Relic

A psycho grandmother, a house with hidden corridors behind the walls and ghostly scenes and mysterious story branches that are supposed to be scary but aren’t, and which have no reason to exist in the plot even after the end of the film. However, I very much liked the sensitive and sad ending with its philosophical point about the inevitability of aging and the generations of the family. (11/10/2020)

A fairly original horror film that brings a fresh breeze to the haunted house genre in the form of a manifestation of dementia that consumes an entire family. Grannies have managed to scare the bejesus out of us in the past (The Visit, The Taking of Deborah Logan, Marianne) and Robyn Nevin here has something going for her as well. Rather than scary, Relic is disturbing, quite atmospheric and also suspenseful in the finale, shame about the slower pace, but the acting is great and the technical aspects of the film are also of a decent standard. Definitely a film worth watching and the portrayal of Alzheimer’s is believable as I've lived with a similar person and I could rip one scene out of reality. Story***, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence*, Entertainment***, Music***, Visuals****, Atmosphere****, Suspense***. 6.5/10. (14/07/2020)

An atmospheric delicacy for patient people. If you enjoyed Hereditary, The Witch or Midsommar from some of the different recent horror movies, be sure to give Relic a chance. It's a intimate story, which at first feels like a family drama, but gradually thickens and, like the old house, growls and squeaks more and more, and elements of something that fully strikes only at the end. (23/05/2021)

This film is a somewhat unbalanced, but nevertheless interesting horror movie about old age and neurodegenerative diseases, but it also pretends to be something that it’s not. To its detriment, from the beginning it comes off as a standard ghost story about a haunted house, meaning the use of the usual genre motifs to build atmosphere (mysterious shadows in the corridors, something hidden under the bed...). These have no point in terms of the story and are extra aspects of the film,which is also true for all of the supporting characters. The theme of the film is anchored in a harsh reality (and giving it the form of a horror about a family curse makes perfect sense), but its resolution is based on a single visual metaphor that sweeps everything else off the table in the finale. The joy from the characters, who are not non-trivially conceived, and successful work with the interiors is muddled by the fact that the film unnecessarily clings to a few insufficiently intertwined and, above all, misleading hints of the presence of ghosts that have nothing to do with the film's central theme. (12/10/2020)