Released: January 1997
Director: Peter Hyams
Rated R
Run Time: 110 Minutes
Distributor: Paramount Pictures/Lionsgate Studios
Genre: Horror
Cast:
Penelope Ann Miller: Dr. Margo Greene
Tom Sizemore: Lt. Vincent D’Agosta
Linda Hunt: Dr. Ann Cuthbert
James Whitmore: Dr. Albert Frock
Clayton Rohner: Det. Hollingsworth
Chi Muoi Lo: Dr. Greg Lee
Before I begin, I just want to acknowledge the passing of Tom Sizemore, who plays Lt. D’Agosta in The Relic. I won’t go into details about his death, but at 61 years old, he left us far too soon. Because of that, I want to take a look at some of the movies that he’s been a significant part of over the past 30 years. Most people would probably recognize Tom from movies like Michael Mann’s HEAT and Saving Private Ryan. He clearly had a reputation for playing tough guys, but he was very good at it, especially in HEAT. Whether he’s playing soldiers in movies like Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan or smaller bit parts, you can’t ignore that he had serious screen presence. The movie that I’m looking at today is one of my favorite monster movies from the mid-90s, The Relic, based on the book of the same name by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The book was outstanding in terms of building tension and suspense. Does the film live up to the book? Let’s find out.
The movie opens as an anthropologist is studying tribal rituals in Brazil. He’s given a cup of water that’s mixed with some leaves that have something bizarre on them. Later, he tries to have crates removed from a cargo ship. Some time after, said cargo ship appears near Chicago with all hands missing. Lt. Vincent D’Agosta and his partner, Det. Hollingsworth believe it could be some kind of drug heist, but then they discover the remains of the ship’s crew in the bilge. At the Natural History Museum in Chicago, a security guard is brutally attacked and murdered. D’Agosta and Hollingsworth begin their investigation, but are informed that a major exhibit is set to open that evening, which means D’Agosta has limited time to find the killer, which may or may not be human. As someone who HAS read the book, a lot of changes had to be made, as you should when you adapt anything. I would say that the overall plotline is for the most part, the same, but beyond certain plot points, the movie is very different. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. A number of characters had to either be written out entirely or combined into one or two characters. But the overall story is about a murderous monster in a museum. A museum is a perfect place for a monster movie. You’ve got a massive building with multiple sub-basements that a creature could easily hide in. The book’s story plays out more like a detective story that happens to have a monster in it. The movie is about a monster that happens to have a detective in it. Again, not a bad thing. And it’s all centered around a stone statue that represents a devil-god. It’s good stuff. Also, the whole subplot about the mining in Brazil that led to the decimation of a local tribe was wisely cut out.
As I said earlier, there were a lot of changes made to bring The Relic to the big screen. Some of the characters like Greg Lee were completely changed. In the book, Lee was instrumental in figuring out what was going on and why people were being killed in such gruesome ways. In the movie, Lee’s a sniveling little snot of a scientist looking to swipe a potential grant out from under Margo Greene. Greene herself was more introverted than in the movie. D’Agosta, in the book, was overweight and NOT superstitious. Movie D’Agosta was younger, more athletic and VERY superstitious, which makes for a far more interesting character in my opinion. I think some of these changes were definitely for the better. Tom Sizemore was great as D’Agosta. He gave the character a serious boost of confidence, but made the character even more of a bad-ass. Penelope Ann Miller, even though she came from more a comedic background, made Margo far more feisty and confident. Linda Hunt is Dr. Ann Cuthbert, the head of the museum. I’ve always liked Linda Hunt. Despite her short stature, she’s a powerhouse of an actress. James Whitmore, who was an industry veteran, played Dr. Frock, a curator who had a bizarre theory about evolution that occasionally brings about an incredibly powerful but short-lived creature. Whitmore was fantastic. He brings a unique wit to the character that makes him incredibly endearing. The acting, overall, is pretty good.
In terms of effects, The Relic combines both practical and CG elements. The practical effects are still impressive, and the creature design by Stan Winston Studios is one of the most unique monsters put on screen. When you see close-ups of the beast, it’s done practically with a man in a suit. When the monster moves, it’s CGI. Considering this was 1997 when the film was released, the CGI holds up…mostly. A lot of that is because it’s hidden. This is a pretty dark movie in terms of cinematography, but that’s how Peter Hyams designed it. If there are dark sequences, then they needed to be DARK. Some thing for light. The darkness helps cover-up some of the issues that plagued CGI creatures at the time, so it actually made it more effective. Hyams mostly took the same approach that Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg did with Alien and Jaws: Imply, although Hyams showed more of the creature than Scott or Spielberg. But for the most part, all you could really see was the outline of the beast, and this thing was terrifying. There was a moment though, when the creature was on fire, that it didn’t work. But that’s because nobody had really been able to render CGI fire correctly. Again, it was a product of the time. Still, the creature and the gore effects are still effective against the backdrop of a museum. The pacing is also pretty good. When the Kothoga makes its move, it’s a full on roller-coaster ride to the finish.
Is The Relic a top-tier monster movie? No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t reach the heights of something like say, Alien. It does fairly heavily rely on genre tropes, but that’s to be expected. The creature design is definitely top-tier. It’s unique and it’s method of dispatching its victims is grotesque and brutal. As an adaptation, it’s not one of the better ones, to be honest, but it’s far from the worst. On certain levels, it DOES feel kind of generic, but when you have excellent performances from Miller, Sizemore, Hunt, and Whitmore, it’s absolutely worth it. It also doesn’t take itself super-seriously. It knows what kind of movie it is. It’s a hell of a lot of fun. Isn’t that what you want in a monster movie? I do recommend it for genre fans.
TOM SIZEMORE
NOVEMBER 29, 1961-MARCH 3, 2023