The Relic

Relic is a run-of-the-mill and totally unimaginative addition to the Hollywood “horror” genre that gets by with an attractive lady scientist, a tough detective and one mediocre digital monster. The film is reasonably well made and accordingly not boring, but it quickly fizzles out. Deep Rising was more entertaining and worked more adeptly with clichés. (16.06.2003)

One of the mistakes of Paramount, a company that hoped to create a blockbuster horror film, but instead ended up with a completely mediocre and forgettable horror flick, mainly due to the weak screenplay by Amy Holden Jones and John Raffo, who had written a lot before, but found themselves in the horror genre for the first time and I presume also the last. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and it can be said that the good aspects, i.e., the basic idea and the core of the story, come from the literary source. Peter Hyams' direction is so ineffectual that it definitely didn't help the screenplay. Considering that over 65 million dollars were pumped into the film, the result is quite sad, although the monster is worth seeing and especially the museum interiors are architecturally interesting. But I don't know if this sentence is sarcasm concerning a high-budget horror film. It simply lacks atmosphere and a certain genre rhythm, which is usually created by editing and camera shots. Overall impression: 45%. (03.01.2008)

A very decent and entertaining horror film, boasting a pleasantly large cast of characters (the book's premise is well known), likeable actors, a hilarious monster from Stan Winston and a stomping score by John Debney. Peter Hyams may be mostly a B-movie director, but I wish all B-movies looked as honest as his. Three and a Half. (01.08.2015)

The effort was great and this is no rubbish, but those 100 minutes are a bit too much for a horror B-movie that you know will bring absolutely nothing new and interesting, which is very noticeable in this case. It's true that the atmosphere of dark cellars and deserted corridors has something going for it, and the final form of the murderous monster isn't bad at all, but when you're not directly searching in the dark with a torch or watching another attack, there's not much to the film. Moreover, the shabby editing doesn't allow us to see a single killing, as they say, straight on, which is also a big handicap. I was even considering 3*, but the stupid and overly "spectacular" finale put me off completely. (18.08.2012)

After watching this sci-fi horror film, I got similar feelings to those I had after watching 1999's Komodo. The monster itself is incredibly realistic and groundbreaking for its time, so its creators should be commended. It's just that all the mush around it was pretty much worthless. The plot may give the impression that the writers thought things through, but I found it too nonsensical at times, not to mention that it's science fiction. In short, a film that really only caught my attention because of the monster. (01.07.2011)