Psycho's Movie Reviews #316: Julia's Eyes (2010)

Julia's Eyes (Spanish: Los ojos de Julia) is a 2010 Spanish horror thriller film directed by Guillem Morales and written by Morales and Oriol Paulo. It was produced by Guillermo del Toro, Joaquín Padró and Mar Targarona.

Plot

Tormented by an unseen presence, a blind woman, Sara, prepares to hang herself in her basement, but changes her mind. As she tries to remove the noose, the stool beneath her is kicked away, leaving her to die. Miles away, Sara's twin sister, Julia, collapses, sensing something amiss.

Julia, who has the same degenerative disease but can still see, is tormented by Sara's death and by the feeling of another presence nearby. She insists Sara was not depressed as she was awaiting surgery to restore her vision. Her husband, Isaac, insists she stop investigating, and as her doctor has informed him that Sara had eye surgery that was not successful.

Julia meets Sara's elderly blind neighbour Soledad, who has a pessimistic view that Isaac will leave her, as even Soledad's own son, Ángel, abandoned her after she went blind. After hearing that Sara had a boyfriend and they visited a hotel nearby, Julia goes there with Isaac. She is approached by an elderly janitor, Créspulo, who warns her of "men who live in shadows," who are dangerous because they are tired of being ignored.

Isaac disappears and Julia is convinced that the "invisible man" has kidnapped him, though the police are sceptical. Someone kills Créspulo, but police rule it an accident. Julia's eyesight continues to deteriorate. When Julia and the inspector return to Sara's house, the inspector discovers a suicide note and Isaac's body. Julia, now fully blind, cannot see anything.

A grieving Julia learns Isaac's suicide note declared he loved Sara, with whom he had been having an affair for six months. However, an eye donor is found, so the operation to save Julia's sight goes ahead. She is told she must wear bandages to protect her eyes from light for two weeks, and the morgue agrees to keep Isaac's body so she can see him to say goodbye. She returns to Sara's house with the daily help of a home nursing aid, Iván.

Julia is plagued by disorientation and convinced that somebody is lurking in the house; but Iván's patience helps her regain her independence. Four days before Julia is due to remove her bandages, an unseen man almost succeeds in drugging Julia while she sleeps; however, she wakes, panicked, and accidentally hits the intruder. She flees to a neighbour, Blasco, who makes advances on her. She escapes, paging Iván, who finds her hiding outside in the rain and escorts her to his apartment.

While Iván is out, Julia hears the voice of Blasco's shy daughter, Lía, who tells her that Iván is the "invisible man" who tormented and blinded Sara by ruining her operation, forced Isaac to write the fake suicide note before killing him, and has walls covered with photographs of Julia and Sara. Julia hides in the bathroom where, four days early, she tears off her bandages, desperate to see. Julia exits the bathroom and sees Iván's walls covered with photographs of the twins as well as Lía's bloodied body.

Iván returns to the apartment, where Julia pretends that she is crying because her operation has failed. He believes her momentarily before leading her to the body of the real Iván; Julia's scream betrays the fact that she can see. "Iván" tells her he loves her and wants them to be together as long as her sight is gone, since blind women are the only ones who need him.

"Iván" drives Julia back to Sara's, where she flees to Soledad's. "Iván" chases her and addresses Soledad as Mom, revealing himself as her missing son, Ángel. A candle and glasses betray the fact that Soledad is not really blind as she knocks Julia out, at which point an enraged Ángel attacks his mother and blinds her. Julia escapes and manages to contact the police. She uses a flashlight to show the police a bloodied Ángel hiding in a corner of the room. Finally visible, he slits his own throat.

At the hospital, Julia is told the damage to her new eyes is irreversible. Using her last few hours of vision, she finally says goodbye to Isaac's corpse, as it is revealed that he donated his eyes to her.

Production

Guillermo del Toro worked a second time as producer for a Spanish genre production and co-produced the film with Joaquín Padró and Mar Targarona for Rodar y Rodar Cine y Televisión. The film starred Belén Rueda and Lluís Homar. Guillem Morales wrote the screenplay co-authored with Oriol Paulo. The film was co-financed by Focus Features International.

Soundtrack

The score was created by Barcelona based film composer Fernando Velázquez.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The film premiered on 20 October 2010 in Spain. It was released in the United Kingdom as Julia's Eyes by Optimum Releasing. In Australia it was released as Julia's Eyes by Umbrella Entertainment on 2 June 2011.

Julia's Eyes received mostly positive reviews. As of June 2020, it holds a 90% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 6.54/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Smart, suspenseful, and visually distinctive, Julia's Eyes marks another modern Spanish thriller that quickens the pulse while engaging the mind."

Philip French of The Guardian wrote, "Using blindness as a plot device, a metaphor for social awareness and as a numinous experience that romantically links minds, it's a fascinating, broken-backed picture full of riveting twists and dubious psychology." Charlotte O'Sullivan of the London Evening Standard praised the film and Rueda in particular, writing, "Rueda is a fantastic actress, tightly wound, but never brittle. From the minute she's on screen we identify with Julia's plight."

Philippa Hawker of The Age wrote, "Julia's Eyes becomes a little incoherent as it plunges towards resolution, but it's unerringly stylish and whole-heartedly suspenseful along the way. Morales toys with red herrings, references Hitchcock, amps up the tension, spills blood; he also plays with the camera's ability to reveal and conceal simultaneously. In the end, although the film takes on the traits of a classic 'don't go back inside the house' slasher movie, it's the quiet, slowly-building confrontations, one on one, that linger in the memory."

Box Office $12,884,923

My Review

These comments are based on watching the film in Spanish with English subtitles.

I'm usually very cautious with my expectations towards Spanish horror/thrillers, especially if they look a little supernatural-themed and receive a lot of praise from beforehand. "Julia's Eyes" showed these characteristics, what with being produced by golden boy Guillermo Del Toro and all, but since it played at the Belgian Festival of Fantastic Films I still definitely wanted to see it. I'm glad to say "Julia's Eyes" is a tense and well-scripted thriller that is rather straightforward in its shocks and horror, rather than exaggeratedly suggestive and ghostly. It has been proved in the past that thrillers with blind female protagonists can scare quite effectively. The ravishing Belén Rueda joins the good company of Mia Farrow in "See No Evil" and Audrey Hepburn in "Wait Until Dark"; blind or narrowly blind damsels in distress who nevertheless fight back courageously. Julia suffers from a rare hereditary ailment which slowly but surely causes her to go blind. In order not to accelerate the forthcoming blindness, Julia must avoid all sorts of emotional stress. That's easier said than done, of course, especially when she discovers that her twin sister Sarah – who struggled with the same disease – committed suicide in the basement of her house. Julia refuses to accept that her sister solely killed herself because the eye operation failed and begins to dig into her private life, much against the will of her devoted husband Isaac. Julia discovers the existence of a mysterious and invisible man in Sarah's life, someone who may have drove her to commit suicide or even killed her. But then Julia collapses and loses her vision. The operation to save her sight is performed, but the first few weeks she'll have to live in darkness though with the help of a private nurse. It is during this period that Julia experiences exactly what her sister went through during her final moments…

The plot of "Julia's Eyes" is quite convoluted, with many characters that each have their own peculiarities and secrets. Nevertheless, director & co-writer Guillem Morales knows to maintain the suspense at a continuously high level and – even more importantly – the fear remains realistic and almost sensible. Especially the sequences taking place in the first few days after Julia's operation, when the audience is supposed to be as blind as the heroine herself, are extremely tense and unsettling. It's also during this period that the script contains a few harsh and totally unexpected shock moments that will surprise even the most experienced horror fanatics. During the last half hour, "Julia's Eyes" drops all allures of being a superior & sophisticated thinking man's thriller and literally turns into an old-fashioned bona-fide horror flick with nasty images and grotesque plot twists. I thought it was fantastic! The acting performances are terrific, with Belén Rueda basically deserving an Oscar for her role and Lluis Homar and Pablo Derqui providing excellent support.

When I sat down to watch this all I knew about it was what it said on the DVD box and as there were prominent references to 'The Orphanage' and Guillermo del Toro I assumed there would be a supernatural element to the story… indeed that still remained a distinct possibility until the killer was finally exposed. Director Guillem Morales does a fine job keeping the tension high; this is aided by the fact that the viewer never sees the face of anybody Julia can't see. When the facts about killer are finally revealed it isn't too much of a surprise and from the reveal to the end things are more melodramatic than chilling… although there are still some good scares to be had. Belén Rueda does a really good job as Julia; she really carries the film as she is rarely off screen. The rest of the cast are solid as well. Overall I'd recommend this do anybody wanting a decent chiller that relies on atmosphere rather than resorting to jump-scares and gore. 8.4/10