Review: RELIC

The woman who lives in the mansion in the mossy forest has vanished. Her daughter and granddaughter arrive to investigate. When Edna reappears one morning her replies to questions are deflective or vague. She has dementia. Her daughter Kay knows that her mother must finally enter into aged care as the dangers of leaving her in the house alone are too great. Kay's daughter thinks her age and opposes this. Marks have appeared on Edna's chest and arms. They are like the black mould that is spreading in the stained glass window of the front door.

Relic appeared on my radar as an upcoming Stan original and then in online reviews as a new horror movie. I didn't bother with trailers as they often miss-sell films: The Babadook was protrayed as a big loud jump scare fest when it was nothing of the sort. I didn't want to buy into that corruption, especially as this one appeared in trusted reviews as an allegory-forward fable about dementia. I was right: for all the darkness of the interiors and the trope of a shadowy figure appearing behind unwitting characters it is easy to see how it could be shoehorned into a James Wan style trailer.

The friend who recommended it to me as an impressive debut was right but then when I joined him in a chorus of praise he shot back a frown about the film lacking character development. That got me thinking and I let him know that I disagreed with the importance of the point. Relic, for all its disturbing atmosphere and gothic setting behaves less like a conventional horror piece and more like a fairy tale. Once we have understood our types (though there is real characterisation in the early stages) we just need to see them play their parts to an end that, for all its quiet performance delivers a real blow.

I was enjoying the sparse dialogue by themselves but the thing that really got me on side was the sequence of the granddaughter exploring a corridor in the house. This continues longer than it would in a normal horror and extends so much that it must be intercut with scenes outside of it as Sam just keeps moving forward, seen only from behind, often little more than a silhouette of a bobbed haircut. While this delivers real chills as its happening it also serves as a very strong manifestation of the film's central theme of dementia (and that isn't a spoiler).

While there are other characters this is essentially a three hander expressing generational diversity. Veteran Robyn Nevin delivers a terrifying volatility, owning the film even when absent from view. UK actor Emily Mortimer must, like her character, hold the centre and does so with enough vulnerability to show how difficult the job is (and in a very natural sounding Australian accent). Bella Heathcote gives us the fire and easily stung impetuousness of youth. In the end the three parts come together to form a timeline in a final tableau impossible to forget.


Relic is currently available through Stan.