Dark Relic (2010)

• Year: 2010
• Released: 27 Mar 2010
• Country: United States
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1471156/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dark_relic
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: N/A
• Genre: Fantasy, Horror
• Runtime: 88 min
• Writer: Andy Briggs
• Director: Lorenzo Sena
• Cast: James Frain, Clemency Burton-Hill, Tom Basden
• Keywords: rome, italy, crucifixion, jerusalem, israel, knight, relic, 11th century,

	3.5/10
	12% – Critics
	12% – Audience

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Dark Relic Movie Reviews

Dull relic

Probably looked good on paper. A legend about the crucifix surviving until medieval times, some knights on a quest to find and secure it, and some demonic plagues besetting the knights. Lots of action, story, and special effects about supernatural power; right? Wrong.

A rag-tag group of people are thrown together on this Indy Jones type relic hunt that argue about everything, from spirituality to the best brand of toothpaste. Argue, argue, argue. It gets annoying real fast, and one can only hope they have a sword battle that shuts them all up permanently.

The premise held potential, but is hopelessly obscured behind this foolishness. You could watch one of those cable TV political argument shows and get the same thing.

The Cursed Cross

Although the premise is an interesting one, in execution Dark Relic just doesn’t cut it and remains a typical product of the SyFy network, albeit of British origin.

In the Catholic world there are reported to be many pieces of the ‘true cross’ from which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. Some of them are no more than splinters, but James Frain and his ragtag group of crusaders have a nice chunk of wood in which the biblical inscription about Jesus being King of the Jews is carved.

When they take the thing back to Rome all kinds of things start happening to them. Monsters and demons of all kinds, monks become possessed and they can’t get rid of the thing and it won’t burn. What to do.

I think the idea here is that the true cross from which the Son of God was crucified is not an item of veneration, in fact logically speaking it should be a cursed piece of wood. Our wandering group finds this out too late. Along the way they meet some Moslems led by Alyy Khan and arrive at an uneasy truce with them.

Dark Relic has an interesting premise, maybe in the hands of a Stephen King it could have realized its possibilities, but not here.

What a waste of time and talent (some spoilers)

When I saw James Frain (from the Tudors series), I thought this might rise above most SyFy dreck. In some ways it does since the special effects aren’t always terrible and some of the acting is almost good. The story is very weak, at times incoherent and it’s likely to offend some. Continuity errors abound and reaction shots are laughable at times.

Spoilers: one of the worst effects is the CGI wolves that attack the party in the woods. I’m pretty sure you could animate a better wolf at home with free software than this. The demon is generally nearly as realistic as he was in the video game Diablo II but it’s size seems to vary a great deal depending on the shot.

The premise is very odd in that the Holy Cross, a religious relic that has traditionally been thought to be beneficial is somehow tainted and causes the demon(s) to follow and attack the party carrying it from the Crusades, sometimes preceding them somehow to possess monks etc. The fact it’s immune to a crucifix but susceptible to a talisman the Muslim warrior (Alyy Khan) carries seems a tad offensive. The Cross is evil, the Muslim talisman is holy – what message are they trying to send? In typical fashion, after the non-whites have saved the “hero” many times they’re struck down in a very ignominious way and for no real reason other than to leave the stage clear for the hero. Just to show they can’t be consistent, the tainted relic of the Cross is then shoved down the demon’s throat to destroy him which thoroughly muddles things in time for a very abrupt ending.

Even for free this is worthless unless you like to make fun of bad movies with your friends. Some talented actors were wasted here.