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The Relic

The Relic

Horror · Mystery · Thriller · 1997

A homicide detective teams up with an evolutionary biologist to hunt a giant creature that is killing people in a Chicago museum.

Movie details

The Relic

“They did the unthinkable. They brought it back.”

1997 Horror · Mystery · Thriller 1h 50m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.2 / 10

Community rating

A homicide detective teams up with an evolutionary biologist to hunt a giant creature that is killing people in a Chicago museum.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Relic?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Peter Hyams

Written by

Amy Holden Jones · Amanda Silver · Rick Jaffa · John Raffo

Penelope Ann Miller

Penelope Ann Miller

Dr. Margo Green

Tom Sizemore

Tom Sizemore

Lt. Vincent D'Agosta

Linda Hunt

Linda Hunt

Dr. Ann Cuthbert

James Whitmore

James Whitmore

Dr. Albert Frock

Clayton Rohner

Clayton Rohner

Det. Hollingsworth

Chi Muoi Lo

Chi Muoi Lo

Dr. Greg Lee

T

Thomas Ryan

Tom Parkinson

Court is in session

Put The Relic on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.