"Bad" Omens

I typically think of horror as gore and not usually interesting but this movie was more suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat. Its hard to think of something to say about this movie relating to horror. The movie is essentially about the prophesied end of the world and the events that will lead up to it. A father begins to believe that his son is not human and must decide whether to kill his son and save humanity or let him live.
Even though the movie was titled "the omen" in reference to the boy, the story focused more on the father's literal and moral journey as he searched for the truth. I feel like this made the father into both a tragic character and a hero as he lost many people he was close to but in the end tried to do what was right. The boy on the other hand was evil but the situations that surrounded him seemed to shape his destiny more than he himself did. There were many symbolic images and references in this movie, but I'm still not sure which could be considered "the" omen. Especially not when the boy does very little to fulfill the prophecy.
Compared to the few other horror films I've watched, the plot is very similar, usually loosely revolving around religious content and having most of the cast die and one left who must avenge them. The difference here I feel is how this movie went about it. In "Why Horror?" Noel Carroll says "Indeed, even if horror only caused fear, we might feel justified in demanding an explanation of what could motivate people to seek out the genre. But where fear is compounded with repulsion, the ante is, in a manner of speaking, raised." He also asks the question "How can horror audiences find pleasure in what by nature is distressful and unpleasant?”
A simple answer would be by creating inciting and meaningful stories. "The Omen" is considered horror but it doesn't share the same so called repulsiveness of many other films in the horror genre.  The movie elicits many emotions and the fact that at its basis tells a religious prophecy helps give it a sense of worry for the unknown. This fear is of a grander scale than your average slasher flick and it encourages deeper insight into the self. There is also the sense of fear for this man, an average man who we are afraid for and identify with. Its these senses of fear, the fear of the unknown and fear of the known that creates such an eerie and intangible atmosphere for "The omen."