Julia’s Eyes (Los Ojos de Julia)

Director: Guillem Morales
Produced by Guillermo del Toro

by Joanna Orland

Acclaimed director of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Hellboy films, Guillermo del Toro, is once again producing a Spanish horror, reminiscent of his last outing with The Orphanage. Julia’s Eyes (Los Ojos de Julia) is your average horror film. It’s by no means a Pan’s Labyrinth calibre film… and well, I haven’t seen The Orphanage (was too scared to), so I’m afraid I cannot compare and contrast it with LODJ… We’ll just have to discuss the film based on its own merits alone.

Although it is not a stroke of genius, LODJ had me watching intently throughout the entire film. The stylized bit towards the end was very great and completely inspired by the first SAW film. The acting however, dios mio! Julia was great, but her husband Isaac? Even though all the dialogue was in Spanish, I could still sense the hammy acting that was being emitted from this actor. Puta madre he’s a bad actor!

Anyway, in addition to the hammy acting, another letdown was the highly contrived plot points. I know most horror films are over the top and ridiculous, but this lacked logic in a lot of places, and I still don’t really get how it all came together or why. This film has NOTHING on Scream 4 which I’ve recently seen… now THAT’s how it’s done bitches!

See Julia’s Eyes if you want to practice your Spanish skills or fancy some horror light. Don’t go in expecting genius, genuine fright or Pan’s Labyrinth. What we have here is a totally watchable film, nothing more.