The Relic is a 1997 American monster-horror film directed by Peter Hyams and based on the best-selling 1995 novel Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The film stars Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore, Linda Hunt, James Whitmore, and Brian Steele in his feature film debut. In the film, a detective and a biologist try to defeat a South American monstrous reptilian creature which is on a killing spree in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
The movie was shot in Chicago at the Field Museum of Natural History. Production was originally intended to be held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. and Lincoln Child (though it omits their major character, FBI agent Pendergast).
It was developed by Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.
The director, Peter Hyams, commented "I don't think you can scare people, unless you involve them." and "A movie like this has to be intelligent."
Because the novel portrayed the museum's administration in an unflattering light, they turned the film's producers down. Paramount Pictures offered the museum a seven-figure sum of money to film there, but the administration was worried that the monster movie would scare kids away from the museum. The producers were faced with a problem as only museums in Chicago and Washington, D.C., resembled the one in New York. The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago loved the premise and allowed them to shoot there.
In addition to shooting on location in Chicago, a set was built in LA of a tunnel flooded with water. Sizemore spent most of the shoot either damp, cold or soaking wet and, as a result, caught the flu twice. The production was shut down briefly when Hyams became too sick to work.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Relic holds an approval rating of 39%, based on 33 reviews, with the consensus: "Fleeting moments of brainless monster mayhem aside, The Relic proves to be too predictably derivative for its own good." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.
James Berardinelli of ReelViews said that "when all is said and done, this horror/science fiction amalgamation seems like nothing more ambitious than a bad reworking of elements from Aliens, Species, Jaws and Predator."
Positive reviews came from critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel; Siskel described the film as "surprisingly entertaining", and Ebert said that the film was clever in how it "combines the conventions of the horror and disaster genres" and "is actually a lot of fun, if you like special effects and gore."
Film historian Leonard Maltin gave the movie 2.5 out of a possible 4 stars, summing it up as "Alien in a museum".
Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film a mixed review, stating, The Relic' will quickly fade to video, where it might fare well as a bump-in-the-night benefiting from the fast-forward button."
Russell Smith of The Austin Chronicle gave the film a 2.5/5 stating, "Long story short: This film stands as a near-perfect specimen of two hardy cinema archetypes – the cheesy but diverting creature feature and the weekend bargain matinee."
In a more negative review, Richard Harrington of The Washington Post stated, "It's a familiar story in the horror film business: good novel, terrible adaptation (just ask Stephen King and Clive Barker). As written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, "The Relic" deserved to be taken off the shelf; as adapted by a quartet of screenwriters and directed by Peter Hyams, it should have been left on one."
Despite the negative reviews, the film gained a strong following. Lead actress, Penelope Ann Miller is fond of the film: "It had a lot of things in it that were definitely out there. But it was a good scary movie."
The film was nominated for multiple science-fiction and fantasy awards, including best horror film and best actress (for Penelope Ann Miller) at the 1997 Saturn Awards.
See also
- Altered States