89 min.
Release Date: July 10, 2020 (On-Demand)
The horrors of the human condition, specifically mental deterioration and the ravages of age and mortality, can often be more frightening than some masked boogeyman terrorizing a summer camp. That’s surely the case with Australian horror drama “Relic,” the stunning feature debut of Natalie Erika James (who co-wrote the script with Christian White). Along the thematic lines of 2014’s “The Babadook,” the film is a none-too-thinly-veiled metaphor for the effects of dementia over three generations and the inevitable, next-in-line cycle of mental illness that manifests itself in a physical, supernatural way. Expertly moody and rawly acted, “Relic” is a personal piece of work that packs an emotional punch and haunts the mind long after it has finished.
When the elderly Edna (Robyn Nevin) goes missing from her home for days, daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) rush to the country home to look for Mum/Gran. Ever since Edna ran a bath and nearly flooded the entire house last Christmas, Kay is aware that her mother’s mental health has declined, finding post-it notes all over the house as reminders to take her medication and turn off the tap. She issues a search party in the nearby woods to no avail, but one morning, Edna returns with tea ready as if nothing has changed, except for a bruise on her chest. She has no memory of where she was and her mind doesn’t seem to be all there, so Kay and Sam stay on. Things are not going to get better for these three.
“Relic” could still be counted as a haunted house story, but it is far from a standard or simplistic one. The type of slow-burn that casual filmgoers may accuse of being “too slow,” the film takes its time and envelops the viewer into the lives of these characters and their strained relationships. After all, the key to effective horror is to make one care about the people before tearing them down. What a first-time filmmaker like Natalie Erika James accomplishes is meaty and nuanced, achieving a mood of existential dread and haunting motifs, primarily a heirloom stained glass window, that make the house feel like Edna’s decaying mind. Get ready for a film that resonates and rather daringly confronts hard truths that are difficult to process in real life through the prism of horror.
Emily Mortimer (2018’s “Mary Poppins Returns”) and Bella Heathcote (2016’s “The Neon Demon”) go to dark head spaces and nail the emotional realities of their different perspectives as mother and daughter Kay and Sam. Robyn Nevin, looking like Fionnula Flanagan, might have the trickiest role as Edna, and she pulls off every facet and nuance splendidly. When Sam makes a discovery in her Gran’s house, which feels bigger and less familiar ever since Edna’s husband died, the last half hour kicks things up several notches in terms of visually phantasmagoric invention. If the majority of the trim 89-minute running time plants some eerie imagery, none of the comparatively standard horror stuff can compare to the film’s last five minutes that knock the wind out of you. These closing moments are wordlessly haunting, mournful, grotesque, and oddly tender, ensuring that Edna is not really the villain of the piece. Time is the lurking menace here, and it’s infecting this family tree. Arriving on the scene with confidence, “Relic” is decidedly one of this year’s most accomplished horror highlights.
Grade: B +
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