Relic

I am so tired of horror movies where the characters move to a new house and walk in dark corridors for 80 minutes. What's that sound? Oh it's a washing machine. It doesn't matter. What's that sound? Oh it's just grandma being a weirdo. Go to bed grandma. What's that-- It's all a meaningless barrage of random nonsense. We need the first 80 minutes of the movie to get to the actual reason why this movie was made - the pretentious last 10 minutes. Just release that allegory for dementia/depression as a stand alone short film and don't waste my time with filler.

Making movies for today's horror audience is a tricky proposition, but Relic impressed me with it's commitment to telling an emotional story that resonates with issues which you may recognise from our lives outside of the "fantasy-horror" tropes. The movie is a slow burn which devotes the majority of its time to establishing the central 3 characters (impressive performances), who make up 3 generations of women from an old family in an old house in rural Victoria. If you enjoy thoughtful film-making with a "less is more" approach, you'll be rewarded by a masterfully disturbing and shocking third act climax with an emotional kick that will give you closure but leave you thinking. It should be noted though, just the like characters in Relic, you'll have to give attention to the people in front of you to reap the rewards.

This is well done and I can't say I have seen anything like it. The actors are very good and the script is creative and well timed. It's a fairly slow burn but not enough to lose your attention. I love a good horror but this one hit too close to home. I couldn't handle it. That's never happened before. When I was a teenager, my best friend and I, used to get rocked and go see movies like The Exorcist. So, when I say I couldn't handle THIS movie, that says something. If you love a good horror and you are the target audience, this one will give you nightmares. If you're not the target audience, it probably won't phase you. For instance, if you are afraid of flying, then movies about aircraft accidents will effect you. If you are not afraid of flying you can mentally step back and not get nervous watching a movie about airplane accidents. It's like that. If something like this has even remotely touched your life, this movie will rattle your cage big time.

Another quality entry from a 21st century Australian filmmaker, it's a film which horror I don't think most young people can experience or recognize properly, because it gets real with age, and, as you grow older, it creeps into you as some sort of inheritance, a legacy where you find yourself thinking of dying not in those romantic terms where you'd decide your own fate, but in terms of personal diminishing and gradual demise as, next in line for it, you slowly but surely creep towards your own death. "Relic" is drama-first, horror-second, yet that doesn't spoil its genre effectiveness. The three women portraying the three generations within the same family are all great and, even more importantly - relatable. With so many movies right now having these perplexingly high metascore marks, "Relic" is the one where I actually think its rating is highly unfair. My bet is it'll age gracefully.

The movie is good in the sense that it makes you feel how does it to have a family member who has dementia illness, alzheimer.

The movie depicts the feelings of being lost, and helplessness in the face of an illness that can turn a person into something else, to a different person. And it also teaches you to deal with it, you need to embrace it.

Good visual scenes, and sound effects. Normally, I don't like movies like this but I liked this one.