This excerpt from the Stan Original film Relic is rich with a foreboding atmosphere. The wintry rural setting and small cast of characters are not unusual for a haunted-house movie, but Relic has something more allegorical on its mind.

This sequence, like much of the film, takes place at night. Japanese-Australian writer and director Natalie Erika James, making her first feature, uses every tool at her disposal to unsettle us, from the unexpected noises on the soundtrack to holding too long on the establishing shot of the house exterior. The action unfolds against still backgrounds in dark interiors, adding to the creeping sense of dread.

Robyn Nevin’s Edna has been missing from her home when the film starts, and her daughter (played by Emily Mortimer) is worried that Edna’s worsening dementia means she will soon require full-time care. Sam (Bella Heathcote) would rather give her grandmother the benefit of the doubt and sees Edna as inseparable from the house and all its memories.

The clip positions Edna and the house almost as one entity; her cardigan fades into the wall colour, and she is frequently on the verge of being swallowed by shadowy spaces. Veteran actor Nevin nimbly shifts from sinister to frightened to reassuring and homely. She keeps Sam – and us – constantly guessing about the state of her mind and her connection to the house, her performance grounding the film’s horror of losing a loved one to dementia.

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