PLOT SUMMARY: A grandmother, mother and daughter realize that a family curse is going to consume them all.
If you think about it, the houses that we live in, year after year, becomes a big part of you. It may not necessarily be a villa where you live. Even a rented apartment, quickly becomes a home the more time you spend in it, as it gathers all the good moments and bad ones you experience.
So when you move eventually, don’t you experience some kind of heartbreak for leaving behind a place where you spent so much time in, his so many good memories?
Unless of course, you experienced something tragic and then it’s a good thing you’re moving and starting anew elsewhere. Make memories in a new place.
Now in the case where you may be spent your childhood and had happy memories, it seems practical to take with you a keepsake of the house, especially if the said house is being torn down. Then you just have to take something with you, a piece of memory that will help you through the bad times, reminding you that you did experience good times and that they will return again.
The relic in Relic is a window from a cabin a family used to live in. There are several shots of it, reminding you that sometimes taking souvenirs from places where terrible things have happened is not always a good thing.
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The story is about Kay and her daughter Sam taking a trip to Kay’s mother’s house. Kay’s mother, Edna, hasn’t been seen in some time by the neighbors.
When Kay and Sam enter the house, they find it empty except for furniture that’s turned around, post-it notes everywhere and an unmoving lump on the bed that definitely isn’t Edna.
Now we’ve seen Edna in the beginning, standing in the hall, half-naked staring at the flickering Christmas lights. Then she turns, aghast at whatever is behind her.
Kay informs the police who arrange a search party.
Sam wonders why Kay didn’t make the trip sooner if Edna wasn’t feeling well enough. Kay is shown to be a little distant, not even knowing that Sam doesn’t work at the gallery anymore but at a bar.
The next day, the search party is in the woods. Kay calls out for her mother and then sees something in the woods that shocks her.
Sam find new locks in the house and Kay tells her that some time ago, Edna had told her that she had woken up one night to find the door open and her furniture movies. Sam is infuriated with Kay for no telling her so that at least she could have checked up on her.
Kay tells her that they have been finding notes all around the house, indicating that Edna may have dementia.
That night Kay has nightmares about a cabin in which she sees a young man on the bed looking down at a body with black blotches and bones visible through the skin.
The window shows a face turning toward her.
Kay wakes up in the morning and hears the kettle go off. She comes downstairs to see Edna in an apron and looking out together. She offers her breakfast while revealing nothing about where she had been for the past few days.
A doctor comes by to check on her and Edna passes all tests that can prove she is absolutely alright. Just before the doctor leaves, she does see a bruise on Edna’s chest that she quickly covers up with an excuse.
Later, there is a dark being roaming around the house and when Edna asks Kay to look under her bed, Kay thinks she sees a dark being underneath, breathing. But Edna drops a heavy book on her and Kay forgets she saw anything under the bed.
Kay is struggling to work from home while Sam sees the house as a museum, finding odd things and sketchbooks with drawings.
Sam finds one of the cabins from Kay’s dreams and Kay reveals that their ancestors lived in that and when it was torn down the family kept the stained glass window that still hangs in the house.
Kay then goes on to say that considering Edna’s condition that it would be better if they put her in a care home. Sam is disgusted by the idea because she wants Kay to look after Edna the way she did for Kay when she was a baby.
Kay tells her it won’t be practical because she can’t give all her time to Edna. Sam offers to let Edna move in with her.
The next day Kay goes to see the senior home and although the facilities seem proper, she goes into her car and cries, filled with regret.
At home, Sam is spending time with Edna who gives her a ring. Sam reveals Kay’s plan and offers to stay in this house with her instead.
Upon Kay’s return, Edna is aloof and has cleared out all space, revealing that Sam wants to stay behind.
Sam is having second thoughts because Edna has forgotten she’s given her the ring and accuses her of stealing it.
She’s also mystified by the neighbor’s reluctance to enter the house and see Edna.
When she goes to the neighbor to learn why the father of the boy reveals that his son was playing hide and seek with Edna when Edna allegedly locked him in the closet.
When he came to look for his son, Edna replied she didn’t know where he was even though his son was crying out loud. He had been so scared he had clawed at the door, leaving scratch marks.
Sam goes back to the house and sees the marks, realizing there is something wrong with Edna. She also keeps seeing mold everywhere and keeps touching it for some reason. Does she wash her hands later?
Kay sees Edna walking toward the woods one morning and follows her. Edna is ripping photos from the album and eating them. Kay takes it away from her and Edna breaks down but snatched it back. She digs a hole and buried the album, hoping she wouldn’t forget her loved ones. Kay shares an emotional moment with her mother.
Back at the house, Sam is still inspecting the mold and at this point decides to follow it and see how much farther along it goes. She finds a secret hallway and gets in because it becomes very important to know if the house she’s considering moving into is filled with mold.
She finds more post-its, more warnings from Edna about remembering names and not following them.
Sam should have realized maybe that message may be alluding to the mold. But she goes on ahead and finds herself trapped in a maze.
Kay and Edna return, and after a brief search for her daughter, Kay sits down for dinner.
Then she takes Edna for a bath who locks herself inside. When Kay sees water flooding out the door, she gets up on a stool to peek inside and sees her mother in a mirror kept right in front of the bathtub. Edna’s black mark on the chest has spread and she is apparently stabbing at it.
Horrified, Kay tries to break open the door, but Edna calmly steps out. The flooding causes a power outage as Edna runs around the house.
Sam is still in the maze and now without light. The walls come closing down on her and she just about manages to kick her way through the mold and emerge the other side.
Kay follows Edna as she runs into the same walk-in closet Sam had entered through. She begins mutilating her body and Kay sees something dark inside.
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She understands her mother maybe getting inflicted with the same disease or possession her ancestors had.
Edna hoes crazy and starts chasing Kay around.
Sam meanwhile, is about to escape the maze using a pipe, when she hears her mother’s screams. She goes to help her and together they escape Edna’s clutches.
Sam runs out the door, telling her they should leave and never come back. But Kay thinks about her dreams, the moldy stained glass window and decides to stay, telling Sam she cannot abandon her mother.
But she will abandon her daughter because she slams the door on Sam’s face and locks it.
She goes up and takes Edna to her room and makes her sit. Edna is clearly taking her last breaths.
Kay helps Edna shed off her skin revealing a dark person underneath.
Sam decides she will not be abandoned and breaks through the door and enters Edna’s room.
She takes one look at Edna’s new form and quietly takes her place behind Kay as she lies down with her mother.
Perhaps she understands Edna’s time has come and she needs to be there in her last moments. Or perhaps she’s tired after running around the house the whole day.
Either way, Edna breathes her last, and Sam finds something dark behind Kay’s neck. She pulls down the shirt to see a black mark growing.
Sam is horrified because now she knows the infliction is hereditary and she is going to be next as well.
Relic is an interesting movie, though it’s still confusing as to whether Edna was consumed by her sickness, a rare family curse, or some kind of possession from an ancestor who was abandoned when he fell ill.
The one thing that doesn’t make sense is why did Edna hang the stained glass window from which mold kept erupting if she hated it. She should have gotten rid of it a long time ago.
Scare scale: 3.5/5
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