Poignant allegory of dementia
The best horror films exploit reallife fears, and I have a confession to make: I am scared to death of spending the end of my life in a fog of dementia, losing contact with my memories and the recognition of ones I love, devolving into a state of confusion and anger.
Or standing by uselessly as a close loved one becomes a shell of his/her former self. My heart goes out to anyone who must deal with this frightening diagnosis, or is a caregiver or relative of one who is afflicted.
Australian director Natalie Erika James must also have such fears. Her feature debut, “Relic,” available to stream starting Friday, is a horror film about an elderly woman who is sliding into dementia — and might have a supernatural presence giving her a push — as a daughter and granddaughter watch helplessly.
James doesn’t use dementia as some cheap delivery method to conventional horror tropes. For much of its 89minute running time, “Relic” is a sensitive story of the relationship among three generations of women: the septuagenarian Edna (veteran Australian stage actress Robyn Nevin), her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote).
The movie opens with Kay and Sam arriving at
Edna’s rural home, concerned because she is not returning their calls, and a neighbor believes she is missing. They report her disappearance to the police. Kay and Sam participate in the search for Edna, who turns up in her own kitchen three days later.
“Tea?” she asks Kay, as if nothing had happened. She doesn’t remember her whereabouts of the past few days.
Despite a noticeable personality shift in Edna, who becomes difficult and angry at times, Kay clashes with Sam about what to do with her. Kay wants to put her in a facility where she can get professional care; Sam thinks she’ll be OK at home. There are hints of other ongoing friction between Kay and Sam.
Kay begins to have bad dreams about a house on the property once occupied by her late greatgrandfather. She finds out that nearby neighbors have distanced themselves from Edna after she is perceived to be a danger.
The first sign there might be something otherworldly involved, other than the persistent hum of Brian Reitzell’s ominous score, is when some knocking is heard from inside the walls. Illusion, or real?
James might be making her feature debut, but it feels like she’s been at it for years. She has total mastery of tone and confidently advances her story to its startling and unusual conclusion.
James says the story sprung from her own guilt at having waited too long to visit her grandmother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, according to press notes on the movie. By the time she did visit, her grandmother didn’t recognize her.
Just to reemphasize, “Relic” is not a documentary about dementia, or a medically accurate look at the disease in the way that films such as “Away From Her” with Julie Christie or “Still Alice” with Julianne Moore were. It is a film that springs from the id, from deepseated fear of a disease we don’t fully understand.
It is a film of worry, love and emotion, from the way Kay strokes Edna’s hair to Sam’s gradually deepening understanding of her own mother as she begins to comprehend her grandmother’s decline.
It’s too bad only Sundance audiences in January were able to experience cinematographer Charlie Sarroff ’s darkened images on a big screen, where it deserves to be seen. Alas, COVID19, another deadly threat to seniors, had other ideas.