Julia’s Eyes – review

Belén Rueda stars in Julia's Eyes.

When a film poster is tagged with the words “Guillermo del Toro presents” you take notice. The highly-regarded Mexican film-maker is a producer on this Spanish horror film by young writer/director Guillem Morales and it is a film worthy of having del Toro’s name attached to it.

Julia’s Eyes is an intelligent chiller that has an escalating pitch and tempo, which builds to a terrifying finale. The first hour consists of slow-building suspense and tells the story of twins suffering from an irreversible eye disease that eventually causes blindness. The film begins with one twin – the main protagonist Julia [Belén Rueda] – instinctively guessing that something is up with her sister Sara [also Rueda].

The sisters have been estranged for some time, but tragically Julia and her husband Isaac [Lluis Homar] find Sara hanging from her neck in the basement in what appears to be suicide.

Julia is not convinced that her sister would kill herself; especially as she finds out she has had a transplant to cure the blindness. The suggestion is that Sara killed herself because the operation was not a success, but Julia does not buy this and is determined prove otherwise.

Suspicion grows about an apparent boyfriend of Sara’s, whom the locals and neighbours know of despite not being able to give any significant details about him. The mysterious man seems to be following Julia’s every move, but the problem for Julia is that this allusive character seems to live in the shadows, avoiding any real detection or identification and for this reason she lacks substantial support from the police, not helped by her own condition worsening and her “episodes” further darkening her vision.

In this thematically driven film, we see fear intensify for Julia – as well as the viewer – the closer she gets to a state of blindness. However, she pushes back against the fear; staying in her sister’s house in an attempt to find the truth behind her sister’s death. She is issued a carer as she refuses to stay in the hospital after she has an operation on her eyes and she becomes close to her carer, Ivan [Pablo Derqui], who exceeds his duties beyond what would be expected of him.

Not only is the film an engaging and generally creepy horror, but Morales’ use of blindness as a symbol for social concepts such as vulnerability, isolation and darkness – as well as a tool for terror – give Julia’s Eyes a depth that makes the characters believable. Star of another Guillermo del Toro’s production, the Orphanage, the beautiful Rueda is scarily convincing in both the tender and tense moments in the film, in her dual role as the tormented twins.

Julia’s Eyes (15)
Directed by Guillem Morales
Starring: Belén Rueda, Lluis Homar, Pablo Derqui, Francesc Orella, Joan Dalmau, Boris Ruiz, Andrea Hermosa, Julia Gutierrez Caba.
Running time: 112 minutes

Julia’s Eyes is showing at the Rio Cinema until Thursday 26 May.