One of the hottest horror films of the year is the Natalie Erika James-directed Relic, which came sizzling out of the Sundance Film Festival before it was acquired by IFC Midnight for release later this year. Bloody Disgusting’s Meagan Navarro called it a “bone-chilling and devastating depiction of dementia.”
In a new interview with ScreenDaily, James reveals that she’s currently hard at work on her follow-up, a Japanese-inspired religious horror film that sounds like it could be soaked in occultism.
“I’m writing a new project with Christian [White] which is a Japanese folk horror, a la The Wicker Man and Rosemary’s Baby,” James tells the site. “It’s about motherhood, fear of motherhood, the loss of selfhood.
“We’re writing a second draft right now,” she adds, noting that they’re “working with the same producers who did Relic at Carver Films.”
The Japanese inspiration isn’t surprising as she tells the site that her love for horror came from an interesting connection to Ringu director Hideo Nakata.
“As a teen, I watched a lot of Asian horror. We had a family friend who used to be engaged to Hideo Nakata, who made Ring,” James reveals “She would always tell me stories about how Nakata’s horror was never just about something invading the home, it was really about externalised fears in the home. The beauty and emotion is just as important as the scares. That stuck with me.”
Relic was one of the most buzzed-about movies out of the Sundance Film Festival.
In the film, “When Edna (Robin Nevyn), the elderly and widowed matriarch of the family, goes missing, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) travel to their remote family home to find her. Soon after her return, they start to discover a sinister presence haunting the house and taking control of Edna.”
