This is like someone took the scripts for 6 different horror films combined them with a 90’s medical thriller and mixed them all together in a blender without a top. Ideas go flying around and rapid pace all over the screen and the resultant spectacle is admittedly quite fun to watch from afar. The closer one looks, the more of a mess you realize it truly is. There is a lot going on in this film, in fact it often feels overstuffed with its ambitious amalgam of scares, experiments, and creepy setup. While the first act has an excess of slow buildup, the second act consists of excellent scare sequences that escalate until the third act’s insane twists. None of it really makes sense for a goodly chunk of the runtime, but still manages to be engaging on basis of some remarkably good direction and intriguing moments. There are no shortage of flaws, mostly on the script level as its mystery elements are fairly worn tropes, and unfortunately the character of Eli himself is far from engaging with any initial sympathy for him rapidly exhausted. (To be fair, this film has a lot to ask of its title actor). The rest of the cast seem alternatively bemused and bored, but all give decent performances. Despite the flaws, the movie manages to keep one engaged through to the last twists. The movie goes absolutely gonzo in the last act, with an utterly bugshit explanation that defies prediction and is barely justifiable. But still, the outcome is absurdly entertaining and the last 15 minutes of sheer insanity are hilariously fun for genre enthusiasts. The more absurd it goes, the wider the grins will get and ultimately this is a surprisingly fun entry from Netflix, whose sheer insanity and ambition elevates it above the majority slog of their catalogue offerings.
Eli