Relic

Another haunted house movie, this one starring Emily Mortimer, and using aging as subject upon which the horror becomes the metaphor sounds just like something I would enjoy. And in fact, it was. RELIC finds Emily Mortimer’s Kay, and her college-aged daughter Sam, returning to the house in the woods where Kay was raised because her elderly mother, Edna, has disappeared for a few days. There’s definitely some tension between mother and daughter, and seemingly swirling around grandma as well, even before she returns, not too worse for wear, but now prone to fits of strange anger, or at least possessing of a personality that seems not her own. Meanwhile, the house groans and creaks around them, until Sa suddenly finds a whole other house behind the plaster walls of the house they’re living in… and she becomes trapped in it. That’s when things start to get really weird, and pretty scary too. Emily Mortimer does a great job here as the down-trodden Mom, on the one hand trying to get her own mother committed to assisted living, and on the other hand, maybe try into protect her daughter a little too much. Robyn Nevin is pretty strong as Edna, alternating between confused to harshly strident in the blink of an eye. The aging as horror metaphor is strong, but not clumsily applied, in fact, it’s one of those rare horror movies that wraps up with a feeling of loss, but also triumph, or at least understanding, which, as I’ve learned, is my favorite kind of horror movie. 4.5 cats