IFC Midnight will release writer/director Natalie Erika James’ feature debut Relic starring Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote, Robyn Nevin that world premiered at Sundance Film Festival. The film, hailed as “a fresh and terrifying twist on the notorious haunted-house tale” will be released on July 10, 2020 in theaters and on demand / digital rental.

When elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin) inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) rush 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 explores the fear and heartbreak of dementia and ageing through a horror lens. Director Natalie Erika James recalls “The original inspiration for Relic was drawn from personal experience, of my grandmother having Alzheimer’s and looking at the changing relationship between her and my mother. And the shifting dynamics within a family when the parent assumes the role of the child.”