Netflix's Eli Movie Review

Netflix hits an all-time low when the only positive you can find is that it's mercifully short

by Casimir Harlow

Netflix's Eli Review

Attempting high concept 11th hour twist horror, but failing on almost all counts, Netflix's record-breaking release schedule this week hits its nadir.

Playing with a vaguely interesting premise, Eli is all about trickery, peacocking like a smug little high concept horror which has a different angle, but spending so much time distracting with its alternative point of view that it forgets its way, rushing to turn up the crazy for a final act reveal which hardly rewards the arduous 80 minute build-up. There's a bit of everything in there - ghost story feels, post-apocalyptic vibes, some kind of supernatural curse - but its all subterfuge, making the end more about frustration than revelation.

 The creators knew they had an interesting pitch, and a clever little twist, but getting from the start to the end proved that little bit more challenging 

Eli is highly allergic to everything, leaving him helplessly locked away in his own little hermetically sealed clean-bubble, unable to touch even his own parents. Having saved enough money, one day they take him to a specialist centre run from a highly fortified mansion which is designed to be one giant clean-room, affording him the contact that he has been yearning for but not without a price to be paid, as the medical staff make him undertake increasingly invasive operations in the hope of finding a cure, at all costs.

Netflix's Eli


Eli has a decent enough premise, pulling you in right from the outset with its desperate parental struggle, and scary reactions to simple everyday things - scuffing the knee of his hazmat suit could prove veritably fatal. What disease could cause this? What has happened to the world? With all the myriad possible explanations, the story has you hooked, landing at this spooky mansion where you just know something is not quite right.

Only, unfortunately, nothing happens. The creators knew they had an interesting pitch and a clever little twist, but getting from the start to the end proved that little bit more challenging, happily wiling away the time with meaningless exchanges with an outsider, creepy messages drawn on windows, and those damn experiments which just appear to be getting more and more out of hand. But nothing really actually happens, and then the narrative spins and flips its focus, leaving you reeling as you put the pieces back together now you know what the picture is really supposed to look like.

  There's a bit of everything in there - ghost story feels, post-apocalyptic vibes, some kind of supernatural curse - but its all subterfuge, making the end more about frustration than revelation

Kelly Reilly (wasted in this, much better in Flight, Yellowstone, or True Detective) and Max Martini (13 Hours) play the desperate parents, struggling themselves with an unforgiving script (where they have to act like they're in on the twist without revealing it), whilst Lili Taylor plays the least trustworthy doctor you'll ever come across. Surprisingly, Charlie Shotwell isn't too irritating as the kid, and it's nice to see Sadie Sink out of her Stranger Things constrictions, even if she's given precious little to do.

Mercifully short, Eli lacks substance, focus, or style, subsisting on the vapour trail of Netflix's Haunting of Hill House (it wouldn't be surprising to find that the mansion setting is a regular Netflix set - looking a little Umbrella Academy too) but never really establishing any kind of identity of its own. And if they really wanted to slow-burn it, then it needed a longer conclusion to attempt some memorable mayhem before the credits roll on, rather than just one big fat anti-climax.

Scores

Verdict

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5

5
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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