Netflix's 2019 Horror Movie United Yellowstone's Kelly Reilly And A Stranger Things Star

"Yellowstone" is one of the biggest shows of the modern era, as the crown jewel in Taylor Sheridan's TV empire. Even though Kelly Reilly was terrified to play Beth in "Yellowstone," it proved to be a good decision as the role has helped define her career. She's even continued the role in the recent spin-off "Dutton Ranch." Then there's Sadie Sink, who was one of the key players in arguably the single biggest show of the streaming era, "Stranger Things."

As both of these shows were in their relatively early days, Reilly and Sink crossed paths in a seldom-mentioned Netflix horror movie. "Eli" was released in 2019 and was directed by Ciaran Foy, perhaps best known for helming "Sinister 2." While one cut scene from "Sinister" ended up in "Sinister 2," it was mostly an entirely new movie with a new cast, utilizing a similar premise. In any event, he united these two actresses in this supernatural affair.

The movie centers on a young boy named Eli (Charlie Shotwell) who is plagued with a mysterious illness that requires him to live completely sealed off from the world. After exhausting every option, his parents enlist a doctor (Lili Taylor) whose experimental treatments at a clean house facility may hold Eli's last hope. As he undergoes the intense process that could cure him, Eli is haunted by experiences that make him question who he can trust and what is lurking inside the house.

Reilly plays Eli's mom, while Sink plays Haley, a teenage girl who befriends Eli. The cast also includes Max Martini ("Fifty Shades of Grey") as Eli's father. Bear McCreary, who was also behind the "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" soundtrack and has since become one of Hollywood's top composers, provided the score.

Originally, the Paramount Pictures label Paramount Players was on board to distribute the movie. However, Netflix, hungry for content to feed to its subscribers, ended up buying the rights to "Eli" from Paramount.

This came at a time when Netflix was the unquestioned master of streaming, before Disney+ and Apple TV had even launched. The streamer was dumping movies and TV shows to its library at a wild rate, making it pretty easy for stuff to slip through the cracks — especially if that stuff was, with all due respect, less than great.

In the case of "Eli," it's not generally considered to be one of Netflix's best horror movies, to put it kindly. The movie holds a 52% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, to go with an even worse 36% audience rating. Critics not liking a horror movie is nothing new, but this isn't one of those situations where audiences embraced something that was disregarded by the critical community. It was pretty roundly disliked and just sort of came and went as a result.

All the same, it didn't hurt the careers of Kelly Reilly or Sadie Sink any. Reilly is now a part of arguably the biggest TV universe going right now. Even though Sink was almost rejected from "Stranger Things," she joined the show in Season 2 and quickly became a fan favorite. Now, she's a wildly in-demand actress, set to appear in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" this summer. This was just a largely forgotten cinematic intersection of two TV heavyweights.

You can watch "Eli" now on Netflix.