StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

abuse-this2 Not a total waste of time as so many ScyFi channel films. The film's biggest downfalls are the poor CGI (something one might expect the ScyFi channel to be particularly good at given the genre, but actually are very bad at) and so-so directing and scripting.It always amazes me that films which portray the demonic as such powerful and real forces give such short shrift to the powers of Good. It strikes me as rather lame that film makers have the demon win when confronted with a person of true faith standing on their faith against such. If the demon exists, so too must God and his angels. And yet, this film has devote monks becoming possessed flesh-eaters in the blink of an eye, a knight of the Crusade "poisoned" by a splinter from a piece of the "true cross" and converted into a demonic monster with flailing tentacles, cursed nails stronger than a holy relic (a piece of the cross) and the blood of Christ, and a demon immune to the Bible and a crucifix but at the same time subject to the power of an Islamic symbol. One of the characters is an indentured laborer who confesses to being a non-believer to a knight of the Crusade. Subsequently, she revises her position to one of belief. Other critics spurn her conversion, but I have to ask: given an out-right blatant proof of the existence of Evil in the form of a demon, I think that most atheists or agnostics would find faith in a deity of some form rather quickly. Kind of like the old adage: their are no atheists in foxholes ...The acting is okay, and Fain plays the lead well. Alyy Khan does a pretty decent job in his role as supporting actor. I did find the reasoned approach to the coexistence of their different faiths to be a pleasant change. I am just not sure of how realistic it was for the time. It isn't unreasonable that a crusader returning to England after years of battle might be weary of the acrimony back and forth and to have a more wizened approach, but Khan's character has no basis for such given his position and background in such a strongly indoctrinated faith.Given the portrayed invulnerability of the demon to normal weapons, it was a decent plot ploy that the blood of Christ would serve as a weapon enhancer to make normal weapons effective against the demon. However, the piece of the cross did not ooze such all the time so how did they gather enough to coat the weapons? Likewise, all this time the demon has been following the piece of the cross, even transporting it back to the good guys when they try to bury it and leave it behind, and yet when it is shoved in the face of the demon, the demon is blown to bits. And if the relic is so powerful against the demon, why is it that the knight can't remove the cursed nails from it? The nails are more powerful than the demon? Very weak.

TheLittleSongbird The idea was interesting, so I was willing to forgive the budget quality if it was a watchable movie at the least. Apart from this odd if very interesting idea and the good performances of James Frain and Alyy Khan, Dark Relic was anything but. Apart from these two performances, the rest of the acting is at best mediocre. A number of things didn't help them at all. The characters are little more than obnoxious stereotypes that we learn nothing about, while the dialogue constantly has a very awkward feel to it. There is nothing exciting in the story at all, which suffers further from a complete lack of coherence. The special effects are of really poor standard, I wasn't expecting high art of course considering the budget but these looked like examples of somebody not even trying. The camera work is hackneyed, while the direction is flat and the monster is very underused and as far from menacing as you can come. So all in all, dull and cheap, essentially a pretty poor but slightly redeemable SyFy movie that doesn't have much if any kind of value. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Paul Andrews Dark Relic is set during 1099AD at the end of the first Crusade, the noble & Christian God fearing Knight Sir Gregory (James Frain) lead over a hundred men at the start of the Crusade but now his charges number less than ten, after much bloodshed & loss of life Sir Gregory & his few remaining loyal men have found an ancient relic that they soon come to believe is part of the wooden cross that Jesus was crucified to. Sir Gregory plans to sail home with the Holy relic & his men but a fierce storm at sea forces them to abandon the boat when it crashes into rocks on the coast of an unknown land, with no option left Sir Gregory & his men set off on foot to find help & carry on their journey but a series of terrible events lead them to believe that the Holy relic is cursed & attracts evil including a huge winged fire breathing Demon from Hell. As more of Sir Gregory's men fall victim to the evil curse he decides that the Holy relic must be destroyed...Directed by Lorenzo Sena credit has to go to the makers of Dark Relic for at least trying to make a SyFy Channel film that has some originality, the idea of a Holy Crusade in 1099AD where a Knight & his men are menaced by an evil curse sounds positively highbrow for the notoriously lazy people at the SyFy Channel. I suppose the only problem is that Dark Relic isn't that good, sure it's far from terrible & not as bad as your average SyFy Channel creature feature/giant monster film but when all said & done it's still difficult for me to recommend to casual viewers. The script for Dark Relic is perhaps more serious than the usual camp SyFy Channel offering with a fairly bleak tone that tries to touch upon the likes of religion, sacrifice, racism & faith but while these themes are briefly explored the script isn't ambitious enough to really drive these points home & say something meaningful. The overall impression I got while watching Dark Relic was that of seeing people dressed in Knight costumes walking through woods occasionally coming under attack from various things such as a swarm of Locust's, cannibal kung-fu Monk's (I kid you not) & really bad weather conditions. Dark Relic is a masterpiece compared to a lot of SyFy Channel crap but doesn't really stand up when seen against many other films, an interesting attempt & Dark Relicc isn't terrible but it's nowhere near great either.Before this was released the SyFy Channel ran a competition to name it, yes the title Dark Relic was actually the winning entry although I have no idea what the winner won, if anything at all. Apparently filmed under the title Crusades. There's a bit of gore, a couple of people are seen hanging upside down with their guts hanging out & there are a few slow motion sword fight scenes but don't expect anything as stylish or exciting as 300 (2006). The CGI computer effects are predictably awful, the shot of the boat sailing across the sea has to be seen to be believed it's so bad, I have games on my phone that feature more realistic computer graphics. The fire breathing Demon doesn't look much better either.I am not sure where Dark Relic was filmed (probably Bulgaria or Serbia) but some of the scenery looks quite nice but the low budget does show at times. The acting isn't too bad, it's better than in a lot of SyFy Channel films & it's odd not to see some has-been Hollywood star or wrestler somewhere.Dark Relic isn't the worst film ever made & it does try but the low budget & the whole SyFy Channel feel goes against it, it's a bit different but still not very good if you know what I mean.

davis2000 When I saw James Frain (from the Tudors series), I thought this might rise above most SyFy dreck. In some ways it does since the special effects aren't always terrible and some of the acting is almost good. The story is very weak, at times incoherent and it's likely to offend some. Continuity errors abound and reaction shots are laughable at times.Spoilers: one of the worst effects is the CGI wolves that attack the party in the woods. I'm pretty sure you could animate a better wolf at home with free software than this. The demon is generally nearly as realistic as he was in the video game Diablo II but it's size seems to vary a great deal depending on the shot.The premise is very odd in that the Holy Cross, a religious relic that has traditionally been thought to be beneficial is somehow tainted and causes the demon(s) to follow and attack the party carrying it from the Crusades, sometimes preceding them somehow to possess monks etc. The fact it's immune to a crucifix but susceptible to a talisman the Muslim warrior (Alyy Khan) carries seems a tad offensive. The Cross is evil, the Muslim talisman is holy - what message are they trying to send? In typical fashion, after the non-whites have saved the "hero" many times they're struck down in a very ignominious way and for no real reason other than to leave the stage clear for the hero. Just to show they can't be consistent, the tainted relic of the Cross is then shoved down the demon's throat to destroy him which thoroughly muddles things in time for a very abrupt ending.Even for free this is worthless unless you like to make fun of bad movies with your friends. Some talented actors were wasted here.