I first saw this in the late 90s. Revisited it recently. Fast forwarded most scenes as i found the film to be not gripping n in fact annoying with those darkly shot scenes.

A detective is puzzled after recent spate of deaths involving decapitations. He visits a museum when a new victim is found murdered in the same way. In the museum, he encounters an evolutionary biologist who herself is puzzled after discovering a mutated beetle that possesses both insect and reptilian DNA. The detective finds a common link between the murders, hypothalamus missing from the brains of the victims. Together they both try to defeat a monster/killer who is on a killing spree. Most of the film is shot in the dark n to top it all, they added the annoying flickering flashlights. The action happens only in the last 30 mins. The design of the creature is very well done.

THE RELIC has to be one of the most disappointing monster movies ever made. I remember buying this on VHS when it first came out back in 1998 and feeling completely disappointed by it. The problem isn't the story, which is run-of-the-mill monster nonsense. It's a combination of the execution and the script, which combine to equal one of the most lacklustre monster flicks of all time. The movie takes an age to get going. Before anything in the region of 'interesting' happens, we're introduced to a bunch of particularly bland or detestable characters. When a slumming-it Tom Sizemore, playing a tired-looking cop, is the best character in the film, you know you're in trouble.

Penelope Ann Miller is one of those actresses who just seemed to disappear from our screens around this time. It's easy to see why; she's neither photogenic nor a talented actress, and when you combine this with her interfering, irritating character it makes for a bad combination. Her 'frightened face' is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Look out for a couple of clichés at her workplace: the crotchety, gnarled old boss (Linda Hunt),the wheelchair bound genius (old timer James Whitmore, who deserves better),and the sinister, treacherous Asian (Lo Chi Muoi).

Attempts are made to make things interesting by throwing in some gruesome crime scene shots of a severed head, but these do nothing to increase the entertainment value. Instead the movie plods on, cliché follows cliché, and finally we get a look at the beast: not Stan Winston's best work, it has to be said, the monster here looks like a primal rip-off of PREDATOR and is animated via some poor CGI (the laughable tongue scene is a real low point of the movie). In the last reel the film actually picks up, although by then it's too little, too late. We get a few cool scenes of the monster munching on party guests and taking apart a few SWAT guys (they even throw in the old 'severed guy' gag) before a ludicrous climax in which Miller manages to outrun a fireball that, in reality, would explode in about three milliseconds (but gets stretched out to a full 30 seconds here). Peter Hyams is one of my least favourite directors but even by his low standards he's slacking on this one. It's a crashing bore of a monster flick.

Researcher John Whitney sends a crate back to Chicago's Natural History Museum from Brazil, but he himself is missing. The crate seems to be empty except for some leaves. Margo Green (Penelope Ann Miller) is a researcher who takes an interest in the crate. Lt. Vincent D'Agosta (Tom Sizemore) who's investigating the presumed drug smuggling John Whitney's murder also investigates a Museum security guard's gruesome murder. Little did they know that the crate has brought back something more than leaves.

This is a well made monster movie. Director Peter Hyams is well verse in the art of horror. He's able to squeeze every bit of scary moment out of this old fashion horror. He makes a great sequence of nothing more than sounds and shadows scaring the bejesus out of Penelope Ann Miller. The monster is best as unseen growls and shadows for the first half of the movie.

It's a creature from the great Stan Winston. It's a transitional time when they are trying to marry the mechanical physical model with some animation. Coming after Jurassic Park, it fails only by comparison. Nevertheless, there are some great monster work here.