Julia's Eyes

Starring: Belén Rueda, Lluís Homar, Pablo Derqui, Francesc Orella

Synopsis:

Julia, a woman suffering from a degenerative sight disease, finds her twin sister Sara, who has already gone blind as a result of the same disease, hanged in the basement of her house...Everything points to suicide, but Julia is compelled to investigate what she intuitively feels is a murder case.

Determined to retrace her sister’s final steps, she is drawn into a maze of threats and spiralling hidden dread – a dark world that seems to hide a malevolent presence.

Review

Guillermo Del Toro is proving to be as canny a producer as he is a talented director, much in the same vein as Johnny To. Julia’s Eyes is a tense and exciting exercise into a strange and scary world.

Although Julia is going on gut instinct when she believes her sister Sara was murdered, we the audience know the definite answer, as the film starts with her demise. It’s an excellent set-up, with the house filled with pitch-black corners which may or not be hiding someone.

The film builds a number of excellently tense sequences, exploiting not only Julia’s worsening eyesight but also her heightened other senses. A simple scene of holding her husband’s hand turns into a moment of terror, when she realises her husband is stood 10 feet in front of her. We also learn that this person has been stalking her ever since she found her sister’s body.

Julia’s investigation seems to be building momentum when all of a sudden her husband disappears, setting off the final trauma which makes her completely blind. She is scheduled for an operation, and is provided with a carer called Ivan to help her adjust.

However the tension doesn’t let up – she hears strange noises in the house, and has vivid nightmares. Each set piece is designed to wring the utmost amount of terror and fear from the audience.

There are a number of suspects to consider – the elusive boyfriend, her husband, the detective, her carer, the pervy neighbour, the blind woman next door – and the film-makers do an excellent job of keeping us guessing. One of it’s coups is not showing the faces of it’s key suspects, keeping the camera at chest-height, or shooting from behind.

Eventually the killer’s identity is revealed – not before time, because to be honest things were being stretched out a little too much. Also, things start getting pretty visceral, with a couple of gruesome kills which come out of nowhere, and one of the “best” eyeball abuse scenes, which is up there with Zombie Flesh Eaters and Evil Dead Trap for its queasiness.

Belén Rueda makes the whole thing believable. The way her eyes widen to express the moment her sight is worsening is really well done and has the effect of making your heart quicken each time. The rest of the cast also works well, especially Lluís Homar as Julia’s increasingly exasperated husband, Isaac.

The climax contains a number of edge-of-the-seat moments, including sequence in complete darkness save for the intermittent flash of a camera (similar to a scene in The Silent House), and ends on a melancholic yet poetic note.

Verdict

Julia’s Eyes was a nice surprise, the tensions and shocks work really well. Del Torro’s name being attached to this is a good stamp of approval. Watch this and ponder on exactly how the Hollywood remake would be ruined.

8 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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