In Relic, a deceptively simple family narrative festers into a harrowing and thoughtful metaphor for dementia and natural death.
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Relic is immediately relevant to what can be described as the New Horror movement (e.g. The Babadook, It Follows and most significantly, Hereditary), where psychological dread and suggestive horror reign supreme over shock and gore.
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There is nary a comfortable moment in Relic. From the get-go, every scene drips with “something is seriously wrong” vibes. The painfully dreadful atmosphere is helmed by Robyn Nevin’s experienced and measured performance as Edna, perhaps one of cinema’s creepiest grandmas ever. Even for a horror veteran, Grandma Edna’s micro-expressive and hateful glares shook me.
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While not a feminist film in any overbearing fashion, the film’s themes of motherhood and the push-and-pull that comes with it serve to ground the horror in very real emotion. The cinematography in Relic is neither pioneering nor innovative. But this doesn’t deter the film from being inventive horror. It’s most striking moments have to do with grotesqueness and macabre, rather than visual intricacy or symbolism.
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Certainly worth a watch alone at home, Relic will hit harder and linger longer for those who may have family experiences with dementia and old age. By the time the poignant and surprising ending comes about, one has a fairly good idea what director James has to say about dementia, the crippling experience of it and the unsettling notion of a mental disease that strips away a person’s ability to be human.
