REVIEW: Cinema Release: Julia’s Eyes

Film: Julia’s Eyes
Year of production: 2010
UK Release date: 20th May 2011
Distributor: Optimum
Certificate: 15
Running time: 112 mins
Director: Guillem Morales
Starring: Belén Rueda, Lluís Homar, Pablo Derqui, Francesc Orella, Joan Dalmau
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Format: Cinema
Country of Production: Spain
Language: Spanish

Review by: Dave O Butnu

The return of giallo to the international film circuit will be just the thing many horror fans have been waiting for, and with recent successes like Amer, we can only wait with baited breath for the next crazy European psycho killer to mess with our brains. New Spanish thriller Julia’s Eyes could well be the next big thing. Anyone that’s seen The Orphanage will certainly have high hopes, given that it is made by the same team, but can such a mainstream aesthetic live up its more visually flamboyant predecessors?

The story follows Julia, who has a degenerative condition which leads to blindness. Her twin sister has the same affliction and is found hanged in a basement soon after losing her sight. The verdict is suicide, but Julia suspects something more sinister at play.

As she begins to unravel her sister’s personal life, she finds herself in a losing battle for her own eyesight. However, her growing obsession drives her on to continue hunting for the person that she is convinced has killed her sister.

The trail of clues leads to a nail biting conclusion, as Julia discovers how her sister died…


Just in case you’re not too sure what giallo is, it’s a genre that was popularised by some legendary filmmakers, such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Most giallo movies were made between 1960 and 1990, but in the last two decades, the genre has been something of a rarity in cinemas. It is a type of thriller/horror which originated in Italy. They are called gialli (plural), which simply means ‘yellow’, because many were based on detective novels which came with a yellow cover. Generally, giallo involves a number of characters who are all killed off one by one by a mysterious gloved/masked killer.

There is usually a strong psychological element, as well as sexual themes and a lot of focus on style and fashion. Julia’s Eyes features just about all of the tell-tale signs of giallo, with numerous plot twists and mind games at play. For most of Julia’s Eyes, we find ourselves frequently changing our minds about if there really is a killer and who they might be. In terms of its script and story, this film is a meticulously constructed rollercoaster of fear and suspense.

It may be obvious, but the dominant theme of Julia’s Eyes is vision and voyeurism, which is always a subject close to the heart of cinema. The power of the gaze is often regarded as a metaphor for sexual and physical dominance; however, when the gaze is taken away, we are infinitely more vulnerable and impotent. These concepts all manifest through Julia’s struggle to keep her vision, which is cleverly used to take us to some very dark places indeed. It is said that the most frightening films place the horror off camera, but Julia’s Eyes actually puts it in front of the camera and keeps us from really being able to see it. It’s almost as if this approach makes the most of both displaying and concealing at the same time, creating a whole new perspective on fear and edge-of-your-seat suspense.

This theme is explored through the dialogue and events, but, most strikingly, through the visuals. Unlike the vibrant, colourful imagery of Amer, and many other gialli, Julia’s Eyes mostly presents us with shades of gloom and grey. Many of the sets use very low key lighting and restrict what is visible, using what we can’t see to create tension and suspense. It also implements a lot of out of focus shots and shadows, further obscuring what can be seen.

Starring in the title role is Belén Rueda, who also played the lead role in The Orphanage. Belen seems to have an amazing talent for playing the distressed, as once again we see her as a character that is quite literally on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She conveys this distress so well that it envelops the audience in her hysterical panic.

Julia’s husband, Isaac, is played by Lluís Homar, who also appeared in the Pedro Almodovar film Bad Education (incidentally Almodovar produced Guillermo del Toro’s The Devils Backbone). Homar plays the role of Isaac brilliantly, with a thoroughly believable performance. His role in Julia’s Eyes is not an easy one. Isaac is a husband whose wife is apparently going crazy and blind, but his ability to adapt to each new twist in the story, with just enough restraint to make us question his virtues, is a truly uncanny ability.

One other notable element of this movie is the use of flash bulbs to blind people in the dark. This echoes perfectly the voyeuristic Hitchcock classic Rear Window, both visually and thematically. This light bulb homage is a very fitting reference, considering that Rear Window and Julia’s Eyes share a lot in terms of the themes that they both tackle, since both films feature amateur sleuths with not just disabilities, but restricted viewpoints.


Julia’s Eyes is a more subtle giallo than most, offering all the usual giallo hallmarks, but in a much more conventional and mainstream package. The plot will keep you guessing from start to finish and may also deliver a few (un)pleasant surprises, which makes Julia’s Eyes a must for any fan of European slashers and gialli, but perhaps, more importantly, a very accessible introduction for anyone new to it. Julia’s Eyes is an all round pleaser, ticking all the boxes and offering the occasional bit of gore as a bonus. DOB

REVIEW: DVD Release: The Orphanage

Film: The Orphanage
Release date: 21st July 2008
Certificate: 15
Running time: 102 mins
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Starring: Belen Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep
Genre: Mystery/Horror/Drama/Thriller
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: Mexico/Spain

The Orphanage is the first feature film from Juan Antonio Bayona. Helped into production by Guillermo Del Toro, whose influence can be felt throughout, the film combines the drama of a missing child mystery with an old fashioned ghost story.

The Orphanage focuses on Laura, who, along with her husband Carlos and their adopted son Simón, moves into the orphanage in which she was raised, intending to re-open it as a residential school for special needs children. However, on the school’s opening day, Simón goes missing, and the rest of the film sees the couple search for their son with increasing desperation, as Simón has HIV from birth and cannot survive for long without his medication.

As any hopes of a logical explanation gradually subside, Laura begins to believe that there could be some supernatural involvement - that the children whom she grew up with before leaving the orphanage as a child are still somehow connected to the house.

Tensions increase between Laura and Carlos, as he wishes that they accept that there is no hope of Simón returning and attempt to rebuild their lives, while Laura refuses to give up on finding her son and continues the search for him in increasingly unlikely ways. In one of the films most memorable scenes, she has a team of parapsychologists visit the house to attempt to find out if Simón is still there in any capacity. When Carlos sees this as an elaborate hoax, he decides that the couple must leave the house in order to get on with their lives, but Laura chooses to stay behind for one more night, and one more chance to communicate with the orphans she left behind as a child…


In his first feature length film, Juan Antonio Bayona has managed the difficult feat of creating a horror film that is not rooted in constantly startling the audience, or in mindless, repetitive violence. Instead, he has created a film which is rich in emotional depth, and in which the horror is not contrived by a series of ‘jumps’ but comes from genuine human fear. The scenes in which Laura and Carlos struggle to come to terms with the loss of Simón impact as much as anything supernatural, and it is a testament to Bayona that he balances drama and horror in a way that few filmmakers (in America at least) have come close to in recent years.

Still, the film delivers potency in the horror department, as Bayona creates several scenes which are downright chilling, such as the aforementioned investigation, and the final scenes of the film, which generate the kind of nerve shredding tension that no amount of cheap shock tactics could possibly achieve. As well as these scenes, on which the film’s horror greatly depends, there is a feel of unease surrounding the house, and Guillermo Del Toro’s influence can be felt in this aspect of the film. The house seems to be a true-life variation on the gothic excess of the world of Pan’s Labyrinth, with winding stair-cases, hidden rooms and dark, eerie spaces. The house provides a perfect setting for the slow, intense build towards the film’s dramatic finale, as every creaking door, and every squeaking movement of the playground apparatus against the winter silence seem to suggest that the house is alive with an indefinable energy.

Praise must also go to the performance of Belén Rueda as Laura. Her portrayal of the mother of a missing child is one filled with desperation and tangible despair, which increases as the film develops, and her search becomes more helpless. As well as this, we see her mental condition gradually deteriorate, and at some points question whether what we are perceiving as supernatural is not simply her mind playing tricks on her as she refuses to accept the death of her son. What makes Rueda’s performance particularly worthy of acclaim is also what makes the film so impressive, the powerful feeling of love that permeates her every action. Bayona has made a horror film rooted in love, one in which the horror is effective and impactful because it feels real. In an age of endless SAW sequels and Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes, this is something particularly commendable.

While The Orphanage may lack the cheap thrills of a modern American horror it is hard to see this as a drawback. Juan Antonio Bayona has brought storytelling back to a genre which has become saturated with gruesome violence and nonsensical twist endings.


A beautiful, emotional story, and one in which the deep rooted horror is likely to remain with us in a way which no amount of guts and gore could possibly hope to achieve. PK