Relic

As the search for Edna, the eccentric and now missing matriarch of the family, intensifies, her daughter Kay and granddaughter Sam embark on a journey to their ancestral home, a remote and isolated estate that holds secrets and stories of its own. Upon arrival, they're met with an eerie silence, punctuated only by the creaking of ancient wooden floorboards beneath their feet. The once-grand house now lies shrouded in mystery, its walls bearing the telltale signs of neglect - a thick, black mould spreading like a dark stain, as if seeping into every crevice and crack.

As night begins to fall, the air grows heavy with an unsettling sense of foreboding. It's then that Sam is visited by Jamie, their young neighbour, who reveals a shocking truth: his father had forbidden him from setting foot in the house, citing some unseen danger lurking within its walls. As the darkness deepens, Sam and Kay are beset by strange noises emanating from the very heart of the house - creaks and groans that seem to take on a life of their own.

Meanwhile, Kay's sleep is haunted by vivid nightmares: an old shack in the nearby woods, where she sees a withered corpse rotting away, its presence as real as the stench wafting from her grandmother's forgotten existence. The morning brings little respite, as Edna returns home, barefoot and bedraggled, yet blissfully unaware of her own disappearance. A doctor's visit reveals a surprisingly sound mind and sturdy physical health, save for the peculiar bruise on her chest - a black smudge that eerily mirrors the mould now spreading throughout the house.

As tensions rise, Kay confides in Sam about her plans to relocate Edna to a retirement home, citing the elder woman's self-neglect. Sam is skeptical, but Kay remains resolute. Later that night, Kay awakens to find Edna sleepwalking towards the front door, whispering an enigmatic phrase: "It's nothing." As the old woman is coaxed back to bed, she becomes convinced that something lurks in the shadows, urging Kay to investigate beneath her bed. The younger woman catches a glimpse of movement, but it slips away before she can grasp its true nature, leaving only questions and unease in its wake.

As the sun rises on another day, Sam and her grandmother Edna (Edna) share a poignant moment of tenderness, their bond momentarily unbroken. But just as it seems like the fragile peace might hold, Edna's demeanor darkens, and she accuses Sam of pilfering from her. The sudden ferocity is matched only by the speed at which Edna snatches the ring from Sam's finger, oblivious to the fact that it was a gift from her own hands. As if watching from the shadows itself, a malevolent presence lurks, its influence palpable as Edna's behavior becomes increasingly erratic.

The violent outbursts continue, prompting Sam to seek answers from Jamie's father Alex (Alex). His revelation about the last time Jamie visited is nothing short of alarming: Edna mistakenly locked her grandson in his hiding space for hours, forgetting he was even there that day. Back at the house, Kay watches as Edna tears pages from the family photo album and devours them, a futile attempt to erase painful memories. When Kay tries to intervene, Edna bites her with ferocity before storming off, determined to bury the album in the soil, convinced it will be safer there. As Kay's concerns for her mother grow, she pleads for help, but Edna only breaks down further, ultimately agreeing to let Kay take charge of her care.

As Sam delves deeper into the mysterious passageways hidden within the house, she becomes lost in a labyrinthine corridor that appears to loop back upon itself. Faced with an abyss of confusion and fear, she resorts to screaming and pounding on the walls, as if trying to awaken herself from some macabre dream. Meanwhile, Edna's condition worsens, her mistrust of Kay growing so intense that she refuses to eat, instead wetting herself and staring at her daughter with a malevolent glare. It is then that Kay notices something disturbing: Edna's urine has taken on an unnatural hue, stained black as coal. As Edna bathes, the darkened flesh of what was once a bruise begins to rot away. The overflowing bathtub reacts with the electric heater, plunging the house into darkness.

As Sam navigates the increasingly claustrophobic corridors, the ceilings slope lower and lower, forcing her to crawl through narrow openings. It is only by breaking through the molding walls that she manages to escape, a testament to the indomitable spirit of one who refuses to be trapped by the dark forces closing in around her.

As Kay stumbles upon the ghastly spectacle of her mother, Edna, ravaging her own disintegrating face with a knife, she and Sam make a hasty retreat into the adjacent passageway, desperate to escape the unhinged Edna's relentless pursuit. The once-respectable matriarch has devolved into a grotesque, contorted creature, driven by a maddening compulsion to claw at her own decayed visage. Kay and Sam narrowly avoid Edna's grasping hands, but not before she manages to pin down the latter, only for Kay to deliver a series of brutal blows that send Edna crashing to the ground.

As Edna struggles to reclaim her composure, she fixates on a post-it note lying nearby, its innocent message "I AM LOVED" starkly juxtaposed against the apocalyptic backdrop. A wistful smile spreads across her decaying face as she gazes upon the words, her eyes glazing over in a mixture of longing and resignation.

Kay, sensing the precarious balance of reality and nightmare, returns to her mother's bedside, where she tenderly assists Edna in shedding the last vestiges of her tattered flesh and hair. As the final remnants of her humanity are stripped away, Edna assumes the visage of a withered, rotting corpse – a grotesque mirror image of the figure that haunted Kay's nightmares.

As Sam and Kay lay down beside their moribund mother, they're met with an unsettling sense of tableau vivant, as if frozen in time. It's only when Edna finally succumbs to her mortal coil, slipping into a peaceful slumber, that the trio can begin to mourn the loss of life, love, and sanity.

The film concludes on a haunting note, as Sam's gaze lingers on a faint black bruise blooming on Kay's nape – an ominous harbinger suggesting that, much like Edna before her, Kay may ultimately succumb to a similar fate. The image lingers, casting a shadow over the fragile boundaries between life and death, sanity and madness, as the camera pans out to reveal the desolate, ravaged landscape of their world.