Following his 2012 feature-length directorial debut “Citadel” and his 2015 sequel installment “Sinister 2,” which was the follow-up to Scott Derrickson’s Ethan Hawke-led original, Irish writer-director Ciarán Foy is now making his third return to the director’s chair with “Eli” – and we just got our first trailer for the project, though it’s been completed forever and delayed for almost a year (originally supposed to hit January 2019).
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Having premiered at the 2012 South By Southwest Film Festival, “Citadel” put Foy on the map when the film earned the festival’s Midnight Audience Award, and established his growing interest in the horror-thriller genre. Unfortunately, however, his following project “Sinister 2” was ultimately a misfire as it underperformed with both critics and audiences – even though Derrickson himself gave Foy the sequel’s script.
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With “Eli” Foy looks to course correct: directing a script from “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” and “Cropsey” screenwriters Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing, employing “10 Cloverfield Lane” cinematographer Jeff Cutter, and working with a cast who’ve already proven their chops in the genre. The film centers on a young boy named Eli, played by Charlie Shotwell (“Captain Fantastic,” “All the Money in the World”). After being diagnosed with a rare disease, Eli finds himself in a medical clinic with unknown evils lurking around every corner.
Here’s the official synopsis:
ELI is the story of a young boy (Charlie Shotwell) plagued with an unknown, debilitating illness that requires him to live completely sealed off from the outside world. After exhausting every option, his parents (Kelly Reilly and Max Martini) put their trust – and his life – in the hands of a doctor (Lili Taylor) whose experimental, cutting edge treatments at her clean house facility may hold Eli’s last hope. As Eli undergoes the tremendously intense process that could potentially cure him, he begins to be haunted by experiences that make him question who he can trust and what is lurking inside the house. Co-starring Sadie Sink.
A common thread that runs through each one of Ciarán Foy’s films – which now includes “Eli” – is the focus on young characters. When speaking to IndieWire in 2015, Foy described his collaboration with child actors: “To be honest, for the kids on a horror film it’s incredibly sort of surreal. There’s a lot of laughing when you have kids on a horror set, because for them every day is Halloween…It’s up to you as a director to chart what you want the audience to be feeling at this particular moment, and then to communicate that to the performer.”
Alongside Charlie Shotwell, “Eli” will feature Max Martini (“13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi“), Kelly Reilly (“Flight,” “Eden Lake”), Lili Taylor (“The Conjuring”), Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”), and Jared Bankens (“Venom”). “Eli” releases globally on Netflix on October 18. Watch the first trailer below.
