Everyone is looking for some spine-chilling movies to set the haunting mood with Halloween right around the corner. On Oct. 18th, Netflix released the movie “Eli.”

Since I had time to spare, I thought, “Why not test it out, I mean, how terrible can it be?” To answer my own question; it wasn’t terrible, it was disappointing. I was laughing uncontrollably by the climax of the movie. 

This movie is about a young boy named Eli, played by Charlie Shotwell, who has a mysterious illness. His parents, Rose and Paul, played by Kelly Reilly and Max Martini, are taking him to the “miracle doctor” Dr. Horn, played by Lili Taylor. Within the first scene of the movie you can clearly see that something is wrong with Eli because whenever he breathes the outside air, he appears to be burning and hyperventilating. 

The rising action in this movie was truly frightening. I eventually got up and turned on the lights with fear of ghosts hiding in my closet. Even though I was hiding under my covers at this point, I kept viewing the movie. 

As I ventured closer to the climax, things started to unravel. This movie had a way of getting into your head and creating curiosity as to what will happen next. Every question this movie posed, I had an answer by the time the climax hit. Then I started laughing and I genuinely couldn’t stop. The cause of my laughing was my being so scared up until this point and then the writers ruined it with the poor cinematic choices.

A good horror movie should give viewers a sense of uneasiness and a bit of mystery. A good movie should leave viewers wanting more, as all the best movies do. Maybe it was the lack of acting abilities by Taylor or the over dramatic acting of Reilly, all together it was just a train wreck at this point. 

You can tell that the writers had given up at this point because of how the ending was just an ending, it seemed as if they just wanted the movie to be over. I was furious. I had wasted an hour and thirty seven minutes waiting for the ending this movie deserved and instead received a laugh and not a good one.  

Overall I would give this movie a 4 out of ten. It had so much potential and maybe with better casting and more thorough writing, this movie could be worth my time.