Although my cinema slump is still in full flow, Netflix continues to provide enough original content to completely justify a cosy night in on the sofa, snuggled under a blanket with a bag of popcorn in our laps.
Our latest watch was the horror Eli, starring Charlie Shotwell (All the Money in the World – 2017), Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes – 2009) and Sadie Sink (Stranger Things – 2019).
Eli is a young boy who is allergic to the world, literally. Forced to live inside a quarantine bubble or venture outside in a full hazmat suit, Eli and his parents are desperate to find a cure. The film starts with the family on the road heading to a state-of-the-art, hermetically sealed facility that claims to have a 100% success rate in curing cases of auto-immune diseases like Eli’s.
His initial joy at finally being able to hug his family and walk around unrestricted is soon overridden by the trauma of his treatment, and the hallucinations and revelations that come with it.
The film starts off well, with a good suspenseful storyline, likeable characters and great pacing. There are some obvious jump scares, however they are not overused and compliment the story’s progression rather than hindering it. Think of the Haunting of Hill House series or the 2018 film, Hereditary.
Without giving too much of the plot away, the final act goes off in a completely different and unexpected direction which, coupled with the utter ridiculousness of it, completely ruins the film for me. In all honesty, whilst the content is different, Eli plays out in a very similar style to Hereditary, so if you are a fan of Ari Aster’s unexpected smash hit then I think it is highly likely you will enjoy this film.
Unfortunately, I hated Hereditary (it did take the number 1 spot in my worst films of 2018!!) and as a result, really didn’t get on with this film either.
Have you seen it? Let me know your thoughts?
Until next time…. x
I think the ending elevated it a bit for me because I was expecting it to end like every other demon child movie out there. (hello Brightburn)
That’s interesting because I really enjoyed Brightburn.
I think I would’ve enjoyed the ending more had there been some prior indication that that was the way they were going to go. I’m not someone who likes thing to come completely out of the blue lol 😂
I gotta admit I got a kick out of this. That whacko ending caught me off-gueard (in a really good way).
Did you enjoy Hereditary? I have a feeling fans of that will be fans of Eli.
I like to be caught off-guard but in a ‘Oh, shit!’ kind of way not a ‘What the F?’ kind of way haha.
I did like Hereditary. This doesn’t quite have that raw family tension of that film, but you’re right. The similarities are there.