It's clever the way the movie combines the conventions of the horror and disaster genres. Although this is technically a science-fiction movie about a mutant monster, Hyams adds another level by having the mayor insist that a black-tie charity benefit proceed inside the museum as planned, even though the cops are convinced that it's not safe. After the steel doors slam shut, the sprinkler system drenches everyone and decapitated bodies start dropping from above, the guests are in roughly the same predicament as in a disaster movie: trapped, in danger and helpless to escape.
The level of horror and violence in "The Relic'' is a notch or two above the industry average. There's a scary scene where a flaming monster pursues Dr. Green down a corridor of exploding specimen bottles. And a gory scene involving an autopsy, with Audra Lindley chillingly effective as the coroner. And scenes where cops get half their bodies chewed off, and a lot of scenes involving heads and brains, and lots of scientific double-talk to go with them. "The Relic'' is not for younger audiences.
There are a few loose ends. Early in the film, Dr. Green tells Lt. D'Agosta about the tanks of chemicals they use to strip the flesh from rhino bones. Later, she hides in such a tank herself, yet emerges with all her flesh. Also, I am not sure what connection the monster has with the little red fungus pellets on the imported leaves. And there is the matter of the Relic itself--a stone devil that was damaged in shipment. For most of the movie, a restoration expert is ominously piecing it back together, but I don't think the Relic actually has anything to do with the terrifying man-lizard-insect creature.
I know Mayor Daley is a movie fan, and I imagine he will sneak into this one. He'll be disappointed by Robert Lesser as the mayor (instead of using a Chicago accent, he talks much like Al Pacino). But Daley might enjoy some of the other stuff, including city cops using acetylene torches to burn through the steel doors of the museum and rescue the terrified millionaires inside--proving Chicago is the City That Works. And he will reflect that in the real world, no Chicago mayor would ever be so reckless as to order a society benefit to proceed in a museum still being scoured for a vicious decapitating pituitary- sucker. A guy gets his pituitary sucked out, he's not going to contribute to your next campaign.
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