The Relic (1997)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast. We're your hosts, Matt Levine and

(00:22):
Vincent Hanna. And we're talking about all of our favorite monster movies, The Good,
The Bad and The Downright Campy and asking if they stand the test of time. Traditional
Kaiju, creature features, space invaders, the supernatural and everything in between. All
strange beasts, welcome here. Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack,

(00:42):
powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping
for investor clients and residential buyers. Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate
services, follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.

(01:24):
goes in alone. This place is not going to open until every room is clear. I'll go. Come out,
come out wherever you are. Any idea about a weapon? Something big. The board is hosting
a gala preview here tomorrow night. It would be a disaster for us if we had to postpone.
We may have somebody on our hands who makes Jeffrey Dahmer look like a Cub Scout. You

(01:46):
You have to let the gala go on.
Something's wrong.
Come on, what's the matter with you?
The relic.
How you doing, Vincent?
Oh, I'm good.
I've been watching some good scary movies.
You'll like this.
I've I have finally started the Nightmare on Elm Street series.

(02:09):
My favorite, my favorite series.
I know and I've seen the first one a few times.
So I skipped that.
I went straight to two, which I know is high on your list.
Yes, it is.
That's my favorite of the series and one of my favorite 80s horror movies for sure.
Maybe just horror movies in general that's become kind of legendary is like,

(02:32):
you know, a thinly veiled story about a young gay man who's struggling to kind
of like come to grips with his identity and come out of the closet and can kind
of just understand his own sexuality.
But it's also a great nightmare on Elm Street movie.
So I really love the second the second movie in that series.
I really would like to consider that movie for an episode of Camp Kaiju because

(02:57):
of those themes.
But also there is some imagery in that movie that just really kind of warped my brain.
I was like, what is happening?
And if it's a if it forshadows the rest of the series, I'm all for it.
But there were some messed up things.

(03:18):
Yeah, I often think about the like like hell dogs or like devil dogs or whatever.
You like at towards the end.
Those are terrifying.
And like, I don't know.
The only thing I'm going to say is I really didn't know when the store when the
movie was in a dream or not.
And I'm still thinking about that.

(03:41):
Yeah, because I'm like, is that a perfect example of the unreliable narrator?
Or is it just a really poorly made movie?
I don't know.
I keep thinking about it.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I would like to believe it's intentional and you know, kind of blurring
the lines between reality and a dream state.
But yeah, I mean, there's there's certainly a debate to be had about that.

(04:04):
But I do love that movie and most of the rest of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are
like really clever, very surreal and strange.
Definitely my favorite horror movie franchise.
All right.
Well, we'll get it on Camp Kaiju for sure at some point.
Cool.
I can't wait.
All right.
How about how are you?
Pretty good.

(04:24):
Yeah, I mean, it's October my favorite month of the year.
An excuse to watch at least one horror movie a day, which is always fun.
So that's been good.
I've been trying to see a bunch of stuff in theaters.
Some good stuff is out there right now.
I you know, the change of the seasons.
I'm a little under the weather, but I mean, it's October.
There are horror movies out there.
Everything is good.

(04:45):
All is right with the world.
Nice.
So thanks for hanging out friends.
Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
Please rate and review Camp Kaiju wherever you listen.
You can also send us listener comments at CampKaiju at gmail.com.
You can leave comments on our Facebook page or our Instagram page at Camp
underscore Kaiju or if you'd like to be a featured voice on the show,

(05:08):
leave a voicemail at 612-470-2612 telling us about your favorite monster
movies and memories.
The creepier the message that you leave for us, the better.
So please don't hold back.
We're going to feature our Patreon our patron,
Sean's Kaiju hotline voicemail later this episode when he's talking about

(05:31):
walking down the streets with some shadows following him.
Very creepy.
Man can't wait.
Whoa.
Sorry.
For people.
Well, this probably won't be in the episode.
Vincent's screen has like it just kind of went topsy-turvy and it really
caught me off guard.
So everything's we're in the upside down here on Camp Kaiju tonight.

(05:54):
Stranger Things reference.
Yeah, sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry everybody.
I'm just messing with my background.
Matt continue, please.
All right.
Finally, please check out our website Camp Kaiju podcast.com for more
reviews and special content coming up in the month of October.
We'll probably have some more reviews, maybe even a list or two on there.

(06:15):
So make sure to check that out.
And finally, finally, please become a patron at patreon.com
slash Camp Kaiju for discounts, priority comments and access to any live events.
Thank you so much to all of our current patrons Jason, Chris, Sean, Peggy,
and our anonymous patron.
We really appreciate you.

(06:37):
Anybody else out there if you'd like to become a patron yourself, we do
have some occasional kind of promotions and kind of extra goodies that you
get.
So check it out.
Yeah.
So yeah, what's going on since last time at Camp Kaiju when we talked about
Planet of the Apes, the Tim Burton 2001 movie.

(06:58):
One thing that I found out today is that Mel Gibson is in a new monster
movie and it's supposed to be terrible.
Is it just a biography?
It certainly could be.
I would, you know, that might be a more interesting movie, but this one
is called Monster Summer.
It's getting terrible reviews.

(07:19):
It's but I'm really intrigued by it.
I would kind of like to see it.
Can't really find a synopsis, but it's a new Mel Gibson monster movie
and it's supposed to be bad.
And I think that's kind of amusing.
So who knows?
Maybe I'll watch it.
Maybe not.
Probably not.
But that's out there.
All right.
Just it won't take very long.
Here's the synopsis of Monster Summer starring Mel Gibson.

(07:39):
When a mysterious force begins to disrupt their big summer fun, Noah and
his friends team up with a retired police detective to embark on a
monstrous adventure to save their island.
Like I said, supposed to be bad.
Mel Gibson is in it.
If that sounds intriguing to you, check it out.
Okay.
What else do we have going on?

(08:00):
Well, you saw the substance.
Yes, I did, which is definitely a monster movie that is firmly in the
monster movie genre.
It's really good.
There are some things I didn't like about it.
Just a quick sort of description of the movie, which played at film
festivals earlier this year and got a lot of publicity at one best
screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.

(08:22):
So the idea of the movie is that Demi Moore plays a kind of aging
celebrity.
She finds out about this new kind of black market drug that supposedly
unleashes a new better you.
So she tries out this drug.
The less you know about what happens after that, the better.
So I want to reveal anything else, but it is extremely gory.
Really disgusting, very funny over the top.

(08:45):
Some of the themes seem a little bit obvious, like kind of a
Hollywood's obsession with youth and beauty is maybe not the most
mind blowing theme of all time.
But this movie approaches it in just such an incredible provocative
over the top way.
Definitely highly recommended, especially if you love monster movies

(09:05):
and you don't mind just gallons of gore and some gross out horror
check it out for sure.
It's one of the kind the smile on your face as you talked about
all of that.
I wish listeners could see.
Yeah, it's I mean, I'm thinking about like the last 10 to 20 minutes
of the movie in particular when like everything goes crazy.

(09:28):
And yeah, I won't ruin it from there.
But check it out for sure.
Okay, you also saw Megalopolis not a monster movie, but just tell
me about it.
I love Megalopolis.
I know it's divisive.
I know it's gotten some bad reviews, but I you know, Francis
Ford Coppola late in his career, obviously, but he invested so

(09:52):
much of his money into this project and it attempts to be kind
of like, you know, the fall of the American Empire as if it
were ancient Rome sort of like mirroring that story a little
bit. So it's very political.
It's really over the top.
It's stunningly beautiful, ambitious, creative, funny, at times
intentionally funny, very often unintentionally funny, but you

(10:17):
know, it's definitely a flawed movie.
But despite its flaws, I just haven't seen an American film in
particular over the last several years that is so alive and filled
with ideas and unique and like clearly the expression of like
an artist who's trying to say something, you know, so whatever
its flaws Megalopolis is amazing.
I've seen it twice.

(10:37):
I really love it.
Yeah, that's great.
I have yet to see this movie, but I do love the idea of an
artist and an artist's passion project, you know, damn the
critics damn the box office.
You know, he probably knew the metrics weren't looking good,
but I know he's been talking about making this movie for

(10:59):
decades and Coppola, you know, he does have some some baggage
with with him.
But regardless of his personal life, his place in cinema
history is undeniable and I'm just interested in like you
said a late career work whether it's from him or Scorsese or

(11:23):
what Spielberg is doing now.
It's just like what these guys we've seen for like 50 years
now.
It's like what are they?
What are they saying in the twilight of their lives?
Yeah, I agree.
It's fascinating to see that.
I think like that has happened with other directors in the
past like some of Hitchcock's later movies like Frenzy, for

(11:43):
example, are really fascinating Billy Wilder some of his later
movies like the private life Sherlock Holmes and Avanti and
Fedora.
I'm you know, I believe that directors get more interesting
as they age instead of less interesting.
That's not true across the board.
Of course, but you know, the yeah, this this late career kind
of like burst from Coppola is fascinating.

(12:03):
I love to see it.
It's great.
Yeah, totally.
So yeah, that's highly recommended for sure.
Cool aside from Nightmare on Elm Street.
Have you seen anything good?
I watched a new horror movie, which I don't often do.
Unfortunately, I want to watch more new movies, but it's
called Immaculate.
It was released earlier this year.

(12:25):
It stars Sydney Sweeney and she's a nun and without spoiling
anything, she becomes immaculate immaculately with child.
So there's like a mystery within the convent about how this
happened.
It is worth checking out as you would say it is messy.

(12:48):
It is full of all the cliches of a nun horror movie, but you
know, the end left me left me thinking I was like, huh?
All right.
All right.
Yeah, that's a good selling point.
Good review.
I'm intrigued to check it out.

(13:09):
I like Sydney Sweeney.
I haven't seen a lot of her stuff, but yeah, very compelling.
I'm always up for a good like nun horror movie.
So I'll check it out for sure.
It's 90 minutes.
So actually it was a weirdly effective double feature with
the second Nightmare on Elm Street.
I watched them back to back.
Well, I'm just like they both play with themes of unwanted

(13:33):
presence within the body.
So I was like, oh, there are some weird parallels here.
That's I mean, you just clinched it.
I definitely want to see immaculate now with that comparison.
That sounds great.
And you know, like, you know, body horror and kind of like
things like unwanted guests and stuff like that, like in your
body or like in your in your home in your space, like I'm

(13:54):
always up for that theme.
So it sounds great.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of so last time on Camp Kaiju previously.
There was a scratching at my door that we were convinced.
It was a fiend without a face or an ape from a planet beyond
the stars.
Turns out as my dog that I had forgotten.

(14:16):
I had left on the porch and I felt really bad at the end of
our recording.
I love that.
Yeah, the when we recorded that episode, you were like, there
is something outside of my house.
It's trying to get in and I had like, oh, what's that?
Sorry.
It freaked me out.
Yeah, it was freaking me out too.
Like I had all these, you know, nightmare, nightmarish visions

(14:39):
in my head, but it turns out it was your dog, which is a fiend
in a way, but not the kind of fiend that I was thinking of.
Had I actually opened the door, I would have been so relieved
to see my dog.
I love that story.
I like in a way, I'm kind of glad that you didn't.
So there was this like mystery for a little while, you know,

(15:01):
like while we recorded like it made it more interesting for
sure.
Now we got now we all know rest easy out there folks.
It was only ginger.
Yes.
I also guested on another monster movie podcast called
Monster Candy podcast.
I will link this episode in our own show notes, but they're

(15:23):
a great gang of movie lovers over there.
Punk rockers actually some pretty tight music.
So anyways, we got connected on Instagram.
They wanted me to help them discuss the Ray Harryhausen
movie Earth versus the flying saucers.
And it's not a great movie, but I would say it's so bad that

(15:46):
it's good.
So check out that movie, but then listen to our conversation
over at Monster Candy podcast and give them some love.
I have not seen that movie or listened to that podcast
episode yet and I cannot wait to do both.
So as soon as possible, I'm checking them out.
Yeah, not bad.
We do have a few things coming up on Camp Kaiju.

(16:08):
The Wolf Man will be our next episode followed by God told
me to and then Godzilla minus one.
Some good stuff coming up.
The Wolf Man is classic.
God told me to seems like kind of a weird obscure cult movie
by Larry Cohen.
I know almost nothing about it, but I'm very excited for that.
Godzilla minus one will be fun to talk about.

(16:30):
I feel like I'm slightly in the minority on that one.
I don't love it as much as some other people do, but you know,
stay tuned for that episode.
We'll dive in for sure.
Another thing we should mention Chris Christopherson rest in
peace. We've lost some great actors and artists and filmmakers
this year.
Chris Christopherson, one of the latest ones.

(16:50):
You know, I can't think of too many monster movies that he
was in, although he was in the Blade series, of course.
So well, he was in Planet of the Apes.
Yeah, you're right.
The one that we just talked about like two weeks ago.
That's it's not very resonant in my mind.
I guess.
Yeah, he really left an impression.
Yeah, I do love Chris Christopherson.

(17:12):
He's in Alice doesn't live here anymore.
Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia.
Some other really good movies.
So rest in peace.
Chris Christopherson.
Yeah.
Real quick, we can talk about movies that came out in Monster
movie history around this time.
The one that I'll shout out is one of my favorite horror movies

(17:34):
of all time.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre released on October 11th, 1974.
So that's about 40 years ago.
Pretty close to that.
Yeah, I mean, you know, there's the question.
Is it a monster movie?
Is it not a monster movie?
Because it's a human serial killer and all that.
But it is one of the best horror movies of all time.
So Texas Chainsaw Massacre 40 years ago, right around this time.

(17:58):
50 years ago.
Yeah, you're right.
When I said that, I was like, is that math, right?
That doesn't sound correct.
Usually I'm not terrible at math, but that was pretty bad.
50 years ago, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Yeah, and I have to shout out The Earth Dies Screaming, a movie
from 1964 about killer robots.

(18:20):
I love a good killer robot movie.
It's a great sub sub sub genre of horror.
So yeah, The Earth Dies Screaming.
I hope to find a trailer for that one for this episode.
Yeah, I mean, I'm intrigued by the title.
It's directed by Terrence Fisher, who I think did quite a few

(18:42):
Hammer Horror movies.
So I'm very intrigued.
I would like to find out more about it for sure.
Upcoming monster movie, Smile 2.
Did you ever see the first Smile movie?
No.
I liked it.
It has its flaws.
I don't like the ending very much.
And I think the sequel maybe will be not as good, but that's

(19:03):
coming out pretty soon.
October 18th.
Since we are talking about killer robots, there is a movie
called Y2K that is being released in December about the
trailer looks pretty good.
It's making the rounds on film and film festivals, but it's
about a group of teenagers party years at the they're having

(19:24):
a New Year's Eve party on 1999 to 2000.
So the Y2K scare that electronics would all go haywire in
this movie.
In this movie, they do and like toaster start killing people
and it looks awesome.
You know, total maximum overdrive, you know, you know, so

(19:44):
like like I'm saying, it's a really fun genre killer machines
and robots.
Yeah, I don't really know that much about Y2K the movie.
That sounds pretty cool.
I might have to check that out, but I agree about killer robots
we just talked about chopping mall in the last episode, which
is a great killer robot movie.
Maybe Y2K will live up to that movies, you know, prestige at

(20:07):
least in my own head.
I hope so.
I just love wackadoo movies like this coming out now because
I feel like they are a throwback to the 80s and these other
earlier times when you just had so many like small crazy
movies being released.
For sure.
Yeah, and one of my favorite things about the movie that

(20:29):
we're talking about tonight is that it's kind of a fun throwback
to like creature features from, you know, like the 50s and
60s.
Yeah, the relic man.
I feel like we've hardly mentioned it, but let's let's get
to it.
Yeah, let's let's dive in.
We should be ruling the humans.
These people are food.
The world you live in is just a sugarcone in top.

(20:50):
There's a war going on out there.
This Friday, the agent man comes to an end.
Evil's greatest fear that must hurt is our only hope.
The worst is out there.
Vampires like me.
Wesley Slipes, Stephen Dorps, Blade.
Rated R.

(21:11):
Starts Friday.
Someone is coming back to Elm Street.
He is not friendly.
He is not patient.
And he is not a welcome visitor.

(21:32):
But he has something terribly special for the new kid on the
block.
It started to happen again.
You've had some scary dreams.
Okay.
Daddy can't help you now.
There's something inside him.
Fight him.

(21:57):
You're not afraid of him.
He doesn't even exist.
Freddy Krueger is back on Elm Street.
Watch out for him.
Maybe in your neighborhood soon.
A nightmare on Elm Street.
Part two.
You are all my children now.

(22:21):
Freddy's Revenge.
Suddenly, a man dies at the controls of a train.
Suddenly, a car swerves to destruction.
Suddenly, a plane dives to death.

(22:48):
The earth dies screaming.
Suddenly, death descends on the four corners of the earth.
And only a handful of human beings survive to live in fear.
Powerless to combat an unknown.

(23:09):
The earth dies screaming and the robots take over.

(23:34):
Okay, my history with the relic.
Like no history.
It's been something I'd seen on my Hulu Q and I'm like, yeah,

(23:55):
that looks like something I'd be interested in.
But leave it to Kam Kaiju to finally give me the excuse to watch it.
So there's a lot of liked about this movie.
There's some easy critiques to be made.
But overall, I'm excited to dive into it.

(24:15):
Definitely.
Yeah, I have a similar history with this movie, although I did see it
when I first came out.
I think I must have seen it in the theater with my parents or something.
They took me to a lot of movies when I was that age.
I was around 13 years old when this came out and then I totally forgot
about it for like, you know, like 20 or 30 years or whatever.
My math is really bad tonight, man.

(24:35):
I forgot about it for a very long time.
And then I was just like flipping through the channels and a couple
minutes of it were on TV and I was like, oh yeah, this movie.
I totally forgot about this.
It's like, I think most people have forgotten about this movie, but
there's a lot that's fun about it.
So I'm excited to talk about it, too.
It is a monster movie, like a legitimate monster movie.

(24:59):
And I found that really fun, especially with it being made in the 90s.
It's just like it's a throwback movie, but it has such a 90s feel to it.
Yeah, that I just I loved it.
Cool.
Yeah, I'm happy to hear that.
I mostly really loved it, too.

(25:19):
And it's set in a museum.
It was shot at the Field Museum in Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural
History.
So that's a fun setting.
Yeah, well, we'll dive in soon here.
But yeah, a fun late 90s creature feature.
Yeah, cool.
So yeah, the relic from 1997, like I said, directed by Peter Hyams.
He was also the cinematographer.

(25:41):
He did the cinematography on most of the movies that he directed.
So kind of serving double duty there.
He was a kind of a solid craftsman who did movies in a lot of different
genres.
Capricorn 1, a sci-fi movie, was one of his first hits that he directed.
He also made 2010 the sequel to 2001, a Space Odyssey, which I think is

(26:04):
pretty terrible.
But some people like that movie.
Maybe I'm unfairly comparing it to 2001.
Peter Hyams also directed two Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, Time
Cop and Sudden Death, which are both really fun.
I love JCVD.
I'm a big fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme and those two time cop, especially
so entertaining.

(26:25):
So yeah, Peter Hyams, not like an auteur, not a brilliant artist, but
a lot of entertaining movies that he made over the years.
The film was written by Amy Holden Jones, love a female screenwriter
in this genre.
John Raffo, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver, based on the novel by Douglas

(26:46):
Preston and Lincoln Child.
Amy Holden Jones had written and directed The Slumber Party Massacre,
which I hear a lot in horror circles, and wrote movies like Love Letters
and Decent Proposal and The Getaway.
The remake of The Getaway.
I just wanted to point that out.
Okay, good, good, good.
Jaffa and Silver are a husband-wife team who wrote and produced

(27:11):
Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Hey, oh, yeah.
I ever love its sequels in the reboot series.
They also wrote Jurassic World and the Avatar sequel.
Whoa, interesting.
Okay.
Yeah, they have their hands in a lot of recent franchises and reboot
series and stuff like that.
Of course, we just talked about Rise of the Planet of the Apes on our

(27:33):
last episode, and I'm excited to go into more of those movies.
So I'll be, you know, intimately familiar with their work in the
near future, hopefully.
Yeah.
The Relic was produced by Gail Anne Hurd and Sam Mercer, kind of
similarly to that screenwriting team that we were just talking about.
They have their presence in a lot of very, very well-known monster

(27:57):
horror thriller movies as well.
Gail Anne Hurd produced The Terminator, Aliens, Alienation, The
Abyss, Tremors, not to mention several sequels in those franchises
like Terminator 2 and Tremors 2 Aftershocks, I think it's called.
So yeah, she has produced a lot of monster movies over the years.
Her producing partner on The Relic, Sam Mercer, produced movies

(28:21):
like Congo, which is amazing.
And I definitely hope that we talk about that on the podcast at
some point, as well as several M.Night Shyamalan movies like Unbreakable
Signs and The Village.
So pretty good pedigree for the producing and writing team on this movie.
Okay.
I mean, that all makes sense because these movies, all these movies

(28:41):
we mentioned, these producers and writers clearly understand the
genre, which I get that watching The Relic.
I know what they're doing.
It leans into tropes, but in a really knowing way and effective way.
It's good.
Like it's a solid movie.
Okay.
I won't get ahead of myself.
Creature effects are by Stan Winston, a legend in the industry.

(29:05):
Really, really effective stuff.
Again, I won't get ahead of myself.
Yeah.
Well, there will be a lot to talk about there for sure.
This movie maybe does not do justice to those creature effects, but
we'll talk more about that soon.
So in the lead role, we have Penelope Ann Miller playing Dr.
Margot Green, an evolutionary biologist.
Penelope Ann Miller had her first big break on Broadway and a

(29:29):
start in many, many movies over the years like Adventures in Babysitting,
Kindergarten Cop, Chaplin, Carlito's Way, The Shadow, so on and so forth.
The Relic was her first horror movie and she said in interviews that
she really enjoyed making it.
She liked the character a lot.
She thought it was a good solid scary movie.
So her first experience with with acting in a horror movie and at

(29:52):
least from her perspective, she really enjoyed it a lot.
Cool.
Tom Sizemore is in this movie as Lieutenant Dagosta.
Dagosta.
Tom Sizemore is just one of those faces.
He's just in a lot of different movies and TV, Born on the 4th of
July, Later, Point Break, True Romance, Heat, Saving Private Ryan,

(30:16):
Bringing Out the Dead.
So yeah, like tough guy roles.
Tom Sizemore fits the bill.
Yeah, great character actor and The Relic is one of the few times
that he plays the the male protagonist in the movie.
So he's always a good presence.
I think he just he just died a couple years ago.
So rest in peace to Tom Sizemore, but he's a lot of fun in this movie.

(30:40):
In a supporting role, we have Linda Hunt as the movie or as the
museum curator Anne Cuthbert.
She's mostly distinctive for her very short stature.
She's been in a lot of movies and TV shows over the years.
Currently, she's probably best known for having a supporting role
in NCIS Los Angeles.

(31:01):
But she's also been in Popeye, the original Dune, The Year of
Living Dangerously.
Yes, a familiar presence for sure.
If you see her in this movie, you'll probably recognize her.
Yeah, she's fun.
Another staple of 90s pop culture movies.
How about James Whitmore?
I knew he looked familiar was in them.

(31:24):
Yeah, classic prior.
Yeah.
Yeah, I is sort of like you.
I was like, where do I know that guy from?
I've seen him in a movie before and sure enough.
Yeah, them one of my favorite monster movies.
James Whitmore plays one of the main characters.
Yeah, and he was also in the original Planet of the Apes.
So we're bringing it back.

(31:46):
Yep, it all comes full circle on Camp Kaji.
I wish I could say that we planned that out.
But in any case, it's a fun coincidence for sure.
Yeah.
The last cast member that I wanted to mention is Joffrey C.
Brown.
He has a very small role in this movie.
He plays the security guard who is the first person killed in

(32:08):
the movie.
The only reason I think this is interesting is because he's
also in Jurassic Park and he's the first character killed in
that movie as well.
He's the animal handler who is killed by a velociraptor at
the beginning of that movie kind of gives credence to the
cliche from 1990s movies that the black characters are always
the first to die.
That's unfortunate.
But it's kind of a cool connection that Joffrey C.

(32:28):
Brown is in both the relic and Jurassic Park.
I just wanted to point that out.
Yeah, valid.
That's good.
Yeah, trivia.
It's all about the trivia here.
Oh, I mean, what kind of movie podcast would we be if we
didn't talk trivia?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaking of which, there are probably some good trivia facts
in the production backstory of the film.
Should we dive into that real quick?

(32:49):
Oh, yes.
So like we said before, the movie is based on a novel by
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
That novel is set in the American Museum of Natural
History in New York where Preston was the public relations
director.
He seems to have maybe had some kind of beef in that position
because the novel doesn't always portray museum management

(33:12):
in the best light.
So when they were working on this film adaptation, the
museum would not allow the filmmakers to shoot in the
actual American Museum of Natural History.
They also said that they were a little bit worried about,
you know, a scary movie kind of like keeping kids away from
the museum, which is insane.
Like, you know, that would bring kids to the museum if like

(33:34):
a horror movie is set there.
So in any case, they didn't shoot the movie there.
The producers kind of scrambled to find a replacement and
luckily the Field Museum in Chicago loved the idea and
jumped at the opportunity for them to shoot the movie there.
So that's where it's at.
Yeah, talk about publicity.
Like, come on.
Yeah, I write.

(33:55):
I mean, it's like you.
I don't know.
The museum setting is so fun in this movie, you know, like
it adds to it so much.
And I've never seen the A Night at the Museum movies with
Ben Stiller.
I kind of assume they're terrible, but I sort of see the
relic is like a gory monster movie version of those movies,
you know, like I think like maybe there's a similar appeal

(34:18):
there.
So, I don't know, the Field Museum is definitely a major
character in this movie and provides a lot of the fun to
its kind of atmosphere, I would say.
And how many, yeah, just like how many movies are have this
setting.
I will stand up for the first night at the museum.
Okay, I've never seen the sequels, but you know, it's one

(34:39):
of Mickey Rooney's last roles.
So he's just fun and Dick Van Dyke who's still alive.
Oh, and Robin Williams is in it too, right?
He's in the sequel.
Okay.
I take it back.
I should see them before I talk trash about them.
So I take it back.
I'm sorry.
Good to know that you like the first one.
That's cool.
No, I forget.
Just go watch Megalopolis again.

(35:01):
You know, I mean like we're equal opportunity.
You can love Megalopolis and you can watch a Night of the
Museum.
It's all good.
I'll see Megalopolis for a third time and then watch a Night
of the Museum afterwards.
It'll be a great double feature.
That's a yeah, that you tell me about that.
My brain will explode afterwards.
What else?
Well, the adaptation did you just mention this?

(35:24):
I don't know.
The adaptation cuts out the books main character FBI agent
Pendergast, but this is just kind of incorporated into the
Degasta character.
So nothing really lost there, but let's talk Stan Winston
and his crew.
They made three versions of the creature which is called the
how that could have been a trivia question.

(35:45):
If we had one on this episode.
Cthoga.
It's a really cool name.
Cthoga.
There it is.
Yeah.
Yeah, the Cthoga.
They made three versions of the Cthoga with two people moving
the head and several other crew members working the electronics
to move the arms, claws, mouth, etc.
The initial plan was to use more animatronics, but the short

(36:07):
pre-production schedule forced them to use the man in a suit
approach.
Final design had a spider like head and a 15 foot long body
that was an amalgamation of a lion and alligator a horse
detailed with reptilian scales and tufts of hair down the spine.
So yeah, those those practical creature effects are kind of

(36:29):
combined with CGI whenever we see the creature in close-up
or if it's kind of, you know, supposed to be like lurking off
camera or whatever, then it's usually the practical effects.
If it's running or if it's kind of like it's mostly if it's
running or if it's kind of moving quickly, then CGI is usually
used instead.
It really does seem like the creature was like the main hurdle

(36:51):
in the production of this movie.
Like I couldn't really find out a lot about the rest of the
making of the film, which I think kind of went, you know, just
according to plan, but the creature was extremely difficult,
very painful for the actors that were in the suit.
It took a long time to get the look of it, right?
I found a lot of stuff just about the CGI that went into the
making of it and like all the different sort of like late 90s

(37:13):
computer programs that they used to make it.
I didn't think it was really maybe interesting to talk about
on this episode, but it's definitely out there on the on
the internet.
And if you're into, you know, late 90s computer graphics and
design, it was an ordeal for sure.
They use like four different programs to like combine the

(37:37):
rendering and the look and like the facial expressions and
stuff like that.
So whether or not those CGI effects hold up is another matter,
but we'll talk more about that.
Yeah, and that just sounds exactly the kind of research I
did with the mummy from 1999, which is only two years later,
but this technology that we take for granted now truly was

(37:59):
still in its infancy and visual designers were like both
excited, but also frustrated with the technology because it
was just like right there.
They're so close to getting it to work perfectly.
But like you say, it took a lot of tinkering to get something
realistic.
Yeah, and just a lot of time and money to like this movie was

(38:21):
supposed to come out in 1996 and then they had to delay that
almost a year just because the computer effects took so long.
So I have a habit of like bad mouthing CGI and I still hold
hold firm to that point of view.
But you know, it's easy to forget that like there's so much
innovation and so many artists that take part in that process.

(38:42):
So I don't love CGI, but shout out to all the people who worked
on the CGI in this movie.
It sounds like it was a pretty pretty difficult ordeal time
for our sponsor break on that note before we go any further
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack powered
by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home

(39:04):
rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential
buyers. Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate
services. Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact
the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.
Link is in the bio.
Vincent, do we have anything fun in Minya's mailbox tonight?
Oh, we do. Fun, fun, fun.

(39:27):
We have two comments.
I'm going to I'm going to since they're short.
I figured I'd read both of them.
These are both on our YouTube page mischief tales and they
relate to Fiend Without a Face.
So we have Ruffian Zion and Ruffian Zion says I saw this film
when I was at school and loved it.

(39:47):
I created a monster for my D&D campaign that was based on
the mental vampires.
Cool.
That sounds fun.
Mental vampires.
So cool.
We also have Paul Peretti on YouTube and Paul Peretti says
one of my all-time favorite sci-fi movies.
It's good to hear.

(40:07):
I mean, Fiend Without a Face.
I'll stick up for that movie.
I know we both rated it the same way, but I feel like we had
slightly different reactions to it.
I'm a big fan of it as well.
I know you mostly were too, but with some reservations, I'm
always happy to hear that people like Fiend Without a Face.
I think it's really fun.
Yeah, no in hindsight like I like the Monster Candy podcast

(40:29):
guys, they they love that movie too.
So it's like one of those things where now I hadn't I wasn't
familiar with the movie before but now that I am I'm hearing
about it all the time.
I'm like, oh, where was I for, you know, 70 years?
Not in existence for most of that time.

(40:51):
So you have a good excuse there, you know, excuses.
But yeah, that's it.
Say it has cult status.
Yeah.
Thank you, Ruffy and Zion.
Thank you, Paul Peretti.
Thank you all for writing in week in week out.
We appreciate it and we love reading your comments and your
thoughts.
So keep them coming and we'll keep featuring them on Menia's

(41:13):
mailbox.
And we also have a trivia question out there.
There's still time to submit your answer to our trivia question
that we gave you all in our Planet of the Apes episode.
Here I'm going to repeat the question for you all if you
would like to participate.
Planet of the Apes was nominated for three Razzie Awards.
The film won two of them.

(41:33):
Worst remake or sequel and Worst Supporting Actor.
That award Worst Supporting Actor went to which member of
the supporting cast of Planet of the Apes.
That is our trivia question for Planet of the Apes.
If you know the answer you'd like to guess, please feel free
to leave the answer on our social media pages or email

(41:57):
CampKaiju.
We will announce the answer on our next episode about the
Wolfman.
So stay tuned for that.
Yes, for sure.
Thank you, Matt, for refreshing us there.
And now we're going to turn it over to Mr.
Peter Laurie.
He's going to talk about Metropolis, not Megalopolis, but

(42:17):
I'm sure there's Coppola's pole in some of the same imagery.
Maybe I don't know.
I've never seen it.
Yeah, there are definitely like explicit references to Metropolis
including like one little dance that like the robot Maria
does in Metropolis that also is kind of like repeated in

(42:38):
Megalopolis.
So I'm not going to nerd out about Megalopolis too much, but
that's one of many, many fun, fun things about that movie.
Well, I don't think Peter Laurie will nerd out about Metropolis.
He's I've heard he's not having a great time in the recording
booth.
He keeps like he keeps scratching at the door.
He keeps I'm like Peter.

(42:59):
We give you food.
We give you water.
What else do you need?
Yeah, he has his bucket of fish heads in there.
Like, you know, just just be content.
That's all you need.
He's maybe someday he'll break out of there, but I kind of doubt
it.
I don't think it's ever going to happen.
He must fulfill the contract for season four and then he's
free to do whatever he wants.
But don't don't say that we need him for the next couple

(43:21):
seasons at least.
Well, okay, you bring it up between you and me and you listeners.
I am in talks with Bela Lugosi.
Whoa, that's miraculous.
Yes, he's trying.
It's his comeback tour.
We're trying to see he wants it.

(43:43):
He wants us.
He came to us and I was like, okay, I saw your last movie.
I'll give you I'll throw you a bone.
Yeah, how can you say no to Bela Lugosi?
He's, you know, synonymous with classic horror.
You have to you might do something with like poverty row horror
films.
Man, I can't wait.

(44:05):
That's I mean, I do.
I feel bad for Peter.
I hope he breaks out of that recordings booth at some point because
yeah, it cannot be fun in there.
So we'll have to see what happens with with Peter and Bella coming
up soon.
Yeah.
Well, for now, we've got metropolis to hear from.
So yeah, it'll be a good time.

(44:26):
Cool.
I can't wait.
Before Karloff and Lugosi stocked the screens, the movies were no
less monstrous.
These frightful figures lurked in the expressionistic shadows and
danced in the macabre moonlight.

(44:48):
Oh, they laughed.
They cried.
They fooled the sensibilities of honest decent folk.
The age of silent pictures.
These gruesome ghouls nonetheless crying out with a savage
humanity that took the breath from all who witnessed their
devilish delights.

(45:10):
For in the silence, no one can hear you scream.
You know Pierre, this bucket of fish heads isn't so bad.
Hmm.
Perhaps I should be more civil with Matthew and Vincent.

(45:34):
Perhaps if I extend the olive branch, they may be more amenable
to my desperate situation.
For it is not the infernal recording book that upsets me so,
but rather the lack of human connection.
No offense, Pierre.
But do you hear me, my captors?

(45:56):
Matthew, Vincent, I throw down the bucket of fish head gauntlet
and I say to you, come and visit me sometime and you shall have
a fish head for yourself.
Hmm.
Oh, this is some good food.
Hmm.

(46:17):
Well, well, well, well.
Damen und Herren, welcome to Silent But Deadly where I, Peter
Laurie, review monster movies from the silent era with the
supreme pleasure.
I positively relish my summoning from the spirit world to willingly

(46:37):
lend my voice to a podcast.
This week we discuss Metropolis from director Fritz Long who
might be just as well known for his films M and the Doctor
Mabusa series.
Metropolis was made in Germany during the Weimar period.

(46:58):
It is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the
attempts of Frater, the wealthy son of the city master and Maria,
a saintly figure to the workers, who overcome the vast Gulf
separating the classes in their city and bring these workers
together with the films often repeated message reads quote

(47:21):
the mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart.
Metropolis is difficult to surmise in mere minutes.
It is an epic science fiction film with elements of horror in
the mad scientist Rotvang and his evil Android mistress.

(47:42):
The movie is cited among the most influential of all time with
its design elements appearing in other classics like like
Blade Runner and Matthew's personal favorite movie of all
time Megalopolis.
And while I may prefer my own feature with Fritz Lang, I
cannot recommend Metropolis enough.

(48:04):
Next time.
Oh, yes, next time we will discuss one more movie from Germany
in the Expressionistic School and considering it's Halloween.
This one will be perfect.
FW Murnau's other classic Faust.
I think I am getting good at this Pierre so good that Matthew
and Vincent are bound to notice they just have to and if anything

(48:28):
else the bucket of fish heads will will will waft up the air
vents into their nostrils and seduce them down below into the
podcast booth.

(49:07):
Now I tell you son, I tell you I was coming home from the gym
one day and I thought I was scared of my shadow.

(49:28):
But then it wasn't my shadow.
It was other shadows that were chasing me.
Now here's the thing.
I came up with an idea and I just wanted to run it by y'all
to see which thing so even now that I'm done with that voice.
Anyways, hello.
This is Sean from a toko for two with Big Mac and the but not

(49:48):
huge also great patron supporter.
I guess maybe I don't know.
Anyways, I was coming home from the gym and it was pretty late
at night and there were some shadows that were I mean, I was
tired as well, but there were some shadows that were coming
around and I started thinking, you know, this
would be a really interesting time for a giant monster to
just come out and start chasing after me.

(50:10):
There's no other cars on the road and I'm starting to think
huh, but what if that monster was attacked by another monster
and I wasn't really paying attention about it.
So I'm starting to think what if I could come up with a short
film idea of this guy who's just going about his business
not paying attention to anything and as he's going home

(50:32):
or going from destination to destination, he's being stopped
by either giant monsters or other predators and then these
secondary giant monsters or other predators end up coming
out and catching them instead of him actually being caught
by any of these monsters.
So it's like a chase sequence, but not really.

(50:58):
I don't really know how to articulate it very well because
I'm also really tired, but I just wanted to go ahead and
see what you guys thought with that kind of idea where
you know, you could just play us play up something was like
that and maybe some something to add on to it.
Anyways, have a good time with with the podcast guys love
hearing it.

(51:27):
Cool.
I love it, man.
Well, it's hard to get a clear vision of what he's talking
about there, but I'm intrigued for sure.
Kind of reminds me of the end of Jurassic Park where like
the velociraptors are coming after the characters and then
the T-Rex swoops in and like picks it up off the ground,
you know.

(51:48):
Yeah, I love those moments where you're by yourself.
Maybe you're in bed at night and you can't sleep but your
mind's just racing and you come up with these ideas for a
movie or a TV show and you're like, oh, that's a good idea.
And Sean, I do think that is a good idea, especially as a
short film.
I can see it.

(52:09):
I can see someone having a lot of fun with the shadow work,
especially.
Yeah, for sure.
I think like whenever an idea like that gets into your head,
like just write it, you know, even if you only start with
like one scene or one idea, it can like expand in both
directions from there.
So take and run with it.
I want to hear more, you know.
Yeah.

(52:29):
All right.
Thank you, Sean for calling into the Kaiju hotline listeners
out there.
We've had Naomi and Sean now two weeks running.
Let's keep the Kaiju hotline going.
Crank calls, especially please.
I want to hear something.
Don't disappoint Matt.
Let's get some cranky anchors in here, you know.
All right, we're done.

(53:02):
It lives 50 feet beneath the streets.
It's 36 feet long.
It weighs over 2,000 pounds.
And it's about to break out.

(53:27):
We're looking at the one who saw it.
And it was big.
You said it was dark.
Now, perhaps you're mistaken.
All right.
Alligator half that size would starve in a week.

(53:48):
You kept coming up with some garbage about alligators in
the sewer.
I've seen what this animal can do.
You better take all the help you can get.
Alligator.
All right, so back to the relic, our film that we're
talking about tonight.
Let's talk a little bit about the themes of this movie.

(54:08):
And if there actually are themes in this movie, that
might be the first question to answer.
There are a couple there.
They're not especially deep.
I'll just bring up one of them here real quick.
Yeah.
So superstition plays a pretty big role in the relic.
There's an entire museum exhibit that's that focuses on
superstition throughout the world and in kind of historical

(54:30):
cultures and stuff like that.
So it's it's kind of, you know, right in the forefront.
They're like superstition is a big part of this movie.
The lieutenant character, D'Augusta, is very suspicious
or sorry superstitious himself.
He, you know, has this lucky bullet that he carries around
with him at all times.
He makes sure that he never steps over a corpse in a crime

(54:52):
scene because he thinks that it's bad luck.
He makes sure that like, you know, inevitably there's a
moment where like a cat jumps out from like a shelf and
scares somebody and he makes sure that it's not a black
cat because that of course would be very bad luck.
So yeah, this theme of like science versus superstition is
a pretty big part of the relic because of course, Dr.
Green, the evolutionary biologist is all about science.

(55:15):
You know, any mystery can be explained by science, even if
we don't quite understand the logic behind it yet.
And that's that's a familiar trope from monster movies,
you know, too many to list really.
Yeah, I don't know how much depth there really is to that.
What do you think about that theme?
No, it's like so much of this movie.

(55:36):
It is perhaps surface level, but it's effective.
Like it provides the key conflict in the story.
This conflict between our two leads, the male protagonist
and the female scientist.
So without it, I don't know what this movie would have as

(56:00):
a as that driving force that conflict.
Yeah, there needs to be some conflict between them to drive
drive that relationship forward a little bit.
It works pretty well in that context.
It is kind of closely related to another theme or maybe a
part of that theme that's in the movie, which is like, you
know, the the idea of the movie, the narrative context is

(56:23):
that there's a tribe in South America that has this kind
of, you know, exotic ayahuasca kind of like ceremony and
that's kind of how the whole thing starts.
There's an anthropologist who goes there and spends time
with this tribe and then he brings this, you know, weird
lizard monster back to Chicago.

(56:43):
That's that's the story in a nutshell.
I don't think we have to go into too much more detail about
it. So, you know, we also had this kind of like remote
exotic South American tribe.
That's very superstitious again, very exotic.
It's it's like so brief in this movie that it's not super
offensive, but it is like, oh great, like this thing again,
which isn't so many monster movies dating all the way back

(57:04):
to King Kong.
You have it in I Walk with a Zombie Mothra several other
Godzilla movies.
And again, it's kind of just like background flavor, I guess
that, you know, like there's not really that much depth to
the tribe.
We don't really know anything about them, but the movie kind
of contrasts that tribe with like, you know, the rigid science

(57:27):
of the Dr.
Green character, not to mention the sort of monetary impulse
of the museum curators and the politicians who are desperate
to get this opening night gala off the ground, even though
there might be sort of a bloodthirsty monster lurking in
the hallways.
So there's that contrast there, too.
Yeah, I can throw it into the into the themes that theme of

(57:50):
these money people high society.
They're throwing this back this gala.
It must go on no matter what the cost, right?
It's just this this sure.
It's their livelihood, but it's still putting material matter
and money over the fact that this is an active crime scene
and people are in danger.

(58:11):
They don't care about that.
And this is not a criticism.
It is another trope of monster movies.
I immediately thought about Joe Dante's Piranha.
It's the same setup and and there's countless other I mean
jaws.
Yep, that's fourth of July has to go off alligator as well.
Yeah, so example.

(58:31):
I love that it to me.
It's not a detriment.
It's like, you know, your history and you're you're just
continuing this proud tradition of murdering socialites at
a banquet.
Yeah, which is like an irresistible narrative trope, you know,
I love it almost every time and I think usually you can tell

(58:54):
if a movie is using a cliche or a trope like that and sort
of like a lazy way because they can't think of anything else
or if it's kind of like an homage or just, you know, the
filmmakers love monster movies and I want to like revel in
that fun like we do in the audience, you know, and I think
it's the latter with the relic where it's supposed to be fun

(59:14):
and supposed to be kind of like, you know, a tip of the hat
to like classic monster movies that have come beforehand.
So I agree with you.
It's not really a detriment in this case.
Yeah, it's fun.
Yeah.
Yeah, indeed.
Like the end of this movie is a lot of fun for sure.
Aside from that though.
I don't know if this movie has any themes like it's kind of
like you said proudly surface level.
We can talk about the form and the aesthetic very briefly.

(59:38):
I also don't have too much to talk about here in this case.
Yeah, but I wouldn't mind talking about this dark cinematography
that you noted.
Yeah, it's super dark.
I mean not just like shadowy film noir lighting but like black
at times where like the entire screen is like what is happening.
I can't see anybody.
I don't know where we are.
Like there should be some shadow some light somewhere so you

(01:00:01):
can kind of get your bearings, you know, which makes me think
that like it's not intentional.
I feel like maybe this movie is just sort of poorly shot.
Which, you know, it's shot by the director Peter Hyams and maybe
that was not the best idea.
Maybe he should have had an actual cinematographer in this case.
I agree with you.

(01:00:21):
However, it worked for me in the fact that it often served to
keep the four special effects hidden, which was a strength.
Yeah, I was looking out for that too.
It's like, okay, we're keeping the monster in shadow because
the CGI looks like crap.
So that was good, but you're still right.

(01:00:44):
Like too much of this was just in pure darkness.
Yeah, but you have a good point too that it's kind of like again,
the Jaws style where it's like, let's leave the monster off
screen for like 75% of the running time.
So when it does appear, it's like more impactful, which is kind
of true here.

(01:01:05):
But as you mentioned, the CGI, the bad CGI limits its impact a
little bit.
But I wanted to see more of the of the practical effects of this
suit because I mean even trying to find pictures of this thing
online.
There are no good stills that I can find because of the lighting
situation.
So yeah, it's kind of weird in that way for sure.

(01:01:28):
I mean considering all the work that they went to for these like
extremely difficult creature effects.
I think we see it for maybe like less than two minutes in the
entire movie, you know, yeah, definitely wanted more of that
suit that they were working with.
Yeah, there's like one good shot where Dr.
Green is like she's in some kind of dark shadowy room like every

(01:01:48):
room is in this movie and like there's like a pane of glass and
we suddenly see the monsters face and like reflected in the
glass.
That's probably the best creature moment in this movie.
It definitely looks like it's a creature like a practical effect
there and it kind of comes out of nowhere.
It's a well lit and well shot.
That's one of the few times that it's like, all right, I see
the creature and it looks great.
Maybe the only time in this movie where you could say that.

(01:02:14):
All right.
So as usual on Camp Kaju, we always have our individual breakdowns
where we talk about the good, the bad and the campy.
Should I go first with the good or would you prefer to do so?
I'll go first.
Okay, the first note.
I want to say maybe it relates to the aesthetic of the film
and it's at its genre.
There were so many there were there are many parts of this

(01:02:35):
movie that felt to me like a 70s disaster movie like the
towering Inferno or the Poseidon Adventure where this group of
strangers are suddenly in a lockdown situation and they have
to escape through some dark tunnel or other non traditional

(01:02:56):
ways to get out of the building and the powers out and there's
dripping water everywhere.
Then there's the monster which was very direct and like it was
also very Jurassic Park to me which so many movies post
Jurassic Park just leaned into whatever Spielberg was doing
in that movie.
So again, I don't fault it for that, but it was like Jurassic

(01:03:19):
Park meets a 70s disaster movie.
I thought this is really unique.
It's funny.
You mentioned that Roger Ebert said the same thing in his
review, which is a really good fun review.
So check that out if you haven't read it yet any of you
listeners out there, but he made the same point.
It's like a horror slash disaster movie, which is a lot of
fun.
Yes, I knew I'm good at this stuff.

(01:03:40):
Yeah, you and Ebert like you were on.
Yeah, you're in good company.
What else?
Okay.
So yeah, I love I love the script.
I love the premise, right?
It's not trying to change the world.
But like I've said this before on the show.
I love a monster movie that's done really well.

(01:04:01):
It's a tight script.
Not all the dialogue works for me, but like the structure
and the premise.
It's cool.
It works.
It's done well.
And I do like the design of the Cathoga and I wish we could
have seen it more.
Totally agree with everything you said for sure.
Yeah, like there are some moments where I think the Cathoga,

(01:04:22):
you know, I mentioned that one shot that I liked.
I also really like the scene where late in the movie the
police are trying to like repel on ropes down into the museum
and everything goes awry almost immediately.
Like as soon as one police officer like starts going down
into the museum, the Cathoga just like jumps up and like like

(01:04:44):
sucks out a type of thalamus and like bites off this guy's
head immediately like within like two seconds and then like
things continue to go horribly awry.
The creature doesn't look all that great during that scene,
but just everything that's happening is like so entertaining,
gory, fun, maybe not really all that scary, but just like a
really good fun exciting scene.

(01:05:05):
So I love that moment.
Yep.
I agree with you about the script.
There is some bad dialogue for sure, but I think there is
some like, excuse me, unexpected moments of like personality
too. There are two other police characters who I actually
really liked a lot.
It's a white officer and a black officer who seem like very
good friends and they they debate coffee like in like numerous

(01:05:29):
scenes throughout the movie.
They're like, oh, you got to try lattes.
Like that's the way to go and the other guy's like espresso,
man. You got to drink espresso and then like they drink coffee
later in the movie and one of them is like this coffee is terrible.
Don't even drink it and I it's just like, oh, I don't know
why we're talking about coffee at this moment in the movie,
but I kind of love it.
So I like those moments of personality.
I think Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller surprisingly have

(01:05:52):
quite a bit of chemistry.
I like you wouldn't think so from like just knowing about those
two actors outside of this movie, but they play well off of
each other and that leads to kind of like a charming ending.
So I liked that aspect of it and yeah, kind of like you said,
Vincent, like this movie seems like it loves monster movies

(01:06:12):
and it's trying to like duplicate these tropes from like
the best monster movies because it loves them and like it's
it's infectious.
You know, we obviously love monster movies too and that makes
for a really entertaining experience.
That's a beautiful summation.
That's great.
What do we do?
Yeah, I have nothing else to add in the good category.

(01:06:35):
Yeah, there is some bad stuff, of course.
And you know, we talked about the CGI.
It's kind of fun to see it and just like a time capsule way.
Like this is what was seen as like top of the line special
effects in the late 90s.
They do not hold up but and you know, they probably like weaken

(01:06:56):
the impact of the monster quite a bit, but at the same time,
I mean, it's kind of interesting to see them in retrospect.
Anything else?
The climax is really confusing.
I thought like, you know, we're jumping back and forth between
numerous different subplots.
Like there's one police officer who's trying to lead all the

(01:07:17):
socialites out of the building and these like dark watery
tunnels, but then there's also Dr.
Green who is being chased by the monster and the monster seems
to be in like several different places at once like chasing
these people in the basement and also in the science labs.
It's like but also they like closed the emergency like steel
doors or whatever.

(01:07:38):
So it's like how does this monster get around so much like
it makes no sense.
I had the same note like this monster shows up wherever it
needs to.
Yeah, it defies logic and normally I don't care about plot
holes all that much.
But in this case, it's like this makes no sense.
So like, where are we right now?

(01:07:59):
You know, it's awesome.
It's ridiculous.
Yeah, right.
It's yeah, my I had they're like dumb quibbles like well,
there's a lot of like one-liners that are said like wisecracks,
but the mood of the scene is like very somber and serious.

(01:08:20):
And I'm just like you wouldn't make that joke why it was just
very jarring in many places where it tried to be funny.
It was like you're don't try to be funny in this movie.
You're doing a great job already just being highly entertaining.
Yeah, but my big thing is also the climax and there's a twist
in this movie.
And the twist is spoilers that the cathoga is not only a mutated

(01:08:48):
extremely fast evolutionary mutant of a lizard, but it's also
actually Dr.
Whitney who was that anthropologist in the tribal village at the
beginning of the movie and Dr.
Green.
She's when she makes this reveal it's like she acts like it's

(01:09:10):
earth-shattering but for for the audience this reveal happens
like five minutes towards the end of the movie and we know
nothing about her relationship with Dr.
Whitney.
We know nothing about Dr.
Whitney and I was like, I don't care about Dr.
Whitney.
Yeah, like this should be a great twist.

(01:09:31):
But the movie has done the script has done no legwork to to
plant those seeds.
So it's just kind of like, oh sure.
That's a fine.
That's fine.
But like, yeah, there was no payoff.
Yeah.
Yeah, totally agree.
It's it's confusing and like to the extent that we do understand
it.
It's like, all right, why why does it matter?

(01:09:53):
You know, like and it's weird because like there are numerous
lines of dialogue where Dr.
Green is like, oh Dr.
Whitney, you know, like I'm not a big fan.
He only he only cared about his research or whatever and it's
like that would have been a prime opportunity for you to say
more about him.
Like what was your relationship with him?
Why do you dislike him so much?
But but the movie never goes into that.

(01:10:13):
So we even though he is in the first two scenes of the movie,
we know nothing about him.
And yeah, that reveal does not matter at all.
Miss Stoppard.
Yeah, it is kind of a cool idea that like, you know, because
Dr.
Whitney ingested this like fungus in the in like the opening
scene, the like tribal ceremony or whatever.
That's why like evolution goes awry and he like kind of

(01:10:36):
merges with a reptile and like all this other stuff and and
turns into this monster.
Like that's kind of a cool idea.
But but again, the movie does not really capitalize on that.
Like it could have been way more effective than it actually
is.
It's yeah, we're just talking about a different version of
this movie.
Yeah, what could have been?
I'm happy with what we got, but I also would have been happy
with maybe something that that took itself more seriously,

(01:10:59):
I guess.
Yeah, for lack of a better word, something that was
more carefully made, even if it also seems kind of like, you
know, modest on the surface, you know, like a Jurassic Park
that that is this version of the relic we're talking about
where it explores themes of evolution and science.
So I guess we should just watch Jurassic Park.

(01:11:22):
Yeah, that's always the takeaway pretty much like, yeah,
if you watch a like a not great monster movie, just watch
Jurassic Park afterwards.
That's the best or you know, like Jaws, like, you know, one
of the classics.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But no Jurassic Park is definitely the template and like
the what's the word precedent in this case.
So it is not as good as Jurassic Park.

(01:11:44):
Sorry to say.
There's a bunch of campy stuff as well.
Yeah, there is.
Do you know how many heads are lost in this movie?
Oh man, more than 10.
It's in double figures for sure.
Yeah, I googled it.
So everybody the Cthulhu kills by decapitating its victims
and there are 12 decapitations in this movie, many of which

(01:12:09):
you see and are very graphic and.
After you know, the third or fourth it started to become
campy like, oh, there's another head rolling around.
Yeah, for sure.
Kind of like in Sleepy Hollow, the Tim Burton movie where
like after the fifth or sixth decapitation is like, oh yeah,
seen that before, but it's great.
I love it.

(01:12:29):
Yeah, it was super fun.
Yeah.
And you know, like Stan Winston's practical effects, maybe
not so great with the creature, but they're great with the
decapitations.
Like there are all these heads lying around that are like
they have like big holes in the back of the skull and
everything.
It looks awesome.
It's it's gory in the best possible way.
Yep.
Yep.

(01:12:50):
That's a lot of fun.
Yeah.
What I think is the campiest part of the movie happens
pretty early on.
We're like the two kids that are part of like a school field
trip to the museum.
They like stay there after hours, like after the doors are
locked.
They kind of like hide in a stairwell or whatever and those
two kids, they're just like, you know, they're child actors.

(01:13:12):
They're not great, of course.
And like their dialogue is pretty bad.
There's not really any reason for them to be there because
like they don't play a role in the narrative after that.
So that subplot could have been cut out entirely, but it's
it is ridiculous.
And they're yeah, like those two kids are a lot of fun.
There's one line where one kid says to the other one, you

(01:13:32):
goofball, you almost wet your pants.
And for some reason that line is like the funniest thing ever
to me.
I rewound that and listen to that like three times in a row.
Those kids are great.
Yeah, you goofball.
You great glad we spent time with them.
Yeah, I'm glad I cringed while they said this dialogue for
the for 10 minutes.

(01:13:53):
Yeah.
And also in what world are two kids left behind on their
field trip to just like they're there so late at the museum.
Yeah, like terrible chaperones, whatever school they came from.
They really need to work on that before their next field trip.
Lucky those kids didn't get eaten by the monster, you know,
they should have.

(01:14:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So a lot of fun stuff, a lot of campy stuff in the relic.
I think it's time for our for our ratings.
Do you think so as well?
Unless you have anything else to add?
I have to add medulla oblongata.
That phrase, that term was uttered in Fiend Without a Face

(01:14:34):
and I failed to make note of it then.
Medulla oblongata was mentioned in the relic.
It is the third movie.
I have heard that term.
Do you know what the first or the other movie is?
That you watched kind of recently?
No, it's from the 90s.
It's a comedy.
It stars Adam Sandler.

(01:14:54):
Yeah, The Waterboy.
Yeah, I do remember that.
That's it.
Yeah, I don't always love Adam Sandler, but The Waterboy is fun.
Medulla oblongata, that's all I have to say.
And the rappellers when they go down into the museum,
you mentioned it, but it's such an iconic moment.

(01:15:14):
It should be.
It's just pure chaos.
And this guy gets severed in half.
There's these poor guys.
They go down.
They're so confident.
And then this this this really terrifying monster just goes nuts

(01:15:35):
on them and they're all screaming, pull me up, pull me up.
That's the best scene in the movie for sure.
I love it.
Oh my God.
There's even a moment where they like pull a guy back up out
of the museum on a rope and he of course when they pull him up,
they realize that he's been cut in half or like eaten, bitten in half
basically and the guy that pulls him up like literally kneels down

(01:15:58):
and like looks up towards the skies and he's like, no, it's such a
such a great cliched silly moment.
I love it so much.
I love that scene.
I want to watch it again.
I'm sorry, man.
You're right that guy on his knees who goes no, it was this he didn't

(01:16:19):
have a director at that moment.
He just did what he saw in other movies in other bad movies and
it's just so amazing.
It'd be like Tommy was out like that's what he would do in that moment.
Yeah, you're tearing me apart.
Literally.
Yeah, right.
I didn't even think about that.

(01:16:41):
Yeah, totally.
And then like, you know, the director Peter Himes was like, oh, that's
great.
Let's keep it in there.
Print it.
That's gold.
There.
Yeah, that whole scene is like just a what's the word I'm looking for?
A bottle rocket of like great campy moments, you know, I love it.

(01:17:03):
I'm in tears everybody.
I'm at tears.
All right.
Yeah.
So my final rating.
You know, honestly, there are antiquated moments.
There are some poorly lit moments.
Some some poor 90s CGI, but I think it holds up.

(01:17:25):
I think it stands the test of time.
It may not be an overall classic, but I think it's a classic and underrated
classic at least of 90s monster movies.
I mean, forget Independence Day.
The relic is what you want to check out.
I love that review.
That's great.
Yeah, I totally agree.

(01:17:46):
I mean antiquated moments for sure bad CGI, but I you know, I really enjoy
it.
I this movie so entertaining.
It's really fun.
I think my favorite thing about it is that it's like a classic creature
feature updated for the 90s.
You know, it like again pays homage to them and like King Kong jaws, of

(01:18:10):
course, Jurassic Park, which is not, you know, was only a couple years
before the relic but it's yeah, like I love that sense of like love for
cinema and love for monster movies and it comes through in the relic and
even though the late 90s weren't that long ago, it still feels like a
totally different time and it's fun to revisit it in the relic.

(01:18:31):
So so yeah, for me, it's it's not a timeless classic, but it does stand
the test of time for sure.
Are there any sequels to this in literary form?
There were there was like a whole series of books that followed like
they're like the second one was called the reliquary and like had some
of the same characters in that book, but movie wise there were no

(01:18:52):
sequels.
That's too bad.
I just feel like there are there are worse movies that got direct to
direct to video sequels and I'm like the relic there needs to be a
relic to yeah, I agree.
I mean, it's not too late, you know, let's write that script.
We can do it.
Now is the time it probably like 20 people across the face the plan.

(01:19:16):
It would be like, oh yeah, the relic.
I remember that movie.
Everybody else would be like, why what is this movie?
Why are you making a sequel to this?
It's set in a museum.
What?
Yeah, that Ben Stiller movie, right?
Anyway, the the relic a lot of fun.
Check it out.
If you haven't seen it yet, you know, late 90s monster movies just a

(01:19:39):
blast from the past.
That's great.
So yeah, next time we're going to be talking about an actual classic
Universal Horror monster movie, the Wolfman.
So stay tuned for that.
We'll also reveal our trivia winner on that episode.
So the Wolfman coming out coming out soon.
So thank you again for hanging out with us at Camp Kaiju.

(01:19:59):
Please rate and review wherever you listen.
You can also share this podcast with a friend.
Send us listener comments at CampKaiju at gmail.com on our Facebook
page or on Instagram.
The links are in our bio.
If you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, please leave a
voicemail at 612-470-2612 telling us about your favorite monster

(01:20:23):
movies and memories.
Please check out our website CampKaijuPodcast.com for more information.
Camp Kaiju is recorded in Minneapolis, St.
Paul with Menia's mailbox music by Ben Cook-Felds.
Thanks again, friends.
And until next time, stay campy.
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack powered by

(01:20:44):
Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab,
fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers.
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack
for investment opportunities.
Link in the bio.
Seven decapitations in one week.

(01:21:07):
Don't you just hate someone who only takes head and never gives it?
You're bad, Nutella.
Real bad.
Autopsy attended by Lieutenant Vincent de Costa, Chicago homicide.
We have an African American male, probably age 55 to 60, height 5'4",
with his head maybe 6'1", weight 160, give or take, if you know what I mean.

(01:21:30):
The sternal process has been split and the rib cage exposed.
Now for the head.
The head is decapitated between the axial process and the atlas.
The entire occipital portion of the calvarium and half the parietal
process has been crushed or rather seemingly punched through and removed,

(01:21:51):
leaving a hole perhaps 5 inches in diameter.
The skull is empty.
The entire brain appears to have fallen out or been extracted through this hole.
The brain is severely traumatized and appears to have been severed at the medulla oblongata.
That is correct.
The medulla oblongata.
Mom, what's that?
Medulla oblongata.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Relic (1997)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

The Relic (1997)

24/7 News: The Latest