Eli is a film that comes directed by Ciarán Foy who some may know as the director of Sinister 2 (2015). The film stars Charlie Shotwell, Kelly Reilly, Max Martini, Lili Taylor and Sadie Sink.
Eli is about a little boy who has an auto-immune disorder that means he cannot leave his body suit when he goes outside. He’s basically a bubble boy. His family takes him to a special house where he can get treatment for his condition, the problem is though that the house is a little dodgy and all is not what it seems. It seems like there’s ghosts or something in there.
When I first saw the trailer for Eli I wasn’t too sure what to make of it. As soon as I saw someone in a body suit, I immediately assumed that this was some type of sci-fi horror film, which to be honest I was very excited for. But I was silly to think that a suit like that meant this was set in space, actually what I should have assumed was that this was more similar to the 2001 Bubble Boy movie, but instead of a comedy, Eli is a horror film.
The story isn’t too bad, but the problem the film has is that it is a little repetitive and the focus on just the boy going in for medical treatments and then trying to resist them over and over gets boring quite quickly. The problem about being a reviewer of the film is that I try to keep the review spoiler free so that you can go and watch it and enjoy it later. I don’t want to talk about what actually happens in the ending of this movie, but the ending of this film is either the best part of the film or the worst part of the film depending on how you look at it.
The ending is something that took me by surprise as I was getting a little bored with the film and was just waiting for it to wrap up. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere Eli goes in a completely different direction and the plot introduces a whole bunch of new ideas to the viewer. These new ideas were actually very interesting.
The problem and the main complaint I have about the ending though is that as it’s the better side of the film, I feel that after watching Eli, that actually much of the first 60 minutes is really a waste of time. The last 30 minutes is good. But the weird thing about it is that to me the ending feels like the end of a TV show episode, where a new character pops up, new plots are revealed and we have to wait for next week to see what happens next. The problem is though that this is a movie and it’s not a TV series. So why things are left so open at the end, I have no idea. It really is a bit strange.
The acting isn’t too bad in this. It’s all fairly standard and Charlie Shotwell who played Eli did his best in most of the scenes his was in. I also didn’t mind Kelly Reilly, Max Martini, Lili Taylor and Sadie Sink but the film doesn’t really give anyone much to do. Sadie Sink I think probably was a an actor that needed much more screen time though so the character she played could be more developed.
As for the scares, I didn’t think Eli was too scary when watching it at home this morning. It’s filled with quite a lot of jump scares and a bunch of supernatural elements. Some parts can surprise and there a certain scenes in this film where things are actually done quite well. I was surprised they had the budget to make it look as good as they did in certain scenes.
In the end I’d say to take a look at Eli this weekend on Netflix if you want something from the horror genre. It’s not too scary, but it’s not a complete waste of time to watch it one night. People will either really love how the film ends and want more from it or they’ll hate how it ended completely. It’s hard to say. I wouldn’t mind having a sequel of some sorts to see what the characters do next, but I do still think Eli ends in a way that’s more suited to TV show episode than a movie and that this is a little strange. But I guess it will at least give viewers something to talk about when it ends.
