Das letzte Opfer

I watched this movie without subtitles in its original language given as Dutch. Being able to speak Dutch I had great difficulty in understanding what was actually being said, only to discover it was a mixture of Dutch and a Flemish dialect which I couldn't understand.

This spoilt the movie to a great extent but I pressed on watching. It is a slow paced thriller, with lots of dialogue. It has a number of twists but the movie is much too long. In the end it reached a conclusion with a bit of action which probably saved the movie from failure.

Make sure that you watch it with subtitles, which is bothersome to read but would make the film more understandable. I was robbed of this but would not want to see it again with subtitles. It is no more than an average movie at best.

I loved DOSSIER K, ten years ago, from the same director and starring the same leads too. It was a bleak, dark, story about Albanese mafia. This one is one more serial killer scheme, as dozens of millions stories written for movie and TV industries. Not my basic cup of tea, but some of them are awesome, riveting, poignant, and above all, unusual, providing great surprises. This one is not worst than other ones, and at least better than most American that I have seen; and I admit that there were not batches of them. I repeat, I don't crave for serial killers. From Belgian, I could expect something gruesome and of course awesome in the same time. I remember WASTE LAND and THE BEAST several years ago, from Belgian too. Not for the squeamish and the whole family at supper time.....This one is a bit smoother, compared to the two previous movies, and closer to the German's LAND OF MURDERS ; itself the remake of the Spanish LA ISLA MINIMA.... But, I repeat, I am not a specialist of this kind of movie. Maybe I am wrong.

"Control" is a much better title than "Het Tweede Gelaat," which translates as "Double Face." The film is a police procedural / psychological thriller / bromance. Commanding officer Vincke is a bit of a control freak, while Chief Inspector Verstuyft goes by his instincts. Rina keeps her patients under control with psychoactive drugs, but is out of control personally. Various VIPs attempt to control the investigation. The investigating judge is frustrated in her attempts to control Verstuyft, as is Vincke.

It's a well-made film with a Byzantine plot, plenty of red herrings, credible performances, three-dimensional characters, solid production values, a good chase scene, an effective climax and poetic justice for the villain.

The acting and the pacing help this movie rise above the underlying script, a hackneyed, contrived story of the search for a serial killer. It has all the usual elements? Do we have a methodical, team oriented policeman in conflict with an intuitive cop with no impulse control? Yes. Do we have a list of stereotyped suspects that fit the bill perfectly? Yes, including (!!!) a psychiatric patient with a pet claw hammer.

Another example of how bad the Belgian movie industry has turned out to be these last years, especially then these detective movies are starting to be all the same. In the old days they wouldn't dare to call it a film, they would just call it an episode in the German crime series on TV. Really: why would anybody give points to this piece of junk? It is not worthy to be taking your time of life. Fits Verheyen's very own "Night of the Disgust" rather well. This flick proves that anybody can make a movie nowadays, no matter who they are or how the end product will turn out to be. Thumbs way low below the lowest of the low.