31 Days of Horror! The Relic Movie Review!




When a freighter is found seemingly abandoned on Lake Michigan and pulled into port in the city of Chicago, Lt. Vincent D’Agosta, played by Tom Sizemore, is called on the scene to investigate.  The decks of the ship are covered with blood yet they have no bodies to determine what may have happened.  D’Agosta’s partner believes it is drug related however that changes when the decapitated bodies are discovered in the ship’s bilge area.

Fast forward 1 week later and we are brought to the Museum of Natural History in Chicago as they are preparing for a large exhibit: Superstition.  When a night guard is murdered and Lt. D’Agosta is called to the scene he begins to suspect a connection locking the Museum down as he searches for a killer.  But the truth is stranger than fiction and D’Agosta will need all the help he can get in determining just what is loose within the Museum.

Penelope Ann Miller stars as Dr. Margo Green, an evolutionary biologist who is trying to solve a mystery of her own with the discovery of strange egg-like parasites from a shipment from Brazil.  Curiosity keeps her investigating the eggs while D’Agosta gets closer to solving the mystery all while the body count keeps rising.

I first picked up the book Relic when it was released in hardcover in 1995.  Written by Douglas J Preston and Lincoln Child, it was perhaps the most frightening book I had read in a long time.  You can imagine my delight when one of my favorite books became a movie in 1997.  The movie, of course, runs in a different circle than the novel and understandably so.  It would literally be impossible to encapsulate everything there was in the novel within the timeframe of a movie.  That being said, liberties were taken, characters changed, and one of the main characters completely eliminated.  This does not mean the movie is lacking in substance.  Quite the contrary.

If you have only ever watched the movie, I highly recommend reading the book.  I don’t think you will be disappointed.  If you have read the book, try to remember that all screenwriters and  directors take liberties to make magic on the screen and enjoy the movie for what it is.

Comments