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| “ | I'm not being ridiculous, I can tell. Sometimes they look at me and I... I don't think it's really them. They look like Kay and Sammy but it's not them. They're pretending. You know what I think? I think they're just waiting for the day. I think they're hoping I'll go to sleep and I won't wake up. Then they'll dump me in the ground to rot. | „ |
| ~ Edna to herself. |
Edna is the anti-villainous main antagonist of the 2020 psychological horror film, Relic. Her daughter Kay and her granddaughter Sam come to her home in order to assist her out of concern for her wellbeing. The film centers around the idea of Edna's diminishing mental state, which causes her to become problematic towards her loved ones.
Edna is portrayed by the Australian actress Robyn Nevin.
Personality[]
One of the first personality traits revealed about Edna is her paranoid, Edna having brought up her concern of someone breaking into the home with Kay over the phone. This is in part due to her next most prominent trait, which is her forgetfulness. Edna would often leave doors open or rearrange furniture, forgetting that she had done so soon after. This would cause her to believe that there was someone else with her in the home.
Both Edna's paranoia and her forgetfulness work to create conflict for everyone around her. One example is when her paranoia led her to believe that Kay & Sam wanted her dead, and she assumed that they were going to wait for her to fall asleep so that they could bury her afterward. Another example involves her having played hide and seek with a local young boy. In the middle of their game, she had forgotten he was in her home, and accidentally locked him in the closet (which was his hiding place), where he was stuck for hours until his father finally came to his aid after hearing his screams. Her forgetfulness again becomes problematic when she forgets that she gave Sam a wedding ring, becoming aggressively insistent that Sam had taken it.
Biography[]
Edna is first seen at the beginning of the film standing in a room naked with a towel covering her body. She looks on into a room filled with Christmas lights as she quivers in fear. She turns her head to the left as a figure in the right hand side of the screen begins to emerge.
Once the film begins, Edna had vanished from the home, leaving behind an overflowing bathtub. Concerned, Kay goes to the police in order to have a search party sent out for her, but they were unable to find her.
Edna would eventually show up out of the blue one night, caressing Kay's face as she slept. Kay and Sam would discover Edna in the kitchen, with her legs appearing to be dirtied. A medical consultant was called over to the home in order to give her a medical evaluation. Physically, Edna appeared to be okay, other than what appeared to be a bruise on her chest. Time skips again to Edna sitting in the living room with Sam. Kay came in to confront her about blood that she had found on a cloth, questioning her about where she had been for the past few days. Edna did not give her a satisfying answer, and when the two became angry with each other, Sam shut down their conversation.
That night, Edna opened up her shirt to find that the bruise-like spot on her chest had gotten worse. She quickly covered it up after Sam walked in to give her tea. Edna thought she would take the opportunity to give Sam her wedding ring, which Sam accepted. That same night, Kay came downstairs to find Edna talking to herself, at first appearing to be facing backwards because the hair was over her face. Kay then brang Edna up to bed and tucked her in. After getting in bed, Edna began telling Kay that there was something under her bed. When Kay went to check, she at first saw nothing, but after a second glance she saw something moving. Before she could investigate, Edna dropped a large book on top of her head. Edna insisted that she hadn't done it on purpose, but Kay didn't believe her.
The next day, Sam came home to fine Edna dancing. The two began dancing together, and after a while they sat down so they could talk. They began talking about the young boy who lived next door whom used to come to visit Edna, and Edna referred to him using a slur. Sam then began talking to Edna about moving closer, which made Edna turn off the music. After Sam talked about the idea of an old-folks home, she came over to help Edna button up her sweater. Edna then noticed that Sam was wearing the ring that she had given her the other night. Not remembering she had given it to her, she accused her of stealing it and violently tried to remove it. Sam removed it and quickly left.
While Sam was taking a bath, she saw a pair of feet come to the door, which was followed by scratches. Later that day, Edna was seen carving on a board like she had done previously. Kay found some old things of hers found in the garbage, and she asked why they were thrown away. Edna told her she needed to make space because Sam was moving in. Later that night, Sam came upstairs to find Edna whispering in her closet. Edna told her that she believed that someone was coming in the house through it. She then talked to Sam about how the home was all she had left of her memories, and how she was glad that Sam was moving in. Edna rejoined her and Kay in the bathroom while they were brushing their teeth.
Later that night, Kay had a similar dream about her grandfather dying alone in his home, except this time he was replaced with Edna. The next morning, Same walked in on Edna carving candles and talking to herself about her paranoid suspicions of the two woman. She told herself that she believed the women were just waiting for her to die. She revealed that she knew Sam was there, and Sam noticed bleeding on her arm. When Sam got closer to help her, Edna threw her carving station across the room and chased Sam out of the room, yelling for her to get out. Sam out later leave to talk to the local boy's father about why the boy wasn't allowed over there anymore, where he relayed that Edna had forgotten James (the boy) had been there and locked him in a closet by accident. Later that day, Kay would find Edna out in the forest eating old photos. She grabbed her and pulled them out of her mouth, bewildered at what had been occurring. Edna then picked up a book off the ground, which Kay tried to refuse, but Edna overpowered her. She followed her mother to find her trying to bury a photo album, insisting they would be safe out there. She then began talking about her hatred of things in the house, and talking about an her fear of unknown entity that she had mentioned to Sam earlier. She then began sobbing and telling Kay that she was loosing everything. Kay then began talking to her about moving closer to her, to which she responded by asking where everyone was. The two then embraced as the scene cut to black.
Kay brought Edna home, and later that night the two ate together. Kay noticed that Edna had stopped eating and that she wasn't responding to the things she said. Edna stood up from the table and urinated on the floor, prompting Kay to take her upstairs to leave her in the tub to bathe. As Edna sat alone in her tub, she began scratching at her bruise-like area, the condition of her skin having gotten much worse. She appeared to be grabbing the skin off her body. Kay noticed that the urine had a black substance inside of it. Kay came upstairs to find the tub overflowing again, and just as she began to panic, Edna calmly opened the door and walked past her. The flooding made contact with a generator, causing the power to go out. Kay took a candle and searched for her mother in the darkness, and once she spotted her she became startled and dropped her candle. Kay then used her phone light, finding Edna in the darkness cut ting her face's skin off with a knife. Kay screamed and ran away, Edna following her and saying she didn't know her.
Kay then met up with Sam, whom had been trapped in an unknown part of the house. She helped Sam in breaking down the wall, but while she did, Edna pursued them. Edna eventually found them, and fell down to all fours. She then began crawling towards the girls, Kay pushing Sam through the wall and Sam pulling Kay through the other side. Before Kay could make it to the other side, Edna grabbed her and pulled her back. Sam was eventually able to pull Kay through, but Edna still followed them. Edna was able to get on top of Sam and pin her down, Sam throwing her off of herself. She got back on top of Sam, and so Kay used the tool they had broken out to fight her off, after a few tries, she was able to beat Edna off of them.
Before the two left, Kay spotted one of many of Edna's notes, this one saying "I love you". Kay then locked Sam out of the house, Sam demanding that Kay come with her. Kay then took her mother's body upstairs and peeling off her skin. She did this until Edna appeared to be a dark skinned hairless humanoid, who looked up at Kay. Sam eventually made her way back into the house to find Kay and what remained of her grandmother. Kay laid down in the bed with her mother, Sam eventually joining them.
Gallery[]
Powers & Abilities[]
- Superhuman Survivability - Edna's main ability is her superhuman survivability, or the ability to resist death/harm in impossible situations. Edna was able to survive having her bones broken, her skin completely peeled off, and she was able to retain consciousness despite being hit over the head with a piece of metal several times.
- Body Shedding - Edna demonstrated her ability to shed her body's skin. She did this by removing the skin that had blackened throughout the film, both with her hands and with knives. At the end of the film, Kay helped her to shed her body entirely, and in doing so she seemed to have survived, looking up at Kay with a smiling face.
- Pain Resistance - Although it is left up for interpretation, Edna never showed any traditional signs of being in any physical pain in situations that would have caused her to feel pain. This is demonstrated when she was able to painlessly remove her skin and when she was able to snap a broken leg bone back into her body and continue walking.
Trivia[]
- The film includes a lot of symbolism to indicate that Edna is desperately trying to hold onto her memories. One of the best examples of this is when she begins eating photographs, the photos symbolizing her memories. Another example is the notes found in a secret part of the house that she had written to herself, these notes including that her name is Edna and that her mother's eyes were green.
- Edna was seen to have a tendency to talk to herself, or an entity that can't be seen. This is seen several times, all involving her facing a wall and relaying her worries to something that only she can see. Who or whatever she was talking to never seemed to do anything to add on to her conversation. For this reason, what she was talking to was most likely a manifestation of her inner monologue.
- Edna herself is not a villain, but her mental-illness causes her to be violent and abusive towards the ones she loves. This part of her character is one of the film's overall themes/messages about dementia as well as loved ones as they get older.