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In her debut film, director and co-writer Natalie Erika James charts a similar familial rupture.
What Kay and Sam find at Ednas only makes her disappearance more alarming.
Rotten fruit on the kitchen counter.
Post-it notes littering the home with reminders to take her pills or to flush the toilet.
One room shows the beginnings of hoarding.
Another has mold on the walls.
Just as swiftly as Edna disappeared, she returns.
Kay wakes one morning to find her mother absentmindedly making tea as if nothing ever happened.
As if a search party wasnt sent to look for her, as if she didnt disappear at all.
Ednas sudden return only brings more questions that Kay struggles to find answers to.
Her mother is reticent to explain where she was or what exactly happened.
But when it comes to the dimensions of horror within the film,Relicis lacking.
It instills dread from the very beginning, but the promise of this mood is never fully realized.
Sam continuously sides with her grandmother, until Ednas issues take on shades of violence.
Heathcote and Mortimer lucidly and physically explore the grooves in their relationship.
Nevin is a crucial anchor.
But its Mortimers performance that haunts me.
Is something taking over her?
Is it a familial curse they must reckon with?
Even after watching the film, Im unsure.
The deeper she goes the more the tighter you feel.
The walls start to close in.
In many ways,Relicfeels emblematic of much of the modern horror landscape that eschews genuine thrills.
(It especially echoes works likeHereditaryandThe Babadook.
