IFC Midnight’s unveiled a new trailer for the horror film, Relic, directed by Natalie Erika James. James, who co-wrote the script with Christian White, was inspired to create Relic after a visit to see her grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
“The rural town where my grandmother lives is where I’d spent many of my summer holidays, attending the local primary school with my cousins,” explained James. “During that trip I observed how much the town had declined – all the younger generations choosing to relocate to the bigger cities, leaving an aging community behind. There were horror stories about elderly people being found dead in their homes well after the fact – neglected and forgotten, their children in distant towns, their bodies starting to deteriorate. I could think of nothing more heartbreaking.
It’s a combination of these things that became the starting point for Relic. Using a multigenerational story to create a character-driven, emotionally resonant horror, I sought to explore the heartbreak and horrors of aged dementia, the importance of human connection and the shifting roles and dynamics within a family. Relic begins more firmly rooted in drama, and slowly devolves into a horror and genre space, mirroring Edna’s mental and physical deterioration.”
The cast of Relic includes Robyn Nevin, Emily Mortimer, and Bella Heathcote. Anna McLeish, Sarah Shaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Riva Marker produced, with Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Mike Larocca, Todd Makurath, Wang Zhongjun, Wang Zhonglei, and Hu Junyi executive producing.
IFC Midnight’s planning a July 10, 2020 release in theaters and On Demand / digital.
The Plot:
When elderly mother Edna (Nevin) inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Heathcote) rush to their family’s decaying country home, finding clues of her increasing dementia scattered around the house in her absence. After Edna returns just as mysteriously as she disappeared, Kay’s concern that her mother seems unwilling or unable to say where she’s been clashes with Sam’s unabashed enthusiasm to have her grandma back.
As Edna’s behavior turns increasingly volatile, both begin to sense that an insidious presence in the house might be taking control of her. All three generations of women are brought together through trauma and a powerful sense of strength and loyalty to face the ultimate fear together.
