Julia's Eyes (2010)

"Los Ojos De Julia" may be a notch below "El Cuerpo", which came out two years later and has some of the same people involved in its making, but it's still a very good thriller: it's suspenseful, atmospheric, and has some extraordinarily well-conceived and executed cat-and-mouse sequences (especially near the end when Belén Rueda removes the bandages from her eyes but has to keep pretending that she can't see). The use of light and shadow, as well as the general use of the camera in this movie, should be used as teaching tools in film schools! Rueda is a vulnerable yet strong female lead, she gives the film her all. The script does contain one hard-to-swallow contrivance - or is that two: that Rueda would prefer to go back to her house right after the operation rather than being taken care of at the hospital, and that the police would let her. I also thought the ending (spoiler!) is overly cruel to her character: yes, she survives, but she has basically lost everything. She could have at least regained her eyesight. *** out of 4.

As movies in the horror/thriller/mystery genres have became more cookie-cutter with their increased production and popularity (think the time after Scream where the genre blew up and everyone seemed to think they could be horror masters), one of the major things I look for when critiquing a movie in the ability of the director and actors to transcend the screen. What I mean to say is that truly horrifying movies are such because they make the audience feel and live as if they were actually there during the trauma. As if the trauma actually was happening, or even could happen to them in the future. These are the movies that sometimes make you watch you back and look around the parking lot on your way out to your car, or check you closets and make sure your doors are locked before you go to bed. A horror movie to me is something that doesn't just have cheap jump-out scares (of course any fast and unknowing action can cause someone to flinch), it has my heart racing as I've immersed myself in the story before anything even happens.With all of that off of my chest, Julia's Eyes really captures the fear of being unable to see, and how utterly horrifying this would be in a situation such as the one she is placed in. It's scary enough to believe that your sister may have been murdered, a killer is on the loose, and may be coming after you. However, now imagine that you are blind and therefor a step or a sense behind who is after you. This movie does a great job not just presenting this situation, but having the audience thoroughly understand and become literally blind as Julia is. This ability takes the fear level way above that of the routine scary movie of today. For this reason I rate it slightly higher. For a fan of this genre it's a definite must-see.

A respectable blend of drama and horror, using strengths of both but also succumbing occasionally to the weaknesses.Suspense is present from the very beginning, building to an exciting and unexpected climax, unfortunately falling a bit flat afterward. In fact, the last 30 seconds of the film somewhat blemish the drama of the story as a whole, mostly because the ending touches on a relationship that was hardly explored and not at all significant through the rest of the film, partly because of the focus on the very thing that makes this movie good: the constant twists and turns in the story. This also leads to some ideas that are passable but don't make nearly as much sense as they're supposed to; particularly the whole "people who aren't seen"/"There was no man with her (Sara)"/"Don't look at me!" motif. I still don't get it, but it has little impact on the story anyway.I believe the entirety of the story could have used some fine tuning, and run time could have been trimmed by 10 to 15 minutes... But overall it's engaging, well acted, and sets an excellent and fitting mood visually. Thrillers that can't project the protagonist's experience to the viewer fail horribly... this movie does an outstanding job providing a sense of confinement that fits the title character's world, and this is where its greatest strength lies.Although character relationships are a bit thin and suspense doesn't hit many high notes, this is a fairly exciting thrill ride and a good effort all around. One last thing, I would recommend watching it without distraction... the mood is more visual and in the flow of the story than it is intellectual or suspenseful, and it's easy to lose interest if you step away for a few minutes.

Blind-women-in-peril movies have been around for yonks (ever since the days of WAIT UNTIL DARK and BLIND TERROR, back in the late '60s) so the Spanish-made JULIA'S EYES is nothing particularly new. Where it works, however, is in ladling bags of atmosphere into a mystery-laden storyline, leaving it an evocative and genuinely spooky viewing experience.The plot sees THE ORPHANAGE's Belen Rueda playing a woman assailed by both oncoming blindness and the mysterious suicide of her sister. The slow but compelling narrative sees her gradually drawn into a mystery involving a faceless stranger, while director Guillem Morales, who has style to spare, makes excellent use of his heroine's condition to add to the overall feel of the film.Yes, the storyline is convoluted in places, and it manages to pack in plenty of cliché along the way too; the heroine does some very stupid things at regular intervals. Nevertheless, JULIA'S EYES works very well indeed thanks to its stylistic flourishes and tense, suspense-packed developments. The ending drags a little but for the most part this is a very good Spanish chiller.