To be honest, a haunted house horror narrative with things that go bump in the night is not my schtick. A remote (naturally) country home where Edna (Robyn Nevin) hasn’t been seen for a few days brings daughter (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Bella Heathcote from Melbourne in a hurry.
A couple of days anxious waiting and suddenly, gran is back, standing in the kitchen making tea as if nothing had happened. But her behaviour and that of the house unbalances the two younger women.
It’s a brave attempt from newcomer Natalie Erika James as both co-writer and director. Virtually a three-hander, dreary in the extreme, shot in winter and where the house itself fails to provide any illumination, Relic creates a claustrophobic manifestation of dementia. Add the lack of connection between the three women and what is essentially maternal failure, then there’s no more visceral way to unnerve than to take the home, the very place that’s supposed to be secure – and make it insecure.
Rating: 38%
Director: Natalie Erika James
Writer: Natalie Erika James, Christian White
Main cast: Robyn Nevin (Ruben Guthrie, The Eye of the Storm), Emily Mortimer (Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl), Bella Heathcote (Professor Marston & the Wonder Woman, In Time)
An Opinion or Two 