1997 film The Relic is now streaming on Netflix and it’s a gory horror that has been compared to the sci-fi classic Alien, with some viewers praising the film while others have branded it ‘done very, very, very, very badly’
The 1997 American horror film, The Relic, has been sending chills down viewers’ spines since its release. Now available on Netflix, this gory movie stars Penelope Ann Miller and Tom Sizemore and features a terrifying giant monster.
The plot revolves around a homicide detective and an anthropologist working at a Chicago museum, who team up to destroy a South American lizard-like deity.
As the monster wreaks havoc, the detective gathers evidence to prove that something non-human is roaming the exhibit, believed to be responsible for the gruesome murders linked to the newly unearthed display. Fans of The Relic have drawn comparisons to the classic sci-fi film Alien, with some praising it and others feeling uncertain about the movie.
One reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes described The Relic as an “excellent late-90s B-horror flick” that “edges towards the complexity” of Alien. However, another viewer was disappointed, stating: “Imagine “Alien”, set in a Chicago museum. And done very, very, very, very badly. I have nothing more to add.”
Despite its lacklustre performance at the box office, this horror flick stands out from other monster-themed movies due to the unique design of the creature at its core, reports Surrey Live.
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The beast was crafted by Stan Winston, the creative genius behind the T-Rex in Jurassic Park and the endoskeleton in Terminator.
Winston’s work on these iconic films earned him four Academy Awards. However, The Relic didn’t manage to bag any award nominations or make a significant profit, raking in just $33,956,608 in the US against an estimated cost of $60 million.
But horror fans beg to differ, with one review lauding the film as “obviously silly” but confessing to having a “soft spot” for it. The reviewer wrote: “The Field Museum of Natural History is a great setting for a monster movie, and I like how the hero turns out to be the bookish anthropologist rather than the brash detective.”
Although The Relic is set in Chicago and some scenes were shot on location, a large chunk of filming took place in a flooded tunnel in Los Angeles. For many scenes, Sizemore had to endure being cold and drenched, which resulted in him catching the flu and a brief halt in production when a crew member fell ill – a testament to the real-life movie effects of the 90s.
One enthusiastic fan praised the film for being an “excellent creature feature”, commenting: “I don’t know why it’s got a low rating; they don’t make them this good anymore.”
The publication Collider concurs, featuring the film on its list of “10 Monster Movie Flops That Deserved To Be Hits”.
You can now judge for yourself whether The Relic is an underrated gem or a massive disappointment, as it is currently available to stream on Netflix.
