Os Olhos de Júlia

Los ojos de Julia (Julia's Eyes) is directed by Guillem Morales who also co-writes the screenplay with Oriol Paulo. It stars Belen Rueda, Lluis Homar and Julia Gutierrez Caba. Music is by Fernando Velazquez and cinematography by Oscar Faura.

After her blind twin sister mysteriously hangs, Julia (Rueda) refuses to accept it as suicide and begins to investigate the events herself. Unfortunately she is also becoming afflicted by the same degenerative eyesight that affected her sister. Can she solve the case before here eyesight completely fails? Can she stay alive, even, especially as dark forces appear to be closing in on her.

There has been some rather nifty horror movies come out of Spain in the last ten years or so, Julia's Eyes is another welcome addition off of the production line. The blind/eyes afflicted girl in peril formula is hardly new, with very good formula spookers already existing having come out of Asia and America, how nice to find that this Spanish entry is as good as any of them.

Guillermo Del Toro is once again on producing duty, continuing his crusade to give upcoming Spanish horror directors their chance in movie world. OK! So it's not unfair to say that many a horror fan would like to see Del Toro directing such material himself, but his presence is felt here, where much like El Orfanato (The Orphanage) the atmosphere that pervades the picture is Del Toroesque.

Julia's Eyes is very much a blending of thriller conventions, where it deals in psychological discord, slasher traits and whodunit mystery shenanigans. Mix them up with dashes of Gothic and Giallo and you are good to go for edge of your seat/breath holding entertainment. Thematic thrust comes by way of viewer voyeurism, and some scenes are macabre in construction, with one involving blind girls in a locker room really tingling the gooseflesh.

The colour scheme ranges from misty tinted coldness to tech-noir starkness, and the sound work is terrific, especially once Julia is handicapped by her bandaged eyes and we the audience need to buy into her dangerously dark world. Camera techniques, also are smart, with Morales cleverly not showing us the faces of those interacting with Julia once her eyes fail her, again this puts us in her world.

At nearly two hours in length, film is a touch too long, which when you consider there is no real great character development to speak of, is a bit annoying. However, this is about atmosphere and a genuine chill factors, a picture that gnaws away at the senses throughout and leads us to a poignant finale. Rueda, just as she was in The Orphanage, is terrific, and Julia's Eyes, much like The Orphanage, is also terrific. 8.5/10

After the death of the blind Sara (Belén Rueda), who hung herself in the basement of he house, her twin sister Julia (Belén Rueda) suspects that she was actually murdered. Julia has a degenerative problem in her eyes and is losing her sight and she temporarily moves with her husband Isaac (Lluís Homar) to Sara's house to arrange her funeral. Julia goes to the Centro Baumann for blinds where Sara frequented and she learns from the others blind users that Sara had a boyfriend.

Julia is chased by a mysterious man but the police inspector Dimas (Francesc Orella) does not believe on her. Julia follows the last steps of Sara trying to find the identity of her secret lover. Julia is surrounded by deaths and weird events while she loses her sight. Is she also delusional?

"Los Ojos de Julia" is an atmospheric film but flawed and misguider. The director gives the sensation of a supernatural story and ends like a "giallo" blended with "Blind Terror". The name of Guillermo del Toro, who is the producer, is also used to mislead the viewers. Belén Rueda has a magnificent performance; the cinematography and the camera work are excellent; the plot is intriguing; but the resolution is very disappointing. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Os Olhos de Júlia" ("The Eyes of Julia")

I watched the Julia's Eyes world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival a couple of days ago, and I have to say that although I was entertained, it did fall short of my expectations. Seeing how the film was produced by Guillermo del Toro, I was really hoping for a horror/thriller on par with Pans Labyrinth or The Orphanage.

Julia's Eyes does have an original idea at its core and that's what keeps you guessing and entertained through the duration of the film. Unfortunately the film does fall into some cliché horror jump scares and the plot does not completely come together. It feels as though the filmmaker started with a great idea but wasn't fully able to pull it all together cohesively in the end. I want to keep this review spoiler free so I'm not going to get into any plot details, but suffice to say that the antagonist's plot line does not come to a rewarding conclusion.

That said, I think there is a lot to like here, the acting is great, some wholly original ideas are explored and there is enough tense and truly scary scenes to keep most horror/thriller fans happy.

Julia's Eyes is a film I enjoyed on the whole and I think people should seek out.

Julia, (Belen Rueda) like her twin sister Sara suffers from a degenerative nerve disease which is slowly but surely turning her blind, with her twin having succumbed to total blindness earlier. When her sister dies, apparently of a suicide, Julia feels there's something not quite right. Her sister wasn't depressed, and in fact had been looking forward to a potentially curable operation. Plus, there's rumours of Sara having had a mysterious boyfriend. But why didn't he go the funeral? Doubted by her Psychologist husband Isaacs (Lluis Homar) Julia resolves to investigate. But her disease is getting worse, and she keeps feeling that somebody is watching her every move. Is she cracking up? Or is something more sinister at play here?

Julia's Eyes starts off very promising indeed, with a gripping first hour, as director Guillem Morales ratchets up the tension with some clever visual tricks and an increasingly dark and creepy tone, as well as some entertaining red herrings.

However, by the third act, it unfortunately gets kinda... silly. It also unfortunately has a rather ludicrous revelation, as well as some clichéd bad decision making on the part of the protagonist. It also could have been a leaner affair, being rather needlessly overlong.

As well as this, the film doesn't really cover all the elements of its rather layered plot as well as it could have, with one or two loose ends that will very probably have the viewer raising a suspicious eyebrow.

That having said, it has some decent performances, is pretty absorbing and again, has a nigh on excellent first half.

Any horror or chiller fan should find much to like here, but ultimately it comes across as rather dissatisfying, considering its ambition.

7/10- A solid enough film, that's worth checking out overall, but potentially could have been excellent.

A beautifully crafted mystery with chills and suspense in the vein of Hitchcock. A throwback, to thrillers of old, that has more style and sophistication than any your bound to ever set eyes on.