Writer/director Natalie Erika James’ unforgettable and auspicious feature debut sees as elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin) inexplicably vanishing, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) rushing to their family’s decaying country home, finding clues of her increasing dementia scattered around the house in her absence. After Edna returns just as mysteriously as she disappeared, Kay’s concern that her mother seems unwilling or unable to say where she’s been clashes with Sam’s unabashed enthusiasm to have her grandma back. As Edna’s behavior turns increasingly volatile, both begin to sense that an insidious presence in the house might be taking control of her. All three generations of women are brought together through trauma and a powerful sense of strength and loyalty to face the ultimate fear together. RELIC had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 to critical acclaim, praising the film as a fresh and terrifying twist on the notorious haunted-house tale.
Natalie Erika James is a Japanese-Australian writer and director, based in Melbourne, Australia. Her debut feature, Relic, is a psychological horror starring Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote and Robyn Nevin, produced by Carver Films (Snowtown, Partisan) & Nine Stories (Riva Marker, Jake Gyllenhaal), and supported by the Russo Brothers’ AGBO, Screen Australia and Film Victoria. Natalie is currently developing Drum Wave, a Japanese folk horror funded by the highly competitive Screen Australia Hot Shots Plus program. Her 2018 proof-of-concept short for Drum Wave was nominated for Best Australian Short Film at the Sydney Film Festival and premiered internationally at Fantastic Fest. Her 2016 short, Creswick, premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and has gone on to screen at 60+ festivals including the New York Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, Fantasia, and the Atlanta Film Festival. Creswick was awarded the 2017 AWGIE Award for Best Short Form screenplay by the Australian Writer’s Guild. In early 2017, Natalie was awarded a Film Victoria funded director’s attachment on Leigh Whannell’s sci-fi thriller, Upgrade. Natalie also produced Under the Sun, shot on location in Changzhou, China. Under The Sun premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival in the Cinefondation program, and has gone on to screen at 60+ festivals internationally. Natalie is signed to WME and directs commercials and music videos through Melbourne production company, Fiction (fiction.net.au). She has previously won Australian Music Video of the Year at the 2015 Triple J Awards for directing the music video Mine by artist Life is Better Blonde.
Relic releases July 10th.