Why Julia’s Eyes Is Better Than Bird Box (& Is Overlooked) – Screen Rant

While the film description, a horror movie where the protagonist wears a blindfold, would conjure 2018 sci-fi horror Bird Box in most peoples minds, it also serves to describe the 2010 Spanish movie,Julias Eyes.

Released on Netflix, Bird Box depicts a post-apocalyptic world where humans are forced to wear blindfolds to avoid seeing madness-causing monsters. Starring Sandra Bullock as Malorie, the movie leans heavily into its star power. It came out the same year A Quiet Place hit theaters, and many were quick to point out the similarities between the two. WhileA Quiet Placewas the higher-rated movie,Bird Boxbecame something of a viral, meme-worthy hit, garnering significant acclaim and attention. Despite all eyes being on the Sandra Bullock-led thriller, which was based off a novel by Josh Malerman, a lesser-known foreign horror is the more direct choice for comparisons, notA Quiet Place.

Related: Why Bird Box 2 Shouldn't Happen

Julias Eyes was directed by Spanish director Guillem Morales and produced by two-time Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro. A horror thriller, it follows the story Julia, a woman who is slowly losing her sight. Played by the extremely talented Beln Rueda, Julia investigates her sisters suicide while also undergoing an eye surgery that temporarily blinds her.

In both movies, the blindfold serves both a mechanical and symbolic purpose. In Bird Box, supernatural monsters take the shape of ones worst fear, leading those who see them to either madness or suicide; blindfolds are a protective measure. The audience never sees the monsters outright, only their effect. It represents a fear of the unknown.

In Julias Eyes, the blindfold is a necessary measure to ensure her eye operation takes. Here, the blindfold represents sacrifice, a running theme through the movie: a moment of darkness for a brighter future. Much of the tension comes not just from knowing that something sinister is happening around Julia, but that if she peeks to look at it, it condemns her to permanent blindness. It exchanges one kind of blindness for another.

In terms of reception, Julias Eyes has Bird Box beat. Its 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes is leagues ahead of Bird Boxs 63%. The blindfold mechanic in Julias Eyes is much more organic as well. In eschewing any sci-fi elements, Julias Eyes grounds its horror in humanity. It is a story that weaves its concept with its horror, developing multiple levels of tension. The film leans into dramatic irony; from the first scene, the audience knows something is amiss, while Julia is left to grope in the dark.

Related: Every Sci-Fi Horror Movie Releasing In 2020

It is also an extremely beautiful movie. Its high caliber cinematography and acting put it in the realm of horror like Silence Of The Lambs and Psycho. Julia's Eyes alsoincludes one of the most arguably tense scenes in horror history, combining open eyes and a knifes edge to capture many of humanitys innate fears, while developing character-specific tension.

Spanish-language cinema has had a lot to offer horror. The Orphanage balances a terrifying atmosphere with supernatural dread. [REC] uses high stakes zombie horror to make one of the most tense found footage films. The acting is one of the strongest points of Julias Eyes, something that would be lost in an adaptation.

Julias Eyes rarely makes it onto top ten horror lists. It released at a time when horror and foreign language horror were generally still treated as separate. There is a bias in the film world towards English language movies; instead of distributing East Asian horror globally as is, it is usually adapted and translated in the West, often to the detriment of the story. Limiting horror to a single language limits the scope of imagination and possibility.

Fortunately, this trend is slowly disappearing, as exemplified by Korean thriller Parasite becoming the first non-English film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The future holds hope for movies like Julias Eyes, which have the merit but still deserve to one day reach the scope of films like Bird Box.

Next: Netflix Is Adding So Much Foreign Horror (& What That Means For Streaming)

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Shannon Lewis is a features and news writer on Screen Rant. She has experience in editorial working as the deputy editor for Specialty Food, an online and print magazine, curating its news section and social media. She has worked as a freelance writer since 2017, writing articles, features, and profiles in a wide range of topics, from business and tech to pop culture and media. Previously, she has also worked as a ghost writer for a fiction manuscript, and co-founded arts-and-literature magazine, Octarine.Hailing from Queretaro, Mexico, she is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's English Literature with Creative Writing program. An avid reader and fan of writing, she leverages her love of literature to dissect movies in her favorite genres, including horror, rom-coms, and superhero movies. Her focus is on the cross-section between story, cultural background, and character development. When she isn't busy reading everything ever published under the mantle of Image Comics, you might find her writing fiction, rock climbing, or putting together a horror anthology with friends.

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Why Julia's Eyes Is Better Than Bird Box (& Is Overlooked) - Screen Rant