as demonstrated by the recent The Exorcist: Believer, horror franchises never tire of beating a dead horse. (Even the classic Universal Frankenstein films of the ‘30s progressively wore out their welcome after Bride of Frankenstein, at least until Abbott and Costello met the creature.)

Set in the early 1970s, the story revolves around Margaret (an impressive Nell Tiger Free, Servant), a young novitiate sent by the Church to Rome to work at an orphanage. She’s greeted warmly by Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), her old mentor, but not so much by the nuns, including the forbidding Sister Silva (Sonia Braga). Indeed, the nuns in this orphanage aren’t exactly warm and fuzzy, looking so menacing that horror appears to be their vocation.

Margaret does find some supportive friends in the form of Father Gabriel (Tawfeek Barhom), a young priest, and Luz (Maria Caballero), her roommate at the orphanage. The latter makes a determined effort to get the newcomer out of her shell by encouraging her to put on a slinky dress and accompany her to a nightclub where she encounters a young man who soon meets an untimely and highly gruesome end.

Margaret also attempts to make a connection with Carlita (Nicole Sorace), a troubled young woman at the orphanage with whom she feels an emotional connection despite the warnings of the excommunicated Brennan, who’s become convinced that the Church is attempting to create an Antichrist for reasons never entirely made clear (it certainly seems counterintuitive). In an early scene, he tries reaching out to another priest, Father Harris (Charles Dance, don’t get too attached to him), which doesn’t work out so well since characters in these films are highly susceptible to falling objects.

Since the original Omen is beloved for, among other reasons, its truly startling violent set pieces, the prequel doubles down, leaning so heavily into extremely gory body horror that David Cronenberg should get royalties. There’s one scene in particular that will have audiences buzzing, or retching, or both — suffice it to say this is not a film to be screened at Lamaze classes.

Ultimately, it all feels very familiar, and not just because this is the second movie in as many months to revolve around nuns and the birth of an Antichrist. That’s no fault of its talented young lead, whose emotional and physical commitment to her role is highly impressive. Here’s hoping that next time she has the opportunity to star in a nice romantic comedy.