I’ve been waiting for Eloise for a long time, so much so that I nearly had a heart attack last night when it wasn’t promptly delivered to on demand platforms exactly at 12:00am. You see, it’s been a rough journey getting this horror movie to the public. Eloise was first announced in April 2014, filmed during the months of May and June 2014, and didn’t see its first rumored release date until October 2015. For reasons outside of my knowledge, the release date kept getting pushed back time and time again, which is why I had to wait almost three years for a straight-to-DVD horror flick. Eloise stars Eliza Dushku – known for playing rogue slayer Faith in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” – and my love for this actress and philanthropist is what kept me in anticipation all this time. Unfortunately, having been able to finish my viewing this morning, my admiration for Dushku wasn’t enough to carry this movie. Eloise is slow and it’s been done better before. Read my let down of a review below.
Eloise is written by Christopher Borrelli (The Vatican Tapes, The Marine 2) and directed by Robert Legato. Although this serves as Legato’s feature film directorial debut, he’s well known for his Oscar Award winning visual effects in Titanic and Hugo. Two of many producers include Sean Gowrie (The Collector) and Tripp Vinson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose). Lead and supporting cast members include Chace Crawford (The Covenant, “Gossip Girl”), Eliza Dushku (Wrong Turn, “Dollhouse”), Brandon T. Jackson (Percy Jackson, Tropic Thunder), P.J. Byrne (Final Destination 5, “Vinyl”), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, Diehard 2) and Nicole Forester (“Chicago Fire,” “Guiding Light”). The plot follows a young man named Jacob (Crawford) as he is about to receive a 1.2 million dollar inheritance. Only problem is, he has to prove that he is related to the deceased to get the money. He gathers three friends (Dushku, Jackson, Byrne) and they break into an abandoned mental asylum to look for the paperwork. Only upon entering do they learn that they have disturbed the spirits who were at rest there.
From the opening moments of the movie – a title sequence featuring historical facts and rumors about the Eloise Asylum – I knew that this was going to be slightly under my production quality expectations. With all the big talent attached, both cast and crew, I honestly thought Eloise was going to be good enough for at least an adequately numbered theatrical run. And with a budget somewhere slightly above the 2 million dollar mark, I was dismayed to see certain elements of production not up to par. My criticisms mostly being the camera work, which often looked like two different cameras with different sharpness and filming quality were being used, and the lighting, where the scenes during the night were lit much better than some of the scenes during the day. Now, I’m guessing the majority of the budget was spent on hiring the name talent and renting the Eloise Asylum, a real life former loony bin in Michigan. Normally, that would be OK and a movie would be passable with a great location and even better cast, but the biggest problem here lies in the script. That’s what killed it…in a bad way.
Eloise is slow. It takes them 35 minutes to actually get inside the asylum and then it’s pretty much a typical haunted property movie after that. The scares aren’t new and original, and they’re mostly done through an assortment of apparitions, disembodied noises, wonky technology and disturbing flashbacks to the asylum’s worst days. While the violence does get worse, the suspense is slightly above average, and I give them props for not using any jump scares for cheap thrills, Eloise just isn’t scary. And the concept has been achieved to much better results, with found footage flick Grave Encounters being the king of this story-line. The only creepy thing about Eloise is that it raises an interesting concept: can atrocities so great make a “grudge” on a property so strong that dimensions can bleed into one another? Chase Crawford is mighty fine and I can watch Eliza Dushku play strong female characters all day long, but that wasn’t enough to keep my interest in a movie that’s supposed to be scary.. And let me not forget to mention the low, low body count.
There were so many missed opportunities here. The lead cast members are all extremely capable and could have been given more emotionally gripping material. Robert Patrick makes a great villain, but he was toned down too much. The asylum was huge, utilized well for the most part, but they could have done much more with that property. The ghosts were never demonic enough and never really attacked the four friends in a sinister way. I think a portion of this could be attributed to the production wanting to remain respectful to the real story of the Eloise Asylum and its former patients. Maybe they considered going overboard as an offense to the dead. While that is quite an endearing idea, it makes Eloise read more like a dark thriller than a horror film. And while I’m glad I got to see Eliza Dushku star in another horror film, it’s going to be hard for me to recommend this to anyone outside of her fan base. Great cast, great location, trendy plot, but the ball was dropped on every level. Final Score: 4.7 out of 10.
