Monster Movie of the Week: The Relic (1996)

THE RELIC (1997)

Director: Peter Hyams

Genre: Horror

THE MOVIE

Peter Hyam’s The Relic was one of the more visually impressive monster movies of the 1990’s. The movie was adapted from the novel Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The Relic takes the very strong core concept from the novel-a monster stalking the halls of a natural history museum after hours-but leaves out almost everything else that made the book such a good read. As is the case when almost any novel is adapted to the screen, the plot is streamlined, characters and motivations rearranged or eliminated (in this case they decided to cut out a character who is perhaps the greatest detective in contemporary fiction, Special Agent Pendergast). This is to be expected. But The Relic replaces what was a fun and smart read and replaces it with a cookie cutter monster movie screenplay.

There’s clumsy exposition such as the scene where Margot Green takes Lt. D’Agosta on an extended tour of what will be the movie's final action set piece so that the audience knows EXACTLY how everything works when we see it later. There are clunky “character” moments such as D’Agosta’s unfunny running joke about his ex-wife getting custody of their dog (WTF?). There’s ridiculously advanced technology that conveniently advances the plot, such as Margo’s DNA Sequencing program that can not only identify animal species from a blood or tissue sample in a matter of minutes but can identify the DNA of an individual human being complete with name and photo. It’s silly in 2009. It was even more so in 1997. All that being said, The Relic is a fun and adequate monster movie with a very cool and memorable monster: the Kothoga.

Larry Craig's evening goes horribly wrong.

The movie is set at the fictitious Chicago Natural History Museum where a mysterious package containing a small statue and some weird leaves arrives from an anthropologist who has gone missing in Brazil. Soon, researcher Margo Green is drawn into a murder investigation at the museum where people are being decapitated and having their hypothalamus glands ripped from their brains. The city officials decide to keep the museum open for a special fundraiser (shades of Jaws) and the monster strikes, trapping a bunch of high-society douchebags in the museum. Margo and D’Agosta try to find a way to stop the beast while the others attempt to escape through the sewers.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The Kothoga (or Mbwun in the book) is one of the better recent movie monsters despite his harebrained origin. He combines elements of a large mammal with reptilian and insectile features. He has large tusk-like mandibles and saurian claws. Perhaps most remarkable is his range of movement. This was striking at the time because prior to the ‘90’s movie monsters were very limited in how they could move so it was a lot of fun seeing this movie in the theater and watching the Kothoga run, leap and climb on walls. The effects are quite good considering it was a medium-budget film from 1996 and they have held up quite nicely in decade-plus since the film was released.

I really want to see the Kothoga fight the monster from The Host.

A face only a mother could love. Well, Predator's mother.

MONSTERS FEATURED

Kothoga

A large bug

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

I like the Kothoga vs. SWAT team sequence in which the monster acrobatically attacks a police team trying to descend into the museum lobby via the skylights.

Also good is a dryly humorous scene involving an autopsy.

"This test will determine whether or not you are actually Michael Madsen."

DVD AVAILABILITY

Widely available in a bare bones DVD release with little in the way of special features.

SEQUELS

None to the movie.

The book had a direct and fairly unpredictable sequel, Reliquary. The characters introduced in Relic (especially Pendergast) continue on to a whole series of books, most of which tease us with the possibility of a monster without delivering.

This is not the most ridiculous monster you've ever seen.

SEE ALSO

A Sound of Thunder 2006 Mimic 1996

TRAILER

00:00 Good beginning. Spooky museum stuff.

00:11 Damn, Penelope Miller wears some big ass 90's glasses in this movie.

00:27 Ah, I forgot about the black security guard who smokes weed in the bathroom. God bless you, racial stereotypes.

01:23 "From The Producer of Aliens and Terminator 2." Holy shit. Somebody's slumming.

01:30 More big, flat-ass glasses. "33% Homo Sapiens." I don't even think Tom Sizemore is 33% Homo Sapiens.

01:35 Oh that old dude in the wheelchair. With his "Callista" theory. Shut up.

01:53 No they did not just shoot a pair of monster teeth out at me and have that change into the title.

TRIVIA

The movie's setting is changed from NewYork City to Chicago. The museum exteriors and a couple of shots of the main hall were filmed at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago but the rest of the museum locations were filmed on sound stages. Preston and Child’s book was originally set at a fictitious museum analogous to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Unfortunately NYC and Chicago are not exactly the same. There is a subplot in the book and a major plot point in the sequel about the creature hiding in the abandoned tunnels beneath New York. Chicago doesn't have all of those century-old abandoned subway tunnels and stations or huge communities of Mole People that New York has.