Julia's Eyes

Any Guillermo Del Toro 'presentation' is worth a look in. He's got a knack for being involved in making effective and moving thrillers, and I like watching films in Spanish, perfect combination. Julia's Eyes follows Spanish astronomer Julia after the recent suicide of her twin sister Sara. Both sisters have a genetic disorder than means their eyesight will progressively deteriorate with time. Stress adds to the process, so when Julia becomes convinced that Sara's death was caused by someone else her eyesight starts to deteriorate rapidly.

We the audience are aware from scene 1 that something potentially otherworldly is going on, as we see Sara's 'suicide' - a figure appearing out of nowhere to push her off a rickety chair and send her to her death. When Julia and husband Issac arrive at Sara's house Julia struggles with the reduced levels of light and thinks she sees someone else hanging around. Neither Issac nor the police are interested in what she thinks though, so she goes off to meet Sara's friends and slowly becomes convinced that someone mysteriously inconspicuous killed her sister.

As the film progresses, Julia experiences several states of sightedness, each of which is used with some effectiveness to add chills. For example, when Julia is totally blinded for a period the camera never shows us anyone's face. The film shies away from becoming a full-on horror, instead it feels like an X-Files monster of the week episode - reminded me a bit of the Eugene Tooms arc for those nerdy enough to remember. It also holds back on gore until very close to the end, to the extent that you're not at all expecting it when it happens - again, very effective.

An entirely decent thriller without any great histrionics, over-reliance on special effects or mis-placed gore, 'Julia's Eyes' is something of a surprisingly good find.