That was an excellent one.

Powerful

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I just saw this movie at the Puerto Rico Horror Film Festival. I was surprised that it had a 4.4 score on IMDb. This is a great rape/revenge film with an original twist with a strong lead character, good rhythm, suspense and horror. To make a better comparison, I am a cult fan of "I Spit On Your Grave" (the original) but I admit this movie was very slow and I had to jump to the more interesting scenes. But Julia kept my attention all the time. I wasn't bored for one minute. Matthew A. Brown's script was wonderful and he directed the movie in a great way. Ashley C. Williams captured did an amazing job performing a victim and then a hunter, her transformation from a shy woman to a "femme fatale" was extraordinary. When this movie comes out on DVD I will buy it for sure.

At least that film was an experience that cannot be forgotten easily. The main point I didn't like with Julia is the shoddy execution of the script. Any capable director would rise to the occasion, but debutante director Matthew A. Brown fails to make any headway with his film.A really poor cast of characters, with no veteran player to lead them. The background sound-effects are mediocre and do not produce any thrills. The photography and lighting are excellent, but because of the dull plot, all the efforts that were spent by the cameraman are wasted.The film is about a woman called Julia (Ashley C. Williams) who arrives at someone's apartment and is invited in. Probably she may have been dating the guy through the internet, but this is never revealed in the film. This man gives Julia a drink spiked with succinylcholine. As she lays totally incapacitated, some friends of of this man arrive. Later on, while fully aware but paralyzed, she is brutally raped by this man and his friends. Afterwards, these men dump her near a riverfront and depart. Julia slowly recovers after the drug wears off. She manages to make her way home, where the viewer discovers that Julia has spent most of her life being abused by various tormentors and has turned to self-harm as a result. Later Julia overhears someone discussing a therapy that has rape victims taking back power from their attackers. She's introduced to Dr. Sgundud (Jack Noseworthy) through the mysterious Sadie (Tahyna Tozzi) and through Sgrundud's teachings Julia begins to target various men as a way to empower herself by humiliating them. Julia eventually decides to use Sgrundud's methods to seek revenge against her rapists. But unknown to her, Dr. Sgundud has a secret agenda of his own...Watch the film to see what happens next.Verdict: See the above mentioned films if you haven't already. Some more recommendations: Wolf Creek 1&2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise of films(there are too many to list), Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes And Sequel, Eden Lake, Dean Koontz Intensity(1997), High Tension(2003), Inside(2007), James Wan's Saw And Its sequel films by different directors and Eli Roth's Hostel (2005).

6.5 of 10. While the Saw films accomplished the same modern-day, reality-based blood and gore, the extremes and contraptions involved took a willingness to fantasize to believe something like that could happen. With Julia, there's no need for imagination or fantasy and nearly everything that's left to imagination in other films is visualized on screen.Amongst other parts of it to enjoy are the soundtrack integration and the focus of the film. It doesn't try to be something more or imply something other than what the story is about.What's missing seems to be pacing and acting and a few unedited non-sequiturs. Otherwise, you get a goth/emo-chick horror with some mystery without suffering through make believe monsters or heroes.

The ratings is not really doing this movie justice at all in my opinion. Technically its superbly shot and in this aspect the director has really done a good job. I just loved the soundtrack of this movie and it greatly blends and embellishes to again suit the specific atmospheres. Tracks of Lark, Vuvuvultures and Ske are featured among others. Acting is also above par.The main issue with this movie has to do with its script that undermines all the positives above. As a man I was uncomfortable watching this. The woman are brutalized by a huge group of almost ordinary educated young men, her male therapists stay faceless until the end of the movie when he is also revealed to be a monster as the "breakthrough therapy" (with the "100% success rate") he sells involves murder. Again, like in so many movies men are portrayed as monsters. The generalizing theme go further when the lead totally reject all males after the incident and become lesbian. I was thinking about how hypocritical the whole movie and gaming industry has become. GTA5 for example is heavily criticized for its stereotyping of women, yet no sex is more stereotyped and dehumanized than males.I did however realize that one may be a bit oversensitive about the stereotyping aspect. Reason is it would be difficult to make a horror movie without some degree of stereo tying. Also the victims themselves become savagely brutal in their revenge, killing some characters that did not do her harm. Is this the directors way of saying that revenge on this scale turns you into a full spectrum monster? We don't know because she is never caught or show any regret. Or will some viewers see this as a society that made her a vengeful monster playing into the hands of the male hating radical feminists? This is the problem.Although a morose topic this is definitely worth watching if you can look past the possible thoughts of stereotyping.