Pretty messy movie that could have been good.
Some things are ridiculous though like [spoiler]the immunologist being a nun or the religious mom making a pact with the devil to have a child[/spoiler] because apparently that’s a thing.
Overall I liked the concept but it wasn’t really well written in my opinion, there are a lot of clichés horror scenes that don’t really land. Seems like they tried to mix different genres together which makes it confusing and I have many questions still. [spoiler]Like, why did the kid think his parents made him believe he was sick when we saw his first « reaction » happened when he was alone ? How was Eli conceived ? Was it like an immaculate conception or did she meet the Devil (the fact that she said he lied to her implies that they met, but...)? How did she even think about praying to the Devil for a child ? I don’t understand how gene therapy just transformed into a full on exorcism session with holy water and shit ? What was the purpose of the bone drill during the first treatment ?? Is it a ghost movie or an exorcism movie or a claustrophobia movie or a conspiracy movie ?? [/spoiler]

I won't get the movie plot away but I will say this ... this movie is extremely interesting from start to finish. The cast is brilliant, the story was intriguing oh, and the ending maybe even smile and laugh a little but that might be just because I have a morbid sense of humor. It's definitely worth a watch.

_Eli_ director Ciarán Foy is also the man behind 2012's _Citadel_, which I found to be drastically underappreciated. For that reason, I went into _Eli_ completely blind, expected to enjoy it of off of Foy's involvement alone. Ended up being pretty disappointed. The effects they use for the titular Eli's skin rashes appearing and disappearing are **great**, I was genuinely impressed, truly. But the quote-unquote "mysteries" of the movie ("Hm, this doesn't seem quite right, what's really going on here?") start very early on in the piece, and are drawn out for sooooo long, then only about half of those mysteries are answered in one single reveal, and even those ones are resolved in a way I was not at all satisfied by.

_Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._