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The Shocking Twist In Netflix’s Eli Is Breaking The Internet

Kaitlin Reilly
Last Updated October 23, 2019, 10:15 PM
Photo: courtesy of Netflix.
Once in a while, Netflix drops a creepy movie that sends the internet reeling. (Hi, Bird Box and all its many memes!) This October, the Netflix movie sending Twitter into a tailspin is Eli, a new horror film about a sick boy (Charlie Shotwell) whose parents Rose (Kelly Reilly) and Paul (Max Martini) send him to a special institute so that Dr. Horn (Lili Taylor) can cure the autoimmune disease. In case you already suspected, all is not what it seems: The twist ending of Eli is so unexpected and dramatic, fans aren't sure how to feel.
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In the film, Eli's mom is particularly enthusiastic that Dr. Horn, a “miracle worker,” will fix the illness that keeps Eli confined to his home. However, when Eli gets to the haunted manor of an institute, and finds himself the only patient, things get...weird. 
Eli starts experiencing very unsettling supernatural phenomenon, which is dismissed by everyone as nothing more than a side effect of his (very painful) treatments. It’s only his window visitor Haley (Stranger Things star Sadie Sink) who encourages him to explore the theory that Dr. Horn killed all her other patients: Haley has never seen any of the others leave. 
Obviously, something very sinister is up with the institute, but it’s nearly impossible to predict Eli’s real deal until pretty late into the movie.
After Eli finds files that show other patients were killed by Dr. Horn, he pleads with his parents to leave, but despite his protests, they stop him from escaping. They know that Eli doesn’t really have an autoimmune issue: The reason Eli wasn’t allowed outside for all those years was because — ready for it? Eli is actually the son of the devil. 
Eli’s mother was unable to conceive a child, so she prayed to Satan in order to get pregnant. The devil promised it would be totally chill to give birth to the spawn of Satan, but as Rose notes in the film, the devil always lies. (Had Rose done a little bit of research, she would have realized quickly that this was, in fact, an incredibly stupid plan.) Rose kept Eli away from the world so that he wouldn’t hurt anyone as his powers progressed, in hopes that she could one day have Eli “fixed” of the problems caused by his disturbing parentage. The treatments given to Eli by Dr. Horn — a nun as well as a doctor — were just infusions of holy water, which caused Eli immense pain but suppressed his evil powers. 
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After seeing how strong Eli is, Dr. Horn moves forward with her real plan. She’s killed all of the other spawns of Satan who came under her care, and has to do the same to Eli in order to “save his soul.” Eli, however, doesn’t take this very well. Using his newfound powers to murder the doctor and her nurses, Eli confronts his parents about the truth. Despite everything, Rose wants to protect her child, but Eli’s dad sees that this whole “child of the devil” thing will only go badly for everyone. Paul attempts to kill Eli, but he’s simply too strong: Using his telekinetic powers, Eli literally causes Paul’s face to explode, making Satan Eli’s only remaining daddy. 
Eli escapes the institute with his mother, and is greeted by Haley. She is also a child of Satan (“dad gets around,” she jokes) and wants to introduce Eli to his real father. Rose, whom Eli tells Haley he still trusts, drives them away from the burning hospital.
While some people were on the fence about the bonkers ending, other people were like: Sequel, please.
I, for one, would totally watch a spin-off show about these three people trying to make it work as a normal family. It could happen: The devil works hard, but when it comes to crazy content...Netflix works harder.
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