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Relic – 2020 James
- A noteworthy slow-burn arthouse horror from director Natalie Erika James – her debut film
- Bound to frustrate traditional genre enthusiasts with her pacing—James is far more concerned with telling a nuanced story of dementia as horror metaphor, reoccurring visual imagery and some nice Polanski-like framing and use of the camera as voyeur
- The stained glass door window is a great visual focal point for James—it has a meaning in the narrative, it is bounced off of formally several times, it is set up in the opening, the ending, and it is certainly pretty to look at
- Elliptical editing in a few spots to create tension and the feeling that Emily Mortimer (daughter) and Bella Heathcote (granddaughter) are not alone
- The editing overall is great- cutaways to reminder notes as part of the film form that Edna (played by Robyn Nevin—haunting) is leaving for herself as she loses her memory (of course there is a horror/sickness mirroring reading of the film)
- In at least a few instances- James places the camera (or characters in dialogue) just behind a door or wall—gives the viewer an eerie leering feeling – again this was used in Rosemary’s Baby.
- Hard not to think of Ari Aster’s generational horror film Hereditary
- A solid horror setting- a beautiful house, run down pool and tennis courts
- Dementia as a physical blackness taking over—that metaphor (which as it turns out with the end, is actually hereditary)—a strong (if not confusing at first) ending
- Fine final image of that stain-glass window
- Recommend
Drake2021-01-12T16:29:04+00:00
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