Julia X (a.k.a. Julia X 3D) is a 2011 American 3D comedy horror film starring Valerie Azlynn, Kevin Sorbo, Alicia Leigh Willis, Joel David Moore and Ving Rhames.
Internet dating has never been more deadly as Julia is about to find out. What starts out as a night of romance ends up being anything but as the man of Julia’s dreams, known only as The Stranger, turns out to be the sort of guy your mother warns you about…
Trapped in The Stranger’s sights, Julia soon finds out his true identity is not the suave, smooth-talking lover but a sadistic and amoral killer who wants to play a deadly and possessive game.
Branding his victim with an X, Julia is destined to be the next in the long line of ex-dates but unbeknownst to The Stranger, this time he has picked on the wrong girl…
Tropes used in Julia X include:
- Abusive Parents: Julia and Jessica were sexually abused by their father.
- Advertised Extra: Ving Rhames is listed as one of the stars of this movie, but only appears in the final scene of the film, and has less than 5 minutes screen time.
- Agony of the Feet: Jessica nails The Stranger's feet to the floor with a pair of iron spikes. He later yanks the spikes out with his bare hands.
- Axe-Crazy: As the film progresses, the depths of Jessica's insanity become more obvious. She abducts Sam and plans to murder him for no reason. She fatally stabs Julia with a pair of scissors, and makes a frenzied attack on The Stranger, stabbing him multiple times in the chest.
- Bandage Wince: Julia screams more when Jessica is applying disinfectant to the burn caused by her branding than she did when The Stranger was branding her.
- Big Guy Rodeo: Used by both Jessica and Julia against the much larger Stranger. When The Stranger attacks Julia in the bathroom, Jessica leaps on his back and wraps a towel around his throat in an effort to choke him. He manages to throw her off fairly easily, but it gives Julia time to get away. Shortly after, as The Stranger is attempting to kill Jessica, Julia leaps on to his back. While trying to shake her off, he crashes through the balcony and the two of them fall to the ground floor.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: When Julia is relaxing in the bath, she is alerted to The Stranger's presence by his blood dripping into the water.
- Bound and Gagged: When Jessica initially abducts Sam, she leaves him bound to a kitchen chair and blindfolded. However, when The Stranger escapes, he takes the blindfold off Sam's eyes and stuffs it into his mouth, thereby transforming him into being bound and gagged.
- Calling Card: The Brand Killer brands a letter on to each of his victims.
- Carved Mark: The Serial Killer known as 'the Brand Killer' brands the buttocks of his victims with a letter of the alphabet before he murders them. He brands an 'X' on Julia's butt, but she escapes before he can kill her.
- Carry a Big Stick: During the final battle, Julia selects a sledgehammer as her weapon to take on The Stranger.
- Chain Pain: The Stranger's preferred weapon is a length of chain: either swung as a flail, or wrapped around his hand as brass knuckles.
- Danger Takes a Backseat: Julia leaves her date and returns to her car. As she sits down, The Stranger rises from the backseat and slips a garrotte round her throat.
- Dating Service Disaster: The Serial Killer known as 'The Brand Killer' (because he brands a letter on to each of his victims) uses internet dating sites to meet his victims. However, when he invites Julia on a date, he bites off more than he can chew. At the end of the film, Jessica is using dating sites to meet her victims.
- Deadly Bath: Julia goes to take a bath to de-stress and relax after her argument with Jessica. While she is doing so, The Stranger breaks loose from the kitchen and creeps into the bathroom planning to kill her. She is alerted to his presence when his blood drips into her bathwater.
- The Determinator: The first part of the film is largely a battle between two determinators: with Julia determined to escape, and The Stranger equally determined to stop her.
- Duct Tape for Everything: Jessica uses duct tape to bind Sam to a kitchen chair.
- Eye Scream: Jessica murders The Man by driving a scissor blade through his eye.
- Fiery Cover Up: Jessica covers up the bloodbath that has occurred in her family home by burning it to the ground.
- Freudian Excuse: Julia and Jessica do what they do because they were sexually abused by their father as children, and later witnessed him murdering their mother.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Julia knocks The Stranger out in the kitchen by hitting him the head with a frying pan.
- Going Commando: After being attacked in the bath, Julia hurriedly pulls on a black knit dress. This means she conducts the entire final battle without underwear.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Jessica smashes two bottles over The Stranger's head while he is tied up in her kitchen.
- Harmful to Minors: Julia and Jessica where sexually abused by their father, and later saw him murder their mother when she discovered what was going on. This is what drove them to become vigilantes hunting sexual predators as adults.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: The Stranger is a Serial Killer who preys on women he meets in online dating sites. He takes Julia on a date, intending to make her his next victim. However, Julia is one of a pair of Serial-Killer Killer sisters, and The Stranger soon finds the tables turned on him.
- I Just Want to Be You: The Ax-Crazy Jessica is jealous of her older sister Julia, and undertakes several actions to make herself more like Julia; most notably by kidnapping Sam. She eventually announces "It's my turn" and stabs Julia to death. In the final scene of the movie, she is seen calling herself Julia Y and continuing Julia's vigilante work (but without Julia's discrimination.
- MacGyvering: Using junk she finds in the abandoned school, Julia ia able to whip up both a means of taking down The Stranger and of signalling her sister.
- Made of Iron: The Stranger is suffocated, stabbed, beaten repeatedly over the head, bound in barbed wire, has his feet nailed to floor, is thrown down stairs multiple times, loses a ludicrous amounts of blood, and still keeps coming.
- No Name Given: Kevin Sorbo's character's name is never given. The credits list him as 'The Stranger', and a press report during the opening credits calls him 'The Brand Killer'. Ving Rhames character is only identified as 'The Man'.
- Old School Building: After escaping from The Stranger and fleeing through the swamp, Julia takes refuge in an old abandoned school.
- Punk in the Trunk: After capturing The Stranger at the abandoned school, Julia and Jessica dump him in the trunk of their car and drive him back to their home.
- Serial Killer: The stranger is a serial killer dubbed 'The Brand Killer' by the press.
- Serial-Killer Killer: Julia and Jessica hunt and kill sexual predators. However, Jessica turns out to have a dangerously loose definition of 'sexual predator'.
- Shear Menace: Jessica's favourite weapon is a pair of scissors. She uses them to stab three people to death.
- Sibling Murder: When Jessica goes fully Axe-Crazy, she stabs her sister Julia to death, because she has decided that it is her 'turn' now and she needs to take Julia's place.
- Staircase Tumble: The Stranger backhands Jessica and knocks her down the stairs into the basement. In a later fight, Julia jumps on The Stranger's back and causes the two of them crash through the bannister and fall off the stairs from the second floor.
- Stocking Filler: Both Julia and Jessica display a fondness for stockings (as seen in the page image), with an obvious understanding of the sexual connotations. By the end of the film, Jessica has taken to carrying a scissor blade tucked into her stocking top.
- Super Window Jump: Julia escapes from the farmhouse by jumping through a closed window, taking all of the glass out with her.
- Tongue Trauma: Jessica seizes Sam's tongue in a pair of pincers and is about to rip it out when Julia stops her.
- Too Kinky to Torture: None of the torture the sisters inflict on The Stranger seems to faze him very much, with him just regarding it as part of his 'date' with Julia. At the end, just before he dies, he even describes it as "The best date I've ever had".
- Unwilling Suspension: When The Stranger brings Julia back to his garage, he binds her wrists together, slips the bindings over a hook, and hoists her off the ground.
- Vanity License Plate: Jessica drives off in a car with license plate reading "JULIA Y".
- Vigilante Man: Sisters Julia and Jessica hunt and kill sexual predators. However, while Julia is careful to ensure that her targets actually deserve their fate, the Axe-Crazy Jessica seems to regard all males as viable targets.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to Sam after he fled the house? And why didn't he call the police? Given Jessica appears to be driving his car in the final scene, it seems Jessica may have caught up with him.
- Wrench Whack: Before taking The Stranger out of the boot of her car, Julia whacks him over the head with a lug wrench to make sure he is unconscious.
- "X" Makes Anything Cool: The title is barely justified by Julia having an 'X" branded on her butt by the Stranger.
