The Relic (1997)

In what can be summed up as “Jaws” in a museum, “The Relic” is yet another tedious rehashing of typical monster movie conventions, summed up as follows.

1. Get a group of people. 2. Stick said group of people in big, old, mysterious building. 3. Insert a plucky and resourceful heroine type who’s complemented by a rugged but sensitive detective. 4. Last, but not least, throw some type of beastie/mutant/animal thing into the proverbial mix and poof! You got yourself a movie…sort of.

To be fair, this one is what it is, that being a Saturday afternoon creature feature with a nifty monster, some fairly bloody f/x and, well, that’s about it. Steve Winston’s creature, called “Kothoga” is a fairly original monster design, and it’s brought to life by some (I can hardly say it) nice usage of CGI effects. The Kothoga has a hunger for the human hypothalamus, so expect to see plenty of ripped off noggins and the like. The gore here is surprisingly plentiful, and I’m surprised the MPAA let some of it pass. Besides that, well, there’s not much else going on. Good for a timewaster (maybe) and that’s about it.