LFF 2020: Relic
LFF 2020Relic offers a lot in the way of an atmospheric horror film, with an engaging plot that uses its genre conventions to tell a more layered story than one might expect, yet it sadly fails to escape many of the pitfalls that horror films have succumb to in the past.
As Kay (Emily Mortimer) goes to visit her isolated mother, Edna (Robyn Nevyn), in her home, Kay and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) arrive to find that Edna has gone missing. Re-emerging with what seems to be signs of dementia, Edna eventually returns to the home seeming to be almost unrecognisable to her own family, both mentally and, in some ways, physically. As Kay and Sam slowly ponder upon how best to treat their ageing relative, something mysterious within the house begins to enter their psyche. With each passing day, the situation along with Edna’s mental state continuously deteriorates.
Relic does not really try to keep the core themes of the film close to its chest, with the concept of dementia clearly being a symbol for the physical body-horror found throughout the film. For the most part this works well, mental health issues are a suitable framework for the horror genre to grasp and engage with in exciting ways — director Natalie Erika James handles this well. However, the metaphor does begin to wear itself thin towards the final moments of the film as the well-constructed quiet and tense atmosphere sharply ramps up, with some of the elements working incredibly well, while others fall into the same redundant tropes found within lesser horror films of recent year.
The subtlety of the metaphor aside, the three central performances are all strong enough to keep things from getting out of hand whenever the film does decide to indulge in the tropes. The inconsistent quality of the final act could have been swapped for a higher amount of scenes between Kay and her mother, especially when the emotional crux of the film heavily relies on the relationship between the two, yet that is sadly rarely explored outside of a few select moments, with a lot of the history in the family being shrouded in mystery.
As a debut feature film from director Natalie Erika James, Relic successfully manages to create a tense atmosphere and intriguing premise that allows for strong performances from the cast. If only the themes within the narrative were not so heavy handed, Relic could have been truly great. As it stands, it is a solid horror film that shows plenty of promise from its director to have a bright interesting future.
