The Relic

This surprisingly nasty horror picture fuses elements of the haunted-house, serial-killer and monster-mayhem sub-genres into a hybrid creature that grabs you and won't let go. A gala evening is disrupted and police lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta (Sizemore) clashes with the director of the Chicago natural history museum when a violent murder suggests a psycho killer is loose in the building. Evolutionary scientist Margo Green (Miller) shares the cop's fears, but her investigations suggest that a genetically mutating mythical creature, Kothoga (effects Stan Winston), is about to chew its way through some of the city's wealthiest benefactors. It's not hard to spot who'll be next to suffer the beast's wrath, but it's difficult to resist the relentless bombardment of knee-jerk shocks, genetic gobbledygook, South American mythology and head-ripping gore.