Relic Movie Drinking Game (2020)
Take a Drink: whenever there is a Post-it note
Take a Drink: for every nightmare that Kay has
Take a Drink: whenever Edna appears unexpectedly
Take a Drink: for every strange noise in the house
Take a Drink: for every shot of spreading mold
Do a Shot: if/when you have to look away
By: BabyRuth (A Toast) –
Kay (Emily Mortimer) learns that her elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin) has gone missing. She and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) take a road trip to the family matriarch’s large, secluded home to try to figure out what is going on. They don’t have much luck in finding any clues as to what happened to her, but the deteriorating condition of the house, along with several Post-It notes Edna wrote to herself as reminders, suggest her mental status is declining.
Edna eventually returns disheveled and bruised, with no recollection of where she has been. Her daughter and granddaughter fear that her Alzheimer’s disease has progressed and that there may possibly be something even more sinister going on.
A Toast
First time director (and co-writer) Natalie Erika James makes an impressive debut in this slow burn thriller that premiered earlier this year at The Sundance Film Festival and comes to VOD on July 10th.
James’ vision is focused and efficiently crafted: most of the film is spent with the three leads in one setting and the whole thing clocks in at 89 minutes. But it is what she manages to accomplish within those constraints that is so remarkable.
James takes her time during the first act to establish the characters and their relationships with each other, while slowly building the dread and hinting at what is to come. With little exposition, she allows everything to slowly unravel and places trust in the viewer.
Without revealing too much about the plot (the less known going in the better), this is much, much more than your standard haunted house flick. Those expecting jump scares and a CGI boogeyman may want to look elsewhere. However, genre fans who appreciate developed characters and emotional depth while being supremely creeped out will be highly rewarded.
Of course, there are several effective scares throughout and some extremely gruesome body horror that may have you wincing while viewing through your fingers.
The best recent horror films have featured strong performances from female leads – Hereditary, Us, and Midsommar – and Relic is a solid addition to the list. All three women turn in exceptionally layered and captivating performances that would fit in as naturally into a straight drama as they do into a horror piece. Bella Heathcote, representing the youngest generation, is in the beginning of her adult life, grappling with choices that will affect her future. Emily Mortimer (you may recognize her from her role as adult Jane in Mary Poppins Returns) is incredible as a woman struggling to repair the strained relationship with her daughter while simultaneously bearing the responsibility of caring for her increasingly ailing mother. Robyn Nevin, who has an extensive acting resume spanning over fifty years, delivers a masterclass in range that deserves to be remembered come awards season (whenever that may be).
The house itself is as much a character as the three women, and as the film progresses and gets more harrowing, it does as well. Transforming into a setting that nightmares are made of, the home becomes more and more claustrophobic, creaky, and dark, with expanding mold overtaking what it had once been in happier times. The sound design complements the visuals, resulting in a completely unnerving, immersive experience. It’s too bad we are not currently able to get the full effect in a dark theater with surround sound, but turning the lights off and the volume up suffices pretty well.
I want so badly to talk about the final scene. For obvious reasons, I can’t, but as heart-pounding as the roller coaster climax is (and whew boy, is it!), the final moments put a heartbreaking cap on everything that preceded it and is likely to be the image that stays with the viewer when recalling this film.
Verdict
I went into Relic relatively blindly, not knowing much more about it than it was a story about three generations of women and “new spin on a haunted house movie.” A good scare seemed like a nice break from the outside world and I was curious as to what this “new spin” would be.
I was not prepared for the emotional gut punch and lasting impression it would leave with me (which included sobbing for about a half hour after the credits rolled). Effective as a creepy old house horror movie, but even more as a devastating psychological allegory, this is one of those films that stays with you for a long time. There will likely be many comparisons to The Babadook and Hereditary, both in the tone and subject matter, but James has a unique style that makes me very excited to see what she does next.
