Eli

A mostly interminable horror flick, Eli follows a disease-stricken young boy (Charlie Shotwell’s Eli) as he and his parents (Kelly Reilly’s Rose and Max Martini’s Paul) arrive at an isolated facility that promises a cure for Eli’s affliction – with the narrative detailing the horror that ensues after Eli begins encountering spooky apparitions within the expansive building. Filmmaker Ciarán Foy has infused much of Eli’s opening hour with the feel of a prototypical haunted-house flick, as the movie suffers from an excessively deliberate pace that’s compounded by an emphasis on eye-rolling jump scares and overly quirky supporting characters. (The latter is exemplified by the unreasonably sinister doctors that are supposedly trying to help Eli.) It’s not surprising to note that, as a result, there’s virtually nothing here to get involved with or invested in, as Eli’s entire midsection consists primarily of creepy encounters and happenings that may or may not be completely in the protagonist’s head. (It’s all just so tedious and tiresome.) An admittedly unexpected third-act twist does provide some late-in-the-game context to the otherwise hands-off storyline – it’s not difficult to envision the movie working a whole lot better had certain revelations come much, much earlier – and yet there’s little doubt that Eli has, unfortunately, long-since confirmed its place as a fairly monotonous and hopelessly underwhelming straight-to-streaming endeavor.

*1/2 out of ****