Blind woman has stalker. Err, that's it.
Directed by Guillem Morales (forget references to Guillermo del Toro, his name is taken in vain) it's in Spanish with subtitles. Once you're over that minor hurdle and the fact that it owes a great deal to Hitchcock, you'll find it a well acted suspense movie, although somewhat predictable since the baddie is pretty easy to figure out. There are a few clichéd shocks here and there (hangings, throat slitting, eyeball puncturing) but it's not a horror film - it's most definitely a suspense film / psychological thriller.
Belén Rueda plays Julia (and indeed, her sister) superbly as she gradually loses her sight and sees the mysterious man on the periphery of her failing vision. Overall this is a tense and very well crafted film. Recommended - 4/5 stars.
This film is excellent - a real thriller that keep you guessing. It is well acted and filmed - and, being Spanish, has the usual gruesome grand guignol (all that Catholic guilt and bull fighting combine to make the Spaniards love this blood and guts - look at Goya!). Unlike most thrillers, this is interesting - a psychological thriller which combines with the eye problems and blindless oif characters to make a rounded whole. Twists and turns abound - and some hands-over-the-eyes scenes of knives and eyes too. BUT this for me is one the best Spanish films I have ever seen - better than derivative The Orphanage (by the same director) and certainly better thanthe rather boring and one-note gender-therapy sessions of Pedro Almodovar. If you want to see a thrilling and very watchable movie, with great pace and tension, then this film is a must-see. Recommended.
Despite a terrific performance from Belén Rueda as Julia, who is in virtually every scene, and some very nice cinematic camera work, ‘Julia’s Eyes’ is overlong and not as good as I had hoped it would be. There are many moments of tension, but a lack of variety can make them rather dull.
Julia is pushed from one horrific set-piece to another, and there’s an inedibility to her plight that nevertheless makes the finale a low-key heartbreaker. Somehow, however, the momentum can drag, the lack of a satisfying conclusion or interesting antagonist seems to let things down after such a protracted build-up. My score is 4 out of 10.
Julia’s Eyes is a Spanish language horror/thriller that tells the tale of visually impaired Julia who is on the hunt of the man that murdered her twin sister Sara.
Sara, who too was visually impaired, had recently undergone an operation to restore her sight. However after the operation was unsuccessful she is found hanged in her basement? Julia, accompanied by her husband, searches her sister’s house and decides that there is something wrong with the situation. She and her sister had not spoken for months and so Julia is shocked to discover that Sara had a boyfriend. Julia’s investigations arouse her suspicions further and she attempts to track down her late sister’s boyfriend, however no one seems to know him, it is as though he was invisible.
The film takes a more sinister turn here as Julia, after undergoing the same operation as her sister, finds that her husband too has been murdered and that whilst she recovers, blindfolded in her sisters home, someone is stalking her in the night when her carer is not there.
The film is intriguing and unusual in its concept whilst the plot has several twists, some well hidden others rather obvious; but the film’s crowning jewel is its suspense. As much for much of the film Julia is blind or blindfolded the audience are not treated to the full view of her surroundings and are rather limited to close up, emotive shots of the protagonists face, at times the film visually almost looks like a romantic drama. However the lack of sight for the audience is well manipulated and it allows the film to provide the shock moments that horror films cherish.
It is an interesting film, that toys with aspects of seeing and being seen, yet in itself it is average as both a horror and a thriller and stands pale in compression to its more accomplished predecessor The Orphanage.