Julia (2014 film)

Synopsis

Julia (Ashley C. Williams) is a young woman that was drugged and raped by Pierce (Ryan Cooper) and three friends, who then left her for dead. 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). Under her guidance, Julia seduces a man (implied to be a rapist of one of the past patients of Sgrundud), lures him to her apartment, where the rest of the sisterhood restrain him, make Julia emasculate him (taking genitals as a trophy), kill him and dispose the body.

After several more hunts, Julia one day sees one of her rapists, Adam, in the clinic where she works, and decides to seek revenge on them all using Sgrundud's methods. She convinces Adam to assemble a meeting (claiming that she actually liked what happened) but leaving Pierce, the rapists "boss", as last. The night of the meeting, Julia drugs Adam and the other two friends who raped her, surgically removes Adam's eyes (as he did not actually rape her, only watched) and the other men's genitalia, then leaves for the last one, Pierce. However, she finds him killed and evirated by the sisterhood, while Julia herself is knocked unconscious and taken back to Dr. Sgrundud after Sadie snitches on her.

Sgrundud tells Julia that she has violated the rules of "taking medicine" and therefore, drugged again, is about to be dissected alive. He also reveals that the idea of emasculating victims came to him after he himself went through such a procedure performed by his father after he discovered his son's homosexuality, as he liked to dress in his sister's clothings. However, before he starts to operate on Julia, Sadie saves her, entering the building and starting to kill Sgrundud's associates. The doctor confronts Sadie and points his gun at her, but Julia manages to get free from the operating table and decapitates Sgrundud from behind. Before Sadie could thank her friend, Julia shoots her in the head and leaves towards an unknown future.

Cast

Reception

Nerdly praised Julia, writing "Julia is an evocative and engaging watch more from its uniquely cinematic stylings than through anything given in the narrative. While certainly not perfect, overall it is a decent entry in a genre which is troubling at the best of times and I certainly will be remembering writer/director Brown’s name for the future." Grolsch Film Works also recommended the movie, comparing it favorably to American Mary. Flickering Myth gave a mixed review for Julia, commenting that the movie was "a lot better than the I Spit on Your Grave remakes and it’s a lot smarter than the original on which they were based, but it’s also fairly forgettable."