Taglines: You can’t hide in the dark.
A woman is trying to unravel a mystery that she literally can no longer see in this thriller from Spanish filmmaker Guillem Morales. Julia (Bel (C)n Rueda) and her sister, Sara, have both inherited a medical condition that is slowly robbing them of their eyesight, with stress severely aggravating the condition. When Julia gets the news that Sara has died, she has a hard time believing the police report that she committed suicide, and she and her husband, Isaac (Llus Homar), begin looking into the matter.
As Julia examines the particulars of Sara’s death, she begins to suspect the actions of Sara’s neighbor Blasco (Boris Ruiz), his daughter, Lia (Andrea Hermosa), and an aged woman named Soledad (Julia Guti (C)rrez Caba). As Julia becomes more convinced that Sara’s neighbors were involved in her death, unpleasant events begin happening all around her, and as she comes closer to unraveling the knots that have tied up Sara’s death, Julia inches closer to total blindness. Produced in part by Guillermo del Toro, Los Ojos de Julia (aka Julia’s Eyes) was an official selection at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.
Taglines: You can’t hide in the dark.
A woman is trying to unravel a mystery that she literally can no longer see in this thriller from Spanish filmmaker Guillem Morales. Julia (Bel (C)n Rueda) and her sister, Sara, have both inherited a medical condition that is slowly robbing them of their eyesight, with stress severely aggravating the condition. When Julia gets the news that Sara has died, she has a hard time believing the police report that she committed suicide, and she and her husband, Isaac (Llus Homar), begin looking into the matter.
As Julia examines the particulars of Sara’s death, she begins to suspect the actions of Sara’s neighbor Blasco (Boris Ruiz), his daughter, Lia (Andrea Hermosa), and an aged woman named Soledad (Julia Guti (C)rrez Caba). As Julia becomes more convinced that Sara’s neighbors were involved in her death, unpleasant events begin happening all around her, and as she comes closer to unraveling the knots that have tied up Sara’s death, Julia inches closer to total blindness. Produced in part by Guillermo del Toro, Los Ojos de Julia (aka Julia’s Eyes) was an official selection at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.
Julia’s Eyes (Spanish: Los ojos de Julia) is a critically acclaimed 2010 Spanish horror film directed by Guillem Morales and written by Morales and Oriol Paulo.
About the Story
The film begins with the death of the blind Sara, who appears to be being tormented by an unseen stranger. Heading to her basement to attempt suicide, she curses the hidden tormentor and refuses to give them the satisfaction of seeing her hang herself; but as she tries to remove the noose from her neck, the stool beneath her is kicked away, leaving her to die. Miles away, Sara’s twin sister Julia collapses at work, sensing something amiss with her sister.
Finding Sara’s corpse, Julia is suspicious, and is repeatedly tormented by the feeling of another presence nearby. Despite her boyfriend Isaac’s insistence that she stop investigating as the stress is causing her eyes to deteriorate faster, she lures him to a hotel where Sara stayed after an eye surgery that was not successful.
The following morning, Julia is approached by a janitor who warns her of ‘men who live in shadows’ and informs her that the parking lot where Sara’s mysterious boyfriend kept his van was under 24-hour surveillance. Sending Isaac to collect the tape, he vanishes, and a security guard does as well after Julia goes looking for him.
Julia is convinced that the ‘invisible man’ stole the tape, sabotaged the cameras and has kidnapped Isaac, though the police are skeptical. Returning to the Hotel Romero to question the janitor, they find him electrocuted in the bath from a fallen light above the water: however, the police declare it accidental. Isaac’s credit card is found to have been used in a nearby hotel, however, when Julia and the inspector return to the house to look for any sign of his return; another power cut sends Julia stumbling through the darkness, brushing against what appears to be a man in the basement where Sara died. Upstairs, the inspector finds a note left on the bed, before being alerted by Julia’s screams. When he arrives with his torch, Isaac’s corpse is found swinging from the spot where Sara died; with Julia cowering, unable to see at all – her vision has gone completely.
At the hospital, the police inform a grieving Julia that the note found on the bed was written in Isaac’s hand, declaring that he could not live without Sara, with whom he had been having an affair for six months. However, an eye donor is found, so the operation to save Julia’s sight goes ahead. She is told she must wear bandages to protect her eyes for two weeks, and returns to Sara’s house despite her doctor’s protests with a day carer, Iván, to assist her. Strangely, the key she found, which she believes was left by Sara’s boyfriend, has disappeared.
At first, Julia is plagued by disorientation and nightmares while convinced that somebody is lurking in the house; but Iván’s patience and coaching help her regain her independence. Four days before Julia is due to remove her bandages, a starlit dinner culminates in a kiss, after which Iván leaves hurriedly, uncomfortable. That night, an unseen man almost succeeds in drugging Julia while she sleeps; however, she wakes, panicked, and accidentally hits the intruder as she sits upright. Terrified, she flees to the house of Sara’s neighbour, Señor Blasco, who makes advances on her: as she turns to escape his house, she finds the key she had lost hanging on the wall – believing that Blasco is the ‘invisible man’, she escapes, paging Iván, who finds her hiding outside in the rain and escorts her to his apartment.
In Iván’s home, while he goes to get his spare bed for him to sleep in, Julia hears the voice of Blasco’s shy daughter Lía, who tells her that her nurse – Iván – is the ‘invisible man’ who tormented Sara, has walls covered with photographs of Julia and her twin, and now seeks to drug her with sedatives slipped into her tea. Lía tells Julia to meet her in the bathroom moments before Iván returns. Conflicted, Julia goes to the bathroom where, four days early, she tears off her bandages, desperate to see for herself if Lía’s word is true. A sudden bang causes Iván to come looking for her.
Still in the bathroom, she replies that she heard it as well but did not know what it was. Iván heads out of the apartment momentarily. Julia exits the bathroom and sees Iván’s walls are covered with photographs of the twins as well as Lía’s bloodied body that is held to the wall with a kitchen knife through her mouth. Iván returns to the apartment to find Julia sobbing in the room with Lia. She pretends that she is crying because her operation has failed and she is blind which he believes.
Julia’s Eyes
Directed by: Guillem Morales
Starring: Francesca Orella, Belen Rueda, Boris Ruiz, Daniel Grao, Clara Segura, Andrea Hermosa, Julia Gutiérrez Caba, Mia Esteve
Screenplay by: Guillem Morales, Oriol Paulo
Production Design by: Balter Gallart
Cinematography by: Oscar Faura
Film Editing by: Joan Manel Vilaseca
Costume Design by: Maria Reyes
Set Decoration by: Dídac Bono, Sol Caramilloni
Music by: Fernando Velázquez
MPAA Rating: None.
Studio: Rodar y Rodar Films
Release Date: August 1, 2011
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