Review of The Relic (1997) by Jason D — 11 Apr 2010

The Relic, based on a TERRIFIC novel, involves the mysterious (and heavily downplayed) findings of a anthropologist in South America who comes to a serious revelation and attempts to stop the shipment from heading back to his workplace of the Natural History Museum in Chicago.

Several weeks later, his cruise ship shows up with bodies torn apart, leading to the museum, where another personal is mysteriously attacked and brutally killed. Another researcher, Penelope Ann Miller (at the height of her popularity in the 90's) and detective Tom Sizemore (who could keep his shit together at the time and deliver great performances) attempt to find out this killer and their origins.

Big surprise though, The Relic winds up being a good ole fashion killer monster movie, with awesome Stan Winston effects and clever direction from Peter Hyams. Once this thing makes its presence known, people start dropping like flies in the most brutal and gory of ways! The Relic is rare delight that manages to be fun, thrilling, and (at the time) incredibly violent whenever it wanted to be in it's 110 minute span.

Good performances from the cast of relatively small actors. The film's slight setback...it's extremely dark virtually throughout the entire movie, which sometimes works very effectively and other times is a drag.

Still, great 90's horror film. We need more modern monster flicks, dammit!