Rating: A-
Horror works best when it’s about something. That’s not to say that the latter-day tales of slashers and violence don’t have their place in the genre or that they’re not fun. But the best stories, from the folkloric beginnings of horror to the present day, are the ones that use the trappings of fear to explore real world dangers and true to life terror.
Ask anyone who’s ever watched a family member succumb to the ravages of dementia and they’ll tell you that there’s little more horrific than that. It becomes a kind of walking death, where you watch helplessly as everything you knew and loved about the individual fades away in the ether leaving little but a shell in its wake. Often made more so by the knowledge that, in many cases, the affliction is hereditary. Is this what awaits me?
Australian writer/director Natalie Erika James uses the horrifying realities of dementia to craft a superbly intense, terrifying new vision of the haunted house in her debut feature, Relic. Building off the momentum of several horror shorts, James establishes herself as a voice to be reckoned with as she infuses new life into old tropes in what might be the scariest film of 2020.
Emily Mortimer stars Kay who, along with her daughter, Sam (Belia Heathcote), travels to the house where her mother, Edna (Robyn Nevin), lives by herself. Upon arrival, they find Edna missing and, fearing her dementia has worsened, contact the authorities who begin searching for the woman. After several days, Edna mysteriously returns though, very quickly, Kay and Sam realize that she’s not the loving family member they know. Soon, they become aware of another presence living in the house, one that’s been with the family for generations, and one which threatens future generations as well.
Whether we take the sinister presence at face value or as pure metaphor doesn’t really matter. Relic works either way, and in both cases it allows James the space to explore both the concept of the haunted house and the realities of losing a loved one to this terrible condition. With beautiful subtlety and a delicious, smoldering slow burn, James ekes out a tale the terror of which builds into a satisfying climax.
Her trio of stars who, for the most part, are the sole case of the film, are magnificent together, bringing to life the horrifying realities of a potentially hereditary condition which hangs over the heads of families like a cloud of darkness. While the metaphor of “dementia as demon” might feel a bit on the nose, James and her three actresses do a remarkable job at both finding the horror and the humanity of the tale. Heathcote, especially, flexes her star potential as Sam, who finds herself pulled between her love for her grandmother and her love for her mother. Hers is a precarious position, one that many young men and women have found themselves in over the years, and she plays it brilliantly.
Though the supernatural does play a role in Relic, what’s never really explored is whether or not the supernatural presence is the cause or effect of the hereditary dementia. This creates a lingering sense of mystery and unease in the film’s narrative which continues to haunt the audience after the film has ended. Is this a defeatable presence or are Kay and Sam both doomed to a repeating cycle of slow moving horror?
This, ultimately, is James’s brilliance as a filmmaker and writer. Hers is an intensely moody, atmospheric horror that doesn’t care much about whether all your questions are answered as it is forcing the questions to begin with. As a film, Relic owes much to fellow Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook. Both films explore the idea of illness as supernatural entity and both explore the emotional landscape of women and their perceived roles in the family.
That is, frankly, a relief. Horror has, for too long, been seen as the domain of men and the kind of storytelling and filmmaking that leads to has caused the genre to long become stunted. Though the push away from tradition has been happening for some time now, women like James are becoming the vanguards of a new moment in horror.
The result is a film that’s both emotionally resonant and terrifying. Relic might not be satisfying for horror fans who prefer the blood and guts approach to the genre but those who enjoy slow and deliberate films with crushing atmosphere and true horror will do well to seek out this amazing, powerful story.
Relic is now available via on demand platforms.
