‘Their nightmares will become reality’
Eloise is a 2017 American horror film directed by Robert Legato, making his feature debut, from a screenplay by Christopher Borrelli (The Vatican Tapes; Whisper).
Plot:
Four friends break into the abandoned psychiatric institution known as Eloise in hopes of finding a death certificate, which will grant one of them the rights to a sizable inheritance.
While inside the mental asylum, the group not only finds that Eloise houses a horrifying history but also the truth about their own tragic pasts…
Release:
In North America, Eloise was released on DVD by Lionsgate on March 21, 2017.
Buy: Amazon.com
It is released on DVD in the UK by Signature Entertainment on 6th February 2017, preceded by a cinema release on 5th January.
British newspaper The Guardian previously reported that the sprawling former psychiatric hospital where the film was shot went up for sale in November 2015.
Main cast:
Eliza Dushku (Open Graves; Wrong Turn; Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Robert Patrick (Lost After Dark; Hellions; From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), Chace Crawford (The Haunting of Molly Hartley; The Covenant), Brandon T. Jackson (House of Grimm), Martin Klebba, P.J. Byrne, Nicole Forester, Jordan Trovillon (Needlestick; Kampout; Fractured).
Buy DVD: Amazon.co.uk
Reviews:
“The scares don’t really work – although the director isn’t helped by a weak and inconsistent screenplay from Christopher Borrelli, who decides around the hour mark to transform Eloise from a straightforward horror in which characters are picked off one-by-one into one of those mind bending time-travel movies in which time folds in on itself.” 20/20 Movie Reviews
“There’s a stylistic flare and flash you’d expect from VFX expert Robert Legato, but, while a bit better than most on this front, not even the cool visual design of the film can really set itself from the ungodly swathe of movies about haunted mental institutions. The more damning issue though is the story and what a gnawingly nonsensical nuisance trying to follow it becomes toward the end.” Arrow in the Head
“Its not hard to muster up some decent scare moments in a film situated in this kind of setting, even the hundreds of found footage horrors that love places like this, have created their own scene that made us go “OK, that’s kind of cool!” and so if we are to judge Eloise in those terms then it comes across nothing but a frustrating watch.” Horror Cult Films
“Eloise is almost passable, except its forgettable script and flat style, like an obsession with Steadicam circles whenever someone is surrounded or confronting a vision, cement it too deep in lethargic routine.” Culture Crypt
“I’ll admit I was initially serenaded quite sweetly by the likeable, well-crafted characters, most notably P.J. Byrne as the excitably geeky Scott Carter, not to mention the unsettling exteriors of the actual Eloise Asylum; but, Robert Legato’s movie is undone by its simplicity and lack of any real horror to sink our fangs into.” The Schlock Pit
“The scary stuff happens pretty much by rote: There are horrific flashbacks to awful past experiments, the quartet separate and wander/run through the dark halls looking for each other, they’re afflicted by spectral hallucinations, etc. Eventually, they’re subject to telegraphed tortures based on their personal terrors, which are more unpleasant than scary…” Rue Morgue
Filming locations:
Eloise Insane Asylum, Westland, Michigan
Masonic Temple, Detroit, Michigan
