Eli is a movie about a ten-year-old boy named – as you might guess – Eli, who is allergic to everything. He lives in a big plastic tent and when he does go out he wears a blue hazmat suit lest he comes into contact with the air and breaks out in searingly painful red hives.
In a last-ditch attempt to cure him, his parents bring him to a secluded clinic – a clean house – where Dr Isabella Horn (Lili Taylor) promises to make him better. But something darker seems to be lurking in the house and Eli is the only one who can see it...
So, what was the deal with creepy bubble kid anyway? We've broken it down for you – but be warned, there are spoilers for the Netflix movie from here on out.
All we know at the outset of the movie is that four years ago Eli had a sudden allergic reaction to, well, everything. Since then he's lived in a big plastic tent. But his parents Rose (Kelly Reilly) and Paul (Max Martini) find a doctor who says she can cure him.
Netflix
The house looks like every other house in a horror movie, but particularly like Hill House from Haunting of Hill House, weirdly. When Eli removes his hazmat suit, he can breathe easy. His first night, however, is marked by spooky noises outside and what seems to be a hand streaking through the mist on the window.
Eli is brought in for his first round of treatment, which Dr Horn says might make him worse before he gets better. And boy, does it ever. He is plagued by what Dr Horn says are hallucinations – creepy ghosts who look like Sadako from The Ring.
When one night Eli hears a clicking sound, he discovers a red-haired girl throwing pebbles at his window. He goes to meet her, speaking through the glass. She says her name is Hayley, and she tells him he's not the first child she's seen in the house, but she never saw the others leave.
The movie continues in this vein, with Eli being haunted and also making more discoveries about what's in the house. Dr Horn becomes creepier the more Eli has treatments, which are predictably making him seem sicker.
Netflix
During one particularly scary episode, a ghost carves Eli's name into a wardrobe door over and over. But when Eli gets a different view of it, he realises the word isn't Eli but 317. Eli supposes this is the code to a locked door in the medical wing.
While all of this is going on, we're treated to the unhappy rumblings in Paul and Rose's marriage. He makes a snide remark at her about his always having been faithful. She criticises his seeming indifference to the treatment they've clearly spent a fortune on.
Rose sees Paul and Dr Horn whispering about something in the hall, but when she approaches they change the subject. Later, she confronts him about it and they fight.
While they're arguing, Eli is rummaging through the previously locked office, searching through the files of the previous children Dr Horn supposedly cured. But Paul and Rose's fighting is so loud it wakes Dr Horn and her nurses, who begin the hunt for Eli.
Paul confirms Rose's fear, that Dr Horn's treatment is not a guaranteed cure. In fact, it may kill Eli. Rose panics, grabs her suitcase and plans to leave with her son. Dr Horn somehow changes Rose's mind.
Eli, having discovered the files and the fates of the children before him (they dead!), rushes to his parents' room and begs to leave. His father tricks him by saying he loves him and bringing him into a hug (yeah, grim) before jabbing him in the arm with a needle.
Rose, Dr Horn and the nurses enter the room and corral Eli towards the medical wing. All the while Eli screams that he's going to be killed, pleading with his parents to save him. Just then, a car outside catches fire, which distracts the adults and affords Eli the chance to run.
He winds up in a dark, breezy room with a crucifix. He sees a picture of nuns and spots Dr Horn amongst the habited women. An insect lands on the frame, which he follows through a crack in the wall to a hidden basement room.
Netflix
The chamber in the basement has some kind of well and a crucifix hanging on the wall. Unbeknownst to Eli, the adults have snuck down behind him and locked him in the room – which will surely kill him, since it's unclean and has allergens. That's the point, though, as Dr Horn says: he knows too much.
Eli passes out from his allergic reaction, but wakes up to a clear face and no reactions. He begins to holler for his mom, who comes rushing to him. His back is to her as she apologises for lying about his being ill. She pleads with him through the bars to take the last round of treatment and then she'll tell him the truth.
He passes out again, which prompts Rose to open the door, but it was all a trick! Eli whacks her over the head with the heavy crucifix and flees, but is easily caught because, you know, he's a 10-year-old boy.
Dr Horn, the nurses and Paul strap him down, but before they can do anything Rose attacks them with the knife hidden in the crucifix (as good a place as any to hide a dagger, right?) She tries to force them to let her son go but is tricked by Paul into giving up the knife.
Netflix
The truth begins to unravel: Eli was never sick, but is actually the son of the devil. YEP.
Dr-nun Horn begins to recite an exorcism prayer while showering him with holy water. Eli screams, his skin turns red, but then his eyes begin to glow and he comes into his full unholy power. He tears easily through the restraints and turns the knife on Dr Horn, stabbing her in the shoulder.
He uses his powers to set the nurses on fire, kill his father and bust his way out of the house where he sees Hayley. She, too, is a child of the devil – Eli's half-sister – and tells him that all of the Devil's children have to come to him in their own way. She says she'll bring Eli to him, and leads him to the car.
Haley demands Rose drive them there, which she does, her devil son in the passenger's seat. The end.
So, there's that.
Patti Perret
The first two-thirds of the film are nothing like final third, in which the ghosts and dubious medical procedures give way to a full-on child-exorcism tale.
This isn't helped by the parental characters, who flip-flop constantly throughout the movie. By the end, Paul is firmly "kill the demon son" whereas Rose is "rescue my devil baby" even though at the outset, Paul seemed apprehensive about the whole thing and Rose was gung-ho for it.
There's no concrete explanation as to how Rose became pregnant. Was it an immaculate conception? Or did she get down and dirty with the devil? These are questions the movie doesn't answer, unfortunately.
So Eli starts off as a spooky exploration of bodily autonomy and trust, and what it's like when you realise your parents, doctors and other authority figures are fallible. But then it takes a hard left turn and becomes a straight-up exorcism movie. If there's ever a sequel, we hope it's a buddy-movie as Haley and Eli run rampant across the country.
Eli is now streaming on Netflix
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