Relic
Emily Mortimer (Shutter Island) leads this haunted house horror as a woman searching for her dementia-ridden mother in their old country home. Co-stars Robyn Nevin (Top of the Lake) and Bella Heathcote (The Neon Demon).
When elderly mother Edna (Nevin) inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Heathcote) rush to their family’s decaying country home, finding clues of her increasing dementia scattered around the house in her absence. After Edna returns just as mysteriously as she disappeared, Kay’s concern that her mother seems unwilling or unable to say where she’s been clashes with Sam’s unabashed enthusiasm to have her grandma back. As Edna’s behavior turns increasingly volatile, both begin to sense that an insidious presence in the house might be taking control of her.
- Director:
- Natalie Erika James (feature debut)
- Writer:
- Natalie Erika JamesChristian White
- Cast:
- Robyn NevinEmily MortimerBella HeathcoteChris Bunton
Reviews & comments
Relic is very well shot and excellently uses editing and sound to build tension. It does a pretty good job of paying it all off, although there are parts of the film I feel could have done with a bit more trimming. The film also resolves at a rather odd pace, but in the end is interesting enough to make it all worth it. - letterboxd.com/therealclose
The New York Times
pressDeftly merges the familiar bumps and groans of the haunted-house movie with a potent allegory for the devastation of dementia.
Rolling Stone
pressA haunted house stands in for strained mother-daughter relationships in this psychological horror film from Japanese-Ausssie director Natalie Erika James, who joins with three top actresses to mess with your head long after you turn out the lights.
Hollywood Reporter
pressRelic takes its time, but exerts an ever-tightening hold on the imagination.
Bloody Disgusting
pressWhat begins as a more straightforward yet psychological approach to haunted house fare explodes into full-blown horror in a wholly unexpected way, and Relic marks one audacious debut.
Film School Rejects
pressLike Mike Flanagan before her, Natalie Erika James is a filmmaker who flawlessly blends terrifying horror with the ache of humanity.
Variety
pressNatalie Erika James' striking, somber, strange horror debut follows three generations of women being drawn into the grandmother's dementia.
RogerEbert.com
pressMy favorite horror movie of this year’s Sundance Film Festival is Natalie Erika James’ terrifying “Relic,” a slow burn genre pic that erupts in a climactic final act that had me fidgeting and squeezing my hands together with anxiety.
The New York Times
pressDeftly merges the familiar bumps and groans of the haunted-house movie with a potent allegory for the devastation of dementia.
Rolling Stone
pressA haunted house stands in for strained mother-daughter relationships in this psychological horror film from Japanese-Ausssie director Natalie Erika James, who joins with three top actresses to mess with your head long after you turn out the lights.
Hollywood Reporter
pressRelic takes its time, but exerts an ever-tightening hold on the imagination.
Bloody Disgusting
pressWhat begins as a more straightforward yet psychological approach to haunted house fare explodes into full-blown horror in a wholly unexpected way, and Relic marks one audacious debut.
Film School Rejects
pressLike Mike Flanagan before her, Natalie Erika James is a filmmaker who flawlessly blends terrifying horror with the ache of humanity.
Variety
pressNatalie Erika James' striking, somber, strange horror debut follows three generations of women being drawn into the grandmother's dementia.
RogerEbert.com
pressMy favorite horror movie of this year’s Sundance Film Festival is Natalie Erika James’ terrifying “Relic,” a slow burn genre pic that erupts in a climactic final act that had me fidgeting and squeezing my hands together with anxiety.
Relic is very well shot and excellently uses editing and sound to build tension. It does a pretty good job of paying it all off, although there are parts of the film I feel could have done with a bit more trimming. The film also resolves at a rather odd pace, but in the end is interesting enough to make it all worth it. - letterboxd.com/therealclose
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