May 20, 2011
It is a truism of the horror genre that what you cannot see is far more frightening than what you can. With this in mind, horror films about blindness are not a new idea. Julia’s Eyes, however, is a lush, terrifying film that executes the concept perfectly. It's directed by newbie Guillam Morales, and produced by Spanish language cinema don Guillermo del Toro.
Julia (Belen Rudea) is a woman who is rapidly losing her sight to a congenital illness. The film opens with her discovering the apparent suicide of her twin sister, who has already gone blind. There is a marked difference in pace between the slowly creepy build of the first half and the relentlessly jumpy second half. Possibly the first hour could have done with a bit of tightening, but it does build up enough credibility and goodwill to get away with some of the sillier plot twists in the second.
I felt that at a few points the film favoured “boo” moments over explorations of relationships – most of the characters are given brief, intriguing introductions and their motives not fully explained. Sometimes this works brilliantly – not understanding people’s motives layers with Julia’s literal blindness the create a fug of paranoia around her – but once their underlying motive or secret had been revealed, it was not explained, which was annoying. Having said that, unusually for a horror film, the killer was beautifully painted, and their relationship with Julia made for a totally satisfying dénouement. Julia herself was a brilliant horror heroine – even when blind, she is never helpless, and keeps fighting to solve her own mystery rather than running away.
The film, especially towards the end, creates a perfect atmosphere of tension, with a handful of properly haunting sequences. This is a wonderful, thoughtful, and properly frightening horror film that makes great use of a most basic human fear. Highly recommended. But not if you’re squeamish about eyes.
Julia (Belen Rudea) is a woman who is rapidly losing her sight to a congenital illness. The film opens with her discovering the apparent suicide of her twin sister, who has already gone blind. There is a marked difference in pace between the slowly creepy build of the first half and the relentlessly jumpy second half. Possibly the first hour could have done with a bit of tightening, but it does build up enough credibility and goodwill to get away with some of the sillier plot twists in the second.
I felt that at a few points the film favoured “boo” moments over explorations of relationships – most of the characters are given brief, intriguing introductions and their motives not fully explained. Sometimes this works brilliantly – not understanding people’s motives layers with Julia’s literal blindness the create a fug of paranoia around her – but once their underlying motive or secret had been revealed, it was not explained, which was annoying. Having said that, unusually for a horror film, the killer was beautifully painted, and their relationship with Julia made for a totally satisfying dénouement. Julia herself was a brilliant horror heroine – even when blind, she is never helpless, and keeps fighting to solve her own mystery rather than running away.
The film, especially towards the end, creates a perfect atmosphere of tension, with a handful of properly haunting sequences. This is a wonderful, thoughtful, and properly frightening horror film that makes great use of a most basic human fear. Highly recommended. But not if you’re squeamish about eyes.