From Page to Screen: Relic

The Relic is one of my all-time favourite creature features. I've professed my love for it here, and regret nothing. It's a rip-roaring good time at the movies. 'Nuff said.

I'd never read Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Relic when the movie came out, but heard from many the film couldn't live up to the book. Having now read it, I disagree.

I actually think the book and film are on par with each other, but in different ways. The movie exceeds the book when it comes to action and carnage. The entire museum showdown plays far better on screen than on the page, and I appreciated how the monster was dispatched in the film as opposed to the book. The book's ending was, well, lame.

But Preston and Child didn't intend the book to be one-off. There's a lot more going on in the book than in the film, which is essentially a stripped down version of the story. For one, Preston and Child intended Relic to be launching point for a series of novels based on the Pendergast character, who isn't even in the film.

Instead, Hyams and his screenwriters combined Pendergast with the D'Agosta character and excluded any reference to him completely. They also jettisoned a lot of material involving the Greg Lee character, which set the stage for a sequel book. Oh, and Dr. Frock survives in the novel. Spoiler alert. He, Lee and a lot of the groundwork laid in Relic pay off in the follow-up book, Reliquary, which is excellent.

Taken on their own terms, the book and the movie versions of Relic are excellent. And I recommend a read and a watch, if you haven't already.