Running Time: 1hr 29min
Release Date: July 3, 2020 (US)
Directed by: Natalie Erika James
Review by: Stacey
Old people in scary movies are just downright...scary. From THE EXORCIST III to Rosemary's Baby and more recently, films like The Visit and The Taking of Deborah Logan (Ash and I mention this one in an older HORROR HUDDLE video of ours here), old people have been scaring the shit out of me for years. Natalie Erika James's directorial debut film, Relic, uses the theme of an older woman suffering from the onset of dementia which, apparently, is a really good base for a possible supernatural film. So here we have another scary movie with a scary old person, and I've subjected myself to it yet again.
After Edna (Robyn Nevin) goes missing from her home, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) head over to try and find out where she is. Shortly after, Edna returns with no recollection of where she had been, and soon they start to discover that something dark might be haunting Edna.
Fortunately, I've yet to experience a loved one suffering from something as awful as dementia, but I know that many people do and sometimes, movies like this, that use that illness as a base for a horror movie can be extremely cathartic versus shlocky or tasteless. Relic seems to take Edna and her growing dementia and use it as a manifestation for something more sinister. Since this is a very new movie, I'm not going to ENTIRELY spoil it, but it did teeter on that line of "Is this really supernatural? Or is this James's way of using the supernatural to explain the horrors of a disease like dementia?"
I'll get more into that in a bit, but right now I have to give praise to the actors and their abilities to really play off of each other, especially with the mom and daughter. To take on a role of being the parent to your own parent can be incredibly difficult but when you add possible supernatural happenings, it can add another layer of hardship. The relationship between the mom and daughter was obviously strained but seeing them come together mid-way through and to the end to tackle whatever is "infecting" the mom and the house showed how a disease like this doesn't just affect the person who has it. It basically takes over everyone around and creates a whole different world of pain.
Again, I won't fully spoil the movie, but I felt like Relic left me with more questions than answers. I love a good ambiguous ending as much as the next person, but there were just too many things left unexplained or unexplored that could have made the movie leave a bigger impact on me. There is a storyline about the great-grandpa having the disease as well and passing in a shed where the stained glass window that is shown throughout the movie was originally placed- the titular "relic". Now being installed in the main house's front door, it's interpreted as being what causes the manifestations. Growing black mold spots throughout the house and on the grandma seem to be a metaphor for the disease taking over more and more as the movie goes on. What I found myself questioning was is the window a symbol showing how the disease, being possibly genetic, can pass from one person to another? Or was it a link to something relating to the neglect the great-grandpa experienced when he died and wasn't found for a while? There was a little more about him in the movie, but for the 100th time, I won't reveal it all, but it does add to more confusion.
As much confusion as Relic left me with, there were some incredibly creepy scenes in it. The daughter getting trapped in some dicey, labyrinth-like situation really kept my heart pounding (I won't expand on that any more because you just have to see it), although that's another case of the plot adding more questions than I needed.
I know some people were comparing this to Hereditary in how it dealt with familial grief and possible (in Hereditary) mental health issues, but this one is more suited to be compared to the previously mentioned The Taking of Deborah Logan which really tackled the sadness of someone suffering from Alzheimer's coupled with the supernatural, only they took that shit and ran head on with it, which is actually why I prefer that one over Relic, unfortunately.
I really think that James did a fantastic job with her directorial debut and I'm all about seeing what other projects she comes out with in the future. Although if you want something more ambiguous and allegorical, Relic is a great movie, sure, but if you prefer your movies to leave you with a little less head scratching, you'd probably be best suited looking elsewhere.
3.5/5
Out on VOD now
Check out the trailer below:
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