‘Relic’s’ Healthy Rate of Chills and Thrills Keeps Pulses Racing

Most kids love speed. Things that go fast, movies that zip along.

So, once “The Relic” finally picks up after a slow, exposition-filled beginning, the majority of youngsters are happy to join the ride. The horror flick, with a really creepy creature hurtling from victim to victim at its core, turns into one speedy number.

“The ending was truly great,” said Vince Maxwell, 15. “It was intense. . . . I kept waiting for [the monster] to jump out of the shadows.”

The Laguna Beach boy said “The Relic” delivered on its genre promise to raise the pulse and keep the audience looking for surprises. Vince conceded that it wasn’t a big-brained affair, but he knew that going in.

Vince thought the monster’s appearance was especially interesting--and spooky. It looks like a combination of rhino, giant lizard and pincher beetle, with some of the extraterrestrial from “Alien” tossed in for sci-fi flavoring.

“I loved ‘Alien,’ so I liked this,” he said.

Sean Pascqual, 13, of Mission Viejo also enjoyed “The Relic,” even though he didn’t quite understand what was happening. The basic plot involves a jungle fungus that, when eaten, turns the victim into a quick-mutating freak show.

Sean was befuddled when asked if he got that. “I thought it was just something that climbed out of one of those boxes,” he said, referring to the crates that mysteriously show up at the museum as the movie starts.

Besides the monster’s voraciousness, what Sean liked most was the setting. Most of the carnage takes place in the museum’s catacomb-like underground, a very dark, wet environment with plenty of shadows.

Not all youngsters liked “The Relic,” however. A few said they were numbed by all the mayhem, which builds until the fiery climax. A key romantic relationship between a hard-edged detective and a pretty scientist didn’t have much time to flourish.

“I know they were trying to make them be in love, but it didn’t work,” said 15-year-old Karen Drews of El Toro.

She added that the movie wasn’t all that special; it was like any number of monster-versus-people flicks she has seen over the years. “They just start killing [everybody], and that’s about it,” Karen said.

The film does get bloody and intense, a fact that parents should consider. At least one younger girl was upset by the graphic depictions of violence.

Alexandra Ramone, 11, of Mission Viejo attended a screening with her older brother. She said she was bored by the beginning of “The Relic” and disturbed by the rest.

“I didn’t like it [with] all the blood and their heads” getting torn off by the beast, Alexandra said, shuddering. “It kind of made me sick.”