The Relic (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	105:05
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (61:17)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Peter Hyams
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Penelope Ann Miller Tom Sizemore Linda Hunt James Whitmore
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	John Debney

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Dutch	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The story concerns an anthropologist who arrives back from South America with some nasty surprises in store for his museum colleagues back in Chicago. Although the film does not go heavily into the details of its growth into a lethal creature, a horribly mutated monster begins killing the staff of the Chicago museum. Brave detective Lt Vincent D'Agosta played by Tom Sizemore and museum researcher Dr Margo Green - Penelope Ann Miller - work together to try and put an end to the creature's reign of terror. 

    You are provided with frights and moments of suspense, but you can predict the outcome of this film fairly easily. More of the 'frights' in this film seem to come from the audio track than anything else. The film's special effects are pretty good and were not far behind leading edge for their day (1996). The standard 'monster film' style plot notwithstanding, I enjoyed The Relic and no one will fall asleep during it, that I can guarantee.

Video

    The picture was quite sharp and gave no reason to complain. Shadow detail was fortunately very good for what is a very dark film, although it falls short of the best I have seen. Blacks were fairly well saturated and low level noise was not really an issue. 

    Colours were well saturated and there was no trace of bleeding or any other colour related problem at all.

    MPEG artefacts were only briefly apparent if you looked for them in backgrounds. There were no real problems here. There was a small amount of aliasing at the start of Chapter 2 when the camera pans over the Chicago skyline. Film grain was at times noticeable early on such as at 14:05. Film artefacts were present throughout the feature but not in numbers and severity to distract too much.

   The subtitles are accurate to the spoken word most of the time. 

    This was an RSDL disc with the layer change at 61:12. There is a noticeable pause in what is one of the less seamless changes I have seen in recent times.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue sounded natural and the quality was fine. No problems here. Audio sync was also not a problem.

    Music was used to add tension and atmosphere to good effect in this film and all speakers contribute.

    The surrounds were used generously throughout this film and became loud during moments of tension and action scenes. This is a very dynamic soundtrack that if played at or even near reference level will challenge many sound systems, which is of course one of the reasons I wanted to review it.

    There is a lot work for the subwoofer in this film. At times, such as 73 minutes into the feature, the bass power and extension is remarkable. My 18" Velodyne shook the entire house in such scenes. Watch out with the level control on your sub. Have it no more than 30% of max or you may end up in trouble.

    I had a lot of fun with this soundtrack, which I believed to be the highlight of the movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

    In stereo and not 16x9 enhanced.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall