Movie Talk: The Relic

[JBird]

A monster movie so dark, it makes the Thing look too bright.

Originally Posted by Netflix

A biological mutant goes loose during an opening night gala at Chicago's Museum of Natural History in this chilling monster flick. A cop and two scientists try to unlock the creature's origins and stop it before more lives are taken.

I never had the chance to watch this movie from start to finish. I would usually catch it around the midway point. This movie...while not perfectly good, is still not all that bad, in my opinion. It has the makings of a 50's horror movie with modern sensibilities. Unfortunately, the script is all over the place, and it tries very hard to mimic other horror movies. Essentially, it's Alien in a museum. But like I said, I wouldn't call it all bad, if you like these sorts of movies.

I like the concept of what creates the monster (brought to life by Stan Winston's studio), and how it blends myth with science. And instead of having the cast consist of a line-up of assholes you want to see get killed off, it keeps the jerk quota to a minimum.

Apparently, this is an adaptation of the novel of the same name, and after reading the synopsis for that, I kind of wish it were more accurate to the book. Mainly with how it vilifies the museum it's set in.

All that aside... This movie is fucking dark. I had to raise the brightness levels on my TV just to tell what was what. Even most of the outdoor, daylight scenes looked unlit. I know it's more effective to hide the sub-par CGI monster in the dark, but not the actors.

[morwalugi]

As a bit of trivia I believe the book made use of underground
coal train tunnels for some scenes

A few years ago in the real world they dug a hole to the tunnels and retrieved
a electric coal train that had sat down
there for the last half century

[JBird]

That's pretty interesting. I can't recall if they made mention of that in the movie, but there was a long scene of a police officer leading survivors through a tunnel under the museum.

[DalekSec]

Ahhhhhh Because I like these threads so much and had not seen the movie in question in ages, perhaps when it first came out on tape, no less... I went to re-watch it.

Yeah...that's 2 hours I shall never get back. lol!

Honestly, this was one of those movies that just kind of rolled about without much in the way of a plot or purpose with a cast as forgettable as the monster itself. Yes, I know there were some big names in the thing but I tend to think those involved might wish to have the whole thing skipped over on their resumes. *snickering*

Yes, even at full brightness, at times I thought it had been produced for the blind as a radio show with occasional flickers of light.

[JBird]

The only character I liked in the entire movie was the detective and his superstitious quirk. And then there was the backstory with the bullet that didn't kill him that he carries around that is kind of neat. I read in the trivia that Harrison Ford was the first choice to play the character, but I guess he had better things to do at the time than play in this movie. Maybe he found out how dark the movie was, and said no because he needs even lighting =P