Eli

ELI (Charlie Shotwell) - NETFLIX

To describe Ciarán Foy's Eli as frustrating or even disappointing would suggest that this film has any hope of impressing. There is so much here that turns the brain to mush just thinking about the decisions and trajectory this feature takes, not only contextually but more so in the films literal creation and development.

Is it a horror? Science fiction? Thriller? Is it all three? With the execution so poorly crafted, its hard to even remotely understand or pinpoint precisely what Eli is. If anything, it is horrendous. A harsh and absolute opinion, granted, but one in which ninety-three minutes of wasted time has passed without an inkling of having an impression from the material at hand. Why is it shot in middle America? Why craft a film so one dimensional and as a replica of any and all horror films similar? There seems to be a conscious decision here to create something so incredibly ordinary and saturated in a market that has so much opportunity to create distinctive palettes.

ELI (Charlie Shotwell, Lili Taylor, Kelly Reilly, Max Martini)- NETFLIX

A screenplay so daft and inexplicitly flat with what it presents — from the trio of writers David Chirchirillo, Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing — may be a telling truth in its own right. Daring to try and include a twist of the kind found in other horrors, such as The Sixth Sense and The Others, where its sole intention is to change the perception the viewer has for repeat viewings, Eli never had a chance of achieving this. Not only out of spite in time wasted but also due to the film never delivering on that multiple layered construction of thematics and nuance.

Dull scares and flavourless tension engulf the screen every ten minutes, leading to boredom, and the performances lift no spirits in the charisma or engagement market. Charlie Shotwell as the titular character, the usually stellar Kelly Reilly and Max Martini all have talents that do not lie in this type of industry. Every aspect is nothing but lifeless and leads to what may be the most patronising and tonally imbalanced last few frames imaginable, evoking a similar sentiment of This is the End rather than something along the lines of The Ninth Gate.

Eli is released exclusively on NETFLIX October 18, 2019.