Sorry Morales, I wouldn`t call that a horror!

Spanish `horror` movies have seen quiet a hype around them in the past few years but I must say, I think they may have got the genre wrong. 

Julia's Eyes ( Los ojos de Julia) is apparently a `critically acclaimed Spanish horror`, it came out in 2011 and was directed by Guillem Morales. I watched it last night and whilst it is a good movie, thrilling and creepy it is definitely not a horror.

Many aspects are also rather reminiscent of 2007 movie, The Orphanage (El Orfanato) directed by J.A. Bayona and that is not just due to the fact that both movies have Belén Rueda (who is amazing) as the main character.

Although their story lines are different, both movies have this aspect of `search` involved, always look for something and usually it highlights a key and several key holes that are tried. The wife/husband relationships are also similar, fragmented by distrust/disbelief and accompanied with the husband threatening to leave.

Don`t get me wrong I enjoyed both movies, they are well structured and well filmed. They don`t have the gore but the psychological gruesomeness that has been lacking from movies lately.  Maybe it is just the influence of Guillermo del Toro as the producer that results in the small similarities.

As Morales said in an interview "I see myself as more of a thriller filmmaker than a horror filmmaker though," - thankfully there is no disillusion there.