This movie would have been good if they'd explained anything. Like anything whatsoever. Alas, they do not.
I was not expecting much from this movie and boy, it did not disappoint. It was just nothing from beginning to end. For a horror movie, it was devoid of jumps, scares, frights, or even gasps. I found it to be quite boring and I'm pretty sure there is no reason for the title for the movie unless I missed it. IMO don't waste your time.
I watched the whole movie. And all I keep saying to myself is, Why?
A slow burn horror movie with on the nose metaphors. I felt like Relic was trying too hard to be the next Hereditary but it ended up being just a little bit better than The Visit (I make that comparison because of the "old people" dynamic).
Although it doesn't bring anything new to the table, the direction and tone set by Natalie Erika James is impressive. The performances were amazing throughout.
I would say It is definitely worth a watch (it runs for only 89 minutes) and one of the better horror movies out there. Just don't keep your expectations too high like me and maybe you would get more out of the movie.
Fun Fact: This was produced by Jake Gyllenhaal!
Well, it's fairly creepy I'd have to say. It's quite nice when you don't expect much from a movie and it manages to put you on the edge of your seat.
I didn't expect to cry so hard at a horror movie. I literally just wanted scares and supernatural, spooky stuff, but goddammit, the ending was so sad. I see people lamenting on the lack of explanations, but the story doesn't really need any once you get that it's a big metaphor for Alzheimer and/or dementia, trying to teach us that we should all take good care of our elders when they are most vulnerable.
Really solid horror flick with some impressive effects, immersive intrigue and some very blunt symbolism. Definitely up in the higher echelons of the horror genre, but doesn't quite crack the tiers of quality set by Hereditary or The Witch. Still, very good and an easy recommendation to all those after something eerie and chilling, instead of the usual loud whizzbangs that come with lesser horror films.
Relic is a really solid atmospheric slowburn horror film about family drama that's very moving and sad. Doesn't offer anything new or groundbreaking but I was genuinely creeped out and I still am. It has similar vibe as mainstream haunted house horror films so I was expecting another formulaic horror but it turned out to be nothing like those. The ending was really unexpected and heartbreaking.
1,5 hours was even too long to watch this... It's horrible... Boring, no story, no scares, no explanation,...
It's sad to see how many people completely missed the point of this movie. It's not a horror movie in the sense of the horror of monsters but in that of losing a parent to old age and sickness. It's true that it's a slow-burn and that It doesn't openly explain itself but that's it strongest point in dealing with such themes, and it hits hard with them.
More drama than horror because if you see beyond the obvious, it's about the sad world of alzheimer. Passing from mom, to daughter, to granddaughter...
The walls creak. Moisture reproduces. The silences are more overwhelming than the strange noises. The director develops the idea of her short film "Creswick" (2017), here starring three generations of women. The path is minimalist, almost too much, but it builds a claustrophobic feeling that produces chills. It is a journey into dementia between walls that suffocate. Authentic terror begins when the story ends.
If you are not a fan of the A24 type of slow paced, ambiguous film and if you prefer the kind of horror movies made by big studios like The Conjuring or any of its 27 spin-offs, you are not going to like this.
If you have a history of Alzheimers or early deaths in your family, you'll know exactly what this movie is about.
The elephant is getting bigger and bigger until all generations, even the ones we want to protect, are involved.
I love how both mother and girl are involved in the end. I love how the director illustrates decline through the house's metaphor.
I love that there's no happy ending, just acceptation.
We are leaning to get acquainted with death again, through art.
Kudos to all involved in this movie. You moved me.
Moody, well acted, strong characters, good cinematography. The plot isn’t that inventive, you know where everything’s gonna go pretty quickly. I like what they were going for with the ending ( so this idea that when you peel of the flesh of someone who’s been consumed by dementia, you can still catch a glimpse of who they are ), but it feels too surreal for a film that’s fairly grounded up until that point.
6.5/10
It's okay. A good "okay". The biggest problem with this movie is, that the writers could only come up with the metaphors, but not how they fit in a story. I firmly believe a movie has to still work on a literal, on-the-nose level as well as metaphorical. That's just not the case here.
Other than that it's good tho'...
I was on board with the demented, crazy grandma/potentially haunted house angle, but I'm not sure what just happened at the end there. But the score and sound effects played really well together to keep you always on edge.
Plain to see Relic is going to be a "you didn't get it" type of movie.
I thought this was great, but it's not a typical horror story. You have to understand this is more of a drama masquerading as horror.
Very much an emotional journey. Really, the less you know about it, going in, the better.
I understand why some people aren't liking it. All I can say is subtext, look it up.
I'd recommend this for fans of more cerebral horror, e.g., The Babadook, The Mimic (2017). If you need a story spelled out, in bright neon letters, you're not going to like this.
The story is very simple and the development super slow. Not my style.
Honestly it's just a worse taking of Deborah Logan. At least that movie felt more like a horror movie.
This movie is like a Norm MacDonald joke. Its seemingly endless, it goes off on unimportant tangents, it keeps you watching with the promise of a resolution but in the end all you have is your nonplussed reaction. All you know for sure is there was many scenes with women in bath tubs but still no decent nudity.
It has some scary moments but not much else.
The mother (Kay) is useless through the hystory
i do not understand why the score is so high for this movie… after more than 50min of watching, so bored of the rhythm, the characters, no scenario, no explanation… i could not bear more… waste of time for me… why jake produced that?!
It had it's moments, but didn't really come through on the horror aspect. Ending was creepy!
Photography is nice, good start but then it gets lost in somewhere. I did not understand this movie since it did not explain anything.
One of the best horror films I’ve seen in a longtime. Brilliantly done!
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Relic’:
Writing this before reading any comments or online explanations, I have :asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol:no:asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol: idea what just happened. Should I feel stupid right now? Guess I’m about to find out.
The communication in this family is horrendous. Let’s see a bunch of eerie shit the entire film and not mention it to one another.
There was a solid creep factor for most of the movie and I was waiting for an epic reveal. Only to get something disastrously ambiguous. The last 15 minutes slashed my rating a couple points.
Updated Thought: I’ve come to understand that the entire film is an allegory for Alzheimer’s. I can appreciate the use of a horror vehicle to explore something truly horrific, but — as a viewer — I couldn’t help but feel a little duped with the drastic left turn at the end, revealing the metaphor. It kinda reminds me of when I was super excited to see The Village, and was sorely disappointed to see it basically transition into an entirely different genre. There were elements of this film (i.e. seeing the monster under the bed or behind a character) that seemingly had nothing to do with the allegory and simply led you to believe it was a supernatural story. Duped. And, for me, dissatisfying. But I can see why others respect it.
The first two acts burned a little too slowly for me, but Relic is like Jesus because it redeems itself in the end.
A cross between the think horror of The VVitch and the mood horror of The Babadook, Relic will speak to you but you have to listen closely.
Both horror movie and an allegory on dementia, this offers chills of two kinds.
Pretty classic haunted house horror flick, slow paced, with the small addition of the main inhabitant being an old lady with beginning of dementia. This adds a little more interrogation in the beginning, is she talking to herself ? To someone/something that is here ? To the house ?
Characters are three generations women of the family, the grandmother, mother and daughter. There are some hints of weird relationships between them and the beginning of some plot, but it is never really developed or shown (the daughter always calling her mother by her name for instance).
It's interesting and worth the watch, however it's missing some connecting lines between the different elements. It starts by the disappearance of the grandmother, but it's not clear how it fits with the haunted house part. There is an actual haunted house portion with weird things happening but it's almost unrelated to the rest, but that part is very good, the looping corridor, the extended part of the house inside the walls, the space getting tighter and tighter, it's a simple idea, but very oppressive and tense. There is some suggestion that it comes from parts of an older house, but that's just an allusion and never developed. In the same way the title is totally irrelevant.
The ending is probably best taken as a metaphor than literally, but then that does not fit with the weird house stuff. Otherwise, is the grandmother transforming into an actual monster, and what the fuck is wrong with her daughter to actually start peeling away all the skin and staying there ??
It feels a little unfinished, and not sure of the intended angle of the story.
Shout by beckBlockedParent2020-12-19T08:23:54Z
I cannot believe this has a 91% fresh tomato rating. I don't know how I sat through this.