Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Deffinition and you’re now locked into the channel where we breakdown all of the latest movies, games, tv shows and comics. This episode we’re going over Netflix’s new Horror movie Eli.
Throughout this, we’re going to be breaking down everything that you need to know about the movie as well as it’s shocking twist ending.
There will be heavy spoilers here, so if you haven’t had a chance to watch Eli yet and don’t want to know anything about the movie then I highly suggest that you seal yourself away in a mansion because we’re going to be ruining everything about the movie.
With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into our breakdown of Eli.
Eli Plot Recap
Eli follows a young boy that suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition that is due to his body carrying an infected Rag 1 Rag 2 gene. This causes him to have extreme sensitivity to the outside world. When coming into contact with untreated oxygen, water, and sunlight he has a severe allergic reaction that forces him to pretty much live his whole life in a sealed chamber.
However, there is a hope that Eli can be cured and his parents take him to a secluded mansion overseen by a doctor named Isabella Horn that will hopefully provide treatment for his condition. The location allows Eli to huge his parents, walk around freely, have showers and it seems to good to be true. Horn boasts that everyone that has ever visited the facility has been cured and though the procedures seem extremely painful if they can provide him with a normal life it seems worth it.
It’s an awesome premise to kick start the movie and often when watching films like this that are set solely in one location, I’m left scratching my head as to why the characters don’t just leave. Eli switches that up by making escape almost impossible for the boy and due to his immune system he is forced to remain on the grounds for the majority of the film, making it so that there is no possibility of him getting away unless he goes through with the entire treatment.
In addition to this, we also see first hand in the opening of the movie just how at risk Eli is because of the outside world and this instantly gets you on the character’s side as you just want to see him live a happy and normal childhood.
Stranger Things Are Happening Here
There’s just something off about the location though and during the stay stranger things, did you see what I did there, begin to happen. Eli is taunted by the ghosts of other patients and though these are initially brushed to the side by Horn and his parents as byproducts of the procedure, for Eli they are very much real. A girl named Haley also visits him every day to discuss some of the prior patients that have been treated there and she becomes the only one who believes his claims about the ghosts.
They seem to be trying to give him a message and throughout the film, the word Eli is rearranged to spell out Lie which serves as a warning for the character. In the beginning, this is only written on glass but the longer Eli stays there, the more ingrained into his surroundings it becomes.
Though the spirits initially seem malevolent, they actually may be trying to help, giving the character warnings and trying to get him to leave. After the aforementioned wood carving, Eli realizes that the carvings do not actually spell out LIE, they instead spell out 317, a passcode to enter Horn’s office. With this knowledge, Eli manages to sneak into her study and discovers records that show that all of the prior patients at the facility were killed during their third treatment at the facility.
The Truth About The Facility
Eli tries to tell his father about this but he comforts him and tries to sedate him which fails and thus Eli is able to escape deeper into the facility, through Horns’ room where he discovers a photo of her in a nuns uniform and a hidden chamber. At this point I was really engrossed in the film and whilst I often find child actors hit and miss, I have to say that Charlie Shotwell who plays Eli does a great job of conveying the sheer frustration and anger that he has over no one listening to him. I often find that horror movies starring kids work a lot better than when they have adult counterparts because there are so many rules in place from adults for the children that really make life situations twice as difficult to get out of. There’s also a vulnerability to the performances and the fear in films like this not only comes from the supernatural elements but also the fact that adults can overpower them at any time. It’s one of the main reasons that The Shining, IT and the Others work so well and Eli exemplifies this. Watching him constantly be told no makes him easy to relate to and as we headed into the final half-hour I was really engaged by the movie.
Now it’s when Eli gets to the secret chamber that things really start to get nuts and the true nature of the facility is revealed. Eli sees lots of religious symbols and a large circular stone that is hiding something beneath it. Eli is locked in the room by Horn and his family and he realises that he can breathe. After screaming for help, Eli’s mother comes and tells him the truth, revealing that his disease was a lie and that she only told Eli that he had the allergies in order to protect him from the world. Eli pretends to pass out and his mother rushes in to help him which allows him to escape the room and when running from his father and the nurses he seems to manifest telekinetic powers that allow him to knock his father over and short circuit some of the lights.
The Truth About Eli
Eli manages to get to the room where he has met with Haley and there’s sort of hints as to what she really is which I’ll get into later. Eli’s dad and the nurses manage to confine Eli and it’s revealed that the third and final treatment is actually a religious ritual that will kill Eli. We later learn that Eli is actually the son of Satan and that after his mother had fertility problems, she turned to Lucifer in the hopes that he could give her a child. Satan promised her that Eli would have a normal life but in the case of Eli and the others, this is a lie. The facility is actually a convent, disguised as a lab that has been created to kill the antichrist in all its forms. This is why there are crosses on the door and why the prior patients are sealed in a chamber as we discover later.
Now, whilst what caused Eli’s sickness is never explicitly stated, we can guess a few things from conversations that we hear and things we see in the movie. We know that Thorn and the family have been working together for a long time so we can assume that the chamber that Eli lived in was, in fact, causing things to happen to his body rather than curing it. Holy water burns Eli’s skin later in the film so it’s a safe bet to make that the reason Eli was unable to take a shower was because his house had been fitted with it. There’s definitely more going on than meets the eye and the condition may be psychosomatic which causes the symptoms to manifest out of the sheer fear that Eli feels when exposed.
Eli Ending Explained
Eli’s mother, Rose simply can’t let any harm come to the boy because, after all, he is still her son and Eli’s father, aware of what has happened restrains her whilst Thorn and the nuns attempt to carry out the ritual which involves throwing holy water on him and stabbing him with a sacrificial dagger. The ritual fails though and Eli’s powers fully manifest during it and he just completely decimates everyone in the room, twisting their bodies, crushing his father’s face, you know, everything you wanted to do to your parent’s cos they wouldn’t buy you a mobile phone when you were three years old. It’s an awesome finale that you know, deep down I was kinda glad that it went this way. I’m not ready to join the church of Satan or anything but watching the bad guy win was brilliant.
After Eli kills everyone bar his mother, he burns the mansion to the ground and we get an awesome shot of him wandering the halls as they set alight. They exit to be greeted by Haley who reveals that she is actually one of Satan’s spawns that has been at the mansion, watching the prior patients and Eli to see if they are worthy. Because Eli escaped captivity and earned his he can now join her.
The Truth About Haley
Now when you go back and watch the film, it’s clear that Haley has pretty much been guiding the character and helping him to understand his powers. She initially shows him a magic trick that involves starting a fire in his hand which she doesn’t get burned from which may instill in him the confidence to do what he does later in the film and also says that 317 may be a passcode when Eli brings it up. Haley is the only one who believes Eli’s story about the ghost and the fact that she can’t enter the building because of Thorn. She encourages him to unleash his power later on by saying that he’s stronger than the rest and overall, is a big driving force for the character.
In the final few scenes asks if Eli can trust his mother but he says that he still loves her and trusts her and thus the film ends with the three driving away, going to meet Satan to take part in whatever plans he has for the world. Hopefully, he kills them guys from the start cos they sucked.
It’s a great end for the film that though I wasn’t expecting definitely felt like an amazing ride to be a part of.
Eli Netflix Movie Review
But what did I think of the movie overall?
Well Eli is getting slammed across the board pretty much with it having just 53% on Rotten Tomato’s. Whilst I don’t think it’s gonna win any oscars this year I did have a lot of fun with it and though the main criticism is that the twist comes out of nowhere, it doesn’t feel like a completely breakneck one and therefore didn’t take me completely out of the film upon it’s reveal.
There’s some really nice moments to this and every performance is pretty strong with each actor providing a subtle performance throughout the film. Horror’s like this need to keep you engaged and constantly guessing and the added surpise of the ending definitely caught me off guard and felt like a fun way to take the movie. I didn’t expect to be watching the son of Satan this entire time but hey, it’s a nice way to take the film.
Overall I had fun with Eli and though it’s not perfect, it’s a pretty fun ride so I’m gonna score it a…
6/10
Your Thoughts
Now obviously I’d love to to hear your thoughts on Eli and what you took from the movie. Comment below and let me know and if you enjoyed this video then please like it and make sure you check out my breakdown of episode one of HBO’s Watchmen which will be linked at the end. We go indepth on the show so it’s definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
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