Warning: Full SPOILERS ahead for Netflix's Eli!
As teased in my review of Eli, the latest Netflix and Chills offering is a horror film that hopscotches into a couple of different spooky subgenres. The premise of a boy "allergic to the world" sequestered in a creepy old house where he's forced to undergo painful medical procedures blends elements of body horror, haunted house scares, and psychological thriller. Then in the third act, the truth behind Eli's "condition" is revealed along with its final subgenre, religious horror.
But after all that, this sinister final twist can be a lot to take in. So, let's break it down.
What Happened at the End of Eli?
Ahead of receiving the third and final of Dr. Thorn's experimental procedures, Eli (Charlie Shotwell) discovers the secret files on her previous patients. They were not cured as he was promised; Perry, Lucius, and Agnes were each killed by this next treatment. And these children, bloody and burnt, are ghosts who have been chasing Eli all over the house. But the bigger reveal is why all of this is happening, which Eli uncovers when he is fleeing from his parents, Dr. Thorn (Lili Taylor), and her nurses. In the not-so-good doctor's bedroom, a buzzing mosquito draws his attention to an old photo of Thorn and her colleagues dressed as nuns in full habits. They are clearly part of a religious order.
From there, he finds a secret passage that leads to a hidden religious shrine, where the corpses of the children who came before him will be uncovered. But before that, Dr. Thorn locks Eli in. Trapped in a space that is not "clean," he gasps for breath and passes out. But he does not die. Instead, Eli awakes and realizes his parents deceived him; his disease was a lie. He also begins to realize his power.
When Thorn and company strap him down for the final procedure, Eli screams to his parents for help. But his father Paul (Max Martini) is firmly on the side of the nuns. The boy fights back with telekinetic might, stopping Thorn's blade from piercing his flesh, and flinging her and her sidekicks into hovering upside-down crucifixion poses, which he sets ablaze as his mother Rose (Kelly Reilly) tells him about his real father.
Eli is the son of Satan. As he tortures the nurses, his mother tearfully confesses that she wanted a baby so badly - she prayed and prayed. Eli demands to know to whom she prayed. She answers, "The lord didn't answer me. But your father did. He promised me you wouldn't be like him, Eli. But he lied. The devil always lies."
Watch the trailer for Netflix's Eli below.
Hints Along The Way
With all the medical talk and spooky ghost kids, you might have missed the clues to Eli's religious core on a first watch. The first one appears just as the family leaves the Nightingale Motel, after their run-in with some mocking roughnecks. A billboard in the upper left corner of the frame features and image of Jesus Christ and reads, "Proverbs 19:9: The false witness will not go unpunished…and he who tells lies shall perish." Here is foreshadowing of what will come to the grown-ups who lie to Eli. They will be punished by his violent telekinetic vengeance. Thorn and her company will be burned, while his traitorous adoptive father will have his face explode by the wish of his furious son. Only his mother will live, perhaps because she confessed, perhaps because she ultimately fought to free him.
There's also a phone number: 335-173-TRUTH. I called the number, despite it having one digit too many. I got an automated answer, "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and try again." But notably, the number "173" flipped upside down looks like "ELI."
There are also clues to this religious turn in how the grown-ups talk about Dr. Thorn and her treatments. Eli's mother describes her as "a miracle worker," and during dinner prayers thanks Jesus for "placing Dr. Thorn in our path." Plus, when Rose speaks privately to her husband Paul, she says, "Everything I hoped for, everything I've prayed for is right here. He's going to get better. We've just got to have faith."
In response, Paul is surly, practically spitting, "I know. I've always been a faithful man." Rewatching the film, his anger makes sense. They're here -- wretched and broke -- because Rose made a deal with the devil. So in that regard, he feels betrayed as a man of faith. But he also feels betrayed as the man she married, because by sleeping with Satan she wasn't just unfaithful to God, but also to their wedding vows.
Another clue is in how Thorn and her cohorts present themselves. For one thing, their scrubs have a nod to a nun's wimple, fitting snugly around their faces in a hood, then scooping down into a collar that covers their bust lines. Beyond that, Thorn shies away from the word "cure." When Eli meets her, he asks directly if she's cured her other patients, and Thorn sidesteps, offering, "I will make you better."
Curiously, the grown-ups use medical terminology, speaking of symptoms, medication, procedures, transplants, even when they are away from Eli. So not all of Thorn's words were lies. She really was using medical know-how to try to reboot Eli's devil DNA, injecting holy water, tannis root, and "suppression medication" into his veins, bone marrow, and brain. But in the final act, she reveals her lethal last resort to his shocked mother. "I thought I could cure Eli. God knows I wanted to," Thorn proclaims. "The gene therapy would have worked if he weren't so strong. He's too far gone. But he can still be saved! I can save his soul." Basically, Thorn believes that by exorcizing Eli with the Bible, ritual, and holy water, she can save his soul… even if she kills his body.
If Eli Wasn't Sick Why Was He Experiencing Symptoms?
Let's circle back to the first time we see Eli experience the symptoms of his supposed allergies in the film's opening. He's running through a field, the sun shining down, his family awaiting his arrival at an inviting picnic table. But then, he gasps for air. His skin turns red in a horrible rash and he collapses. He screams, "It burns!" before blacking out. This is not a memory, but a dream in which he is "cured" and can run about the world unafraid.
The next instance is real. It occurs when Eli trips outside the motel, tearing a hole in his Hazmat suit. While the aforementioned locals look on and laugh, he is short of breath and breaking out into a rash. He doesn't mention a burning sensation. His mother mends the hole with tape, and coaches him to calm down with a breathing exercise. She asks him to blow out the candles on an imaginary birthday cake and make a wish. And when he says his wish is "to beat the crap out of them," she patiently insists he make another.
This reaction is not allergic but fight-or-flight. When Eli feels threatened, his body reacts by hyperventilating and turning his flesh red, presumably like his father's. We see similar reactions during the second procedure, when Thorn clucks for him to calm down, saying, "Stress will just make your symptoms worse." Notably, such stress is how Eli unlocks his supernatural powers. It's when Thorn injects a needle of holy water that the lights above flicker, as if they're wincing. Later, when he is fully incensed, he will make them burst and burn, reflecting his rage. As he fights for his life, his skin will turn blood red, yet only seems to burn when splashed with holy water.
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What Were the Ghosts Doing?
Thorn tries to convince Eli and his parents that the ghosts are just hallucinations, a side effect of the medication. But that story never really holds (holy) water because he sees the first one before he begins treatment. A pale figure, she lurks in the closed-off section of the house. From there, there will be more appearances, but many offer clues to their true intention. When they stalk Eli in a hallway, the series of scares culminates in a large shadow against a flap of plastic curtains. It looks like the ghost girl towering menacingly over him. But when the curtain splits, it's his dad dragging along the IV full of "medicine." This is a warning from the ghosts that Eli's dad is the one he should fear. Later, when a ghost grabs Eli by the ankles, he thrashes until realizing it's actually his father who holds him. Again, the ghosts are trying to warn him.
What Does 317 Mean?
They'll also trace "LIE" onto a window and scratch "317" on a closet door to get him on his own path to salvation, providing a clue to the betrayal and the access code to restricted rooms. When he's too slow on the uptake, they try to physically drag him out of the house. They stop just short of the outside door, leaving him in the decontamination chamber before it. This is later explained by Haley (Sadie Sink), the mischievous redhead who turns out to be Eli's devilish half-sister. In the final scene, she says the devils' spawn are "not allowed to set each other free" because "Dad says you got to earn your place." This also explains why she doesn’t just come clean with him on day one. Once Eli puts the pieces of this peculiar puzzle together, the ghosts back off and Haley waits. It's up to Eli to fight his own way out, which he will with wrath and hellfire.
Where Does Eli Go Next?
In the final scene, Eli emerges from the flames of Thorn's mansion. He is no longer afraid of the outside world because he has realized his own power. Haley awaits with a reassuring congratulations, "Hey Houdini, I knew you were stronger than the others." There's a bit of final exposition confirming that the three who died were weaker half-siblings. ("Dad gets around.") But then, there's a dark spark of hope for the path forward. Haley offers to introduce Eli to his real dad, saying, "I can take you to him if you want."
At this point, the boy looks back, not so much at the house on fire, the carnage he's created, or the life he'd leave behind, but at his mother. Rose has escaped the house with only one thing in tow, the black-and-red hoodie she'd bought in advance to celebrate his being "saved." She urges him to put it on because it's cold outside. He's Satan's son, but she's still his mom. And so, when she's told to get in the car and maybe literally go to hell, she does. Love binds her to Eli. As they drive off, the blaze of the big house in the dark night blurs. The windows and rafters fade until the firelight becomes a ghoulish face: a jack-o-lantern grinning like a devil.
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What did you think of the ending of Eli? Let us know in the comments!
