South Korean Remake of Guillermo Del Toro's Psychological Thriller 'The Eyes' Launching at AFM

A new South Korean remake of a Guillermo Del Toro-produced psychological thriller is officially launching at the American Film Market.

K-Movie Entertainment has acquired the international sales rights of The Eyes, a South Korean remake of the 2010 Spanish film Julia’s Eyes (Los Ojos de Julia), and plans to introduce the title to buyers at AFM later this month. The film stars award-winning actress Shin Min-a, is directed by Yeom Ji-ho and co-produced by Studio Dream Capture and Time Heist.

The Eyes will follow a renowned photographer (Shin), devastated by the sudden loss of her twin sister. As she searches for the truth, she begins to lose her sight and senses a frightening presence around her. Check out the first look below:

Shin Min-a is known for the recent Netflix crime drama Karma, and hit TV series like Our Blues, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, as well as Kim Jee-woon’s film, A Bittersweet Life. The cast of The Eyes also features Kim Nam-hee of Netflix fantasy K-drama Sweet Home.

The original Julia’s Eyes was directed by Guillem Morales and produced by Guillermo del Toro, and initially premiered at TIFF in 2010 before opening the Sitges festival that same year. The film was widely praised for its atmospheric tension and slow unraveling of the truth, with Del Toro’s involvement enhancing its prestige among horror aficionados.

The film’s core theme of the protagonist slowly losing her sight while dealing with grief and investigating her sister’s death plays into visceral fears and existential dread rather than violent gore and jump scares.

K-Movie’s move to take up the remake ahead of AFM reflects the deeper trend of Korean cinema becoming a hotspot for international adaptations. In recent years, Korean filmmakers have built a reputation for transforming familiar films into successful cross-cultural remakes such as Money Heist: Korea — Joint Economic Area, which remade Netflix’s Spanish hit series.

Similarly, Korean filmmakers have also inspired Western projects, like The Good Doctor, based on a K-drama, and HBO’s upcoming Parasite TV show.

However, The Eyes is not the only remake of Julia’s Eyes. A Hindi remake titled Blurr was released in 2022. Distribution for The Eyes will be handled by BY4M Studio, with the film being slated for a mid-2026 domestic release.

International buyers and genre fans at the AFM will now be watching if The Eyes was able to retain the original film’s slow-burn tension while adapting it to 2026 sensibilities and Korean production design. If successful, the film could help establish a new template for how Korean thrillers reimagine European genre IPs.