‘Eli’ on Netflix Plot Twist Ending Explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the movie Eli on Netflix. We assume you knew that before you clicked, but just in case. 

We’re in week three of Netflix’s slate of five original horror movies for the month of Halloween, and this week the movie is Eli. Directed by Ciarán Foy (Citadel, Sinister 2) and written by David Chirchirillo, Ian Goldberg, and Richard Naing, Eli is a horror film that hits on several classic tropes: Mad doctors, haunted houses, and satanic rituals.

Actor Charlie Shotwell (Captain Fantastic) stars as Eli, a child with a rare autoimmune disease that means he can’t be exposed to the outside world. His mother Rose (Kelly Reilly) and father Paul (Max Martini) take him to an expensive, secluded clinic where a doctor named, rather obviously, Dr. Horn (Lili Taylor) claims she can cure him via an intensive treatment. The procedures are painful, but according to Dr. Horn, that just means they’re working. Eli’s not so sure. He’s trapped in this giant house, essentially being tortured, and worse, he starts seeing a ghost girl.

He learns from his neighbor Haley, played by Stranger Things‘s Sadie Sink, that other kids who have come here saw ghosts, too. At first, he thinks this ghost wants to kill him but then, perhaps remembering The Sixth Sense, he thinks that maybe the ghost is trying to help him escape Dr. Horn. As it turns out, it’s neither. Like so many of these Netflix horror films, the ghost turns out to be a red herring that doesn’t tie into the ultimate Eli plot twist. Let’s break it down.

WHAT IS THE ELI PLOT TWIST? WHAT ARE THE ELI SPOILERS?

Buckle up, because there are several. First, it turns out Dr. Horn’s past patients were not cured, they were killed. Second, it turns out Eli’s mom was lying to him about having a rare autoimmune disease. He didn’t need to live in a bubble all those years. Third, and most importantly, the reason Eli’s mom lied to him is that he is the son of the devil. He’s Lucifer’s baby, the anti-christ, the spawn of Satan, or whatever you want to call him. Satan apparently told Eli’s mom that she could cure him of his evil nature by bringing him to this medical/religious center, but, alas, “the devil always lies.”

HOW DOES ELI END?

After Eli tries to escape the house and realizes that he’s not sick, his human father forces him onto the medical table to undergo the final and fatal procedure. The doctors, who are also nuns, strap him down and begin to pray/perform an exorcism. It does not work: Eli hulks out and kills every doctor and his human father. This part is admittedly cool: He lights them on fire with his mind and begins to spin them around in a circle. He then demands answers from his mother, who explains that she prayed to the devil, Eli’s real father, to save Eli. She brought him to this house truly believing Dr. Horn would save him. She begs Eli to forgive her. Eli responds by ripping off his mother’s cross necklace.

As Eli and his mother exit the house, Haley (Sadie Sink) reappears and reveals that she, too, is a devil child, making her Eli’s half-sister. The two devil children order that Eli’s mom drive them away, so she does, and the movie ends.

DOES THE ELI ENDING MAKE SENSE?

Sure, for the most part. Eli being a devil child explains why his human father seems to hate him. One can presume those were the ghosts in the house were the ghosts of the devil children who died in the house, though that’s not explicitly explained. That Sadie Sink is also a devil child is a fun addition, though it raises the question as to why she didn’t try to help him earlier, assuming she too, has the demonic abilities that Eli displayed. But hey, it’s hard to get a realistic interpretation of Satanic spawns these days. What can you do?

Watch Eli on Netflix