Alias

although Jan Verheyen movies come in with a lot of publicity - at least in Belgium - they never predict high quality. this time the expectations were higher due to a nice trailer and promising cast. watching the movie was a nice experience at the beginning, but this quickly faded along the watching. too many rediculous coincidences (ex. geert hunaerts - while playing the lead role - who's helping this young lady having her purse back) and holes in the story (ex. werner the smedt - boyfriend of lead female role - who's able to detect the 'horror' house???). Also the end is rushed unfortunately. On those moments you can see Verheyen knows his classics, but isn't having the talent to bring over the atmosphere of his inspiring examples. Last point of comment is the weakness of choreography that was killing a lot of shots along the movie. 5 on 10 for this semi-freaky movie is my score, thanks to great acting of Hunaert and most of the other leading actors, certainly not the side part actors and also thanks to a couple of nice actions scenes and special effects. worth a look at the vcr.

If you compare the Belgian and more in particular the Flemish cinema with the French and other European cinema, than you'll see there is a big difference. In the other countries they are much more chauvinistic when it comes to their own movies. Especially in France many people will watch "their" movies rather than Hollywood productions. But perhaps there is also another reason for it. It may also be because in our country they just don't make many movies and when a movie is actually made, most of the time its quality isn't really stunning.

The directors say that they can't help it. They don't have the money to produce a movie like they do in Hollywood. True, most of the movies they have to finance themselves, because the government doesn't give them many subsidies. But don't tell me that money is the only problem. Next to financial problems we also have a lack of talented directors who are able to put our little country on the map of big cinematic countries. I'm afraid Jan Verheyen won't fill up that gap. I'm not saying he's a bad director, he just isn't great as he proves with this movie. It has a cheap and amateurish feeling about it.

The actors didn't do too bad most of the time (except for Hilde Van Mieghem who is so incredibly fake and unnatural that it all becomes laughable), but the script is far from original. It feels like a script that no-one in Hollywood wanted, so Verheyen took it and filmed it over here instead of in America. Too often you can see that the director is a great amateur of cheap horror movies. He uses the same kind of scenes and ideas, which doesn't really do any good to the movie.

I'm not really surprised not many people actually saw this movie. It's worth a watch, but don't expect too much of it. I give it a 6/10. Not bad for one of ours, but just not good enough

To me, the best movie Jan Verheyen ever made was "alles moet weg". Simply brilliant. And what about this one ? Well, it had almost immediatly my interest, because it was a thriller. When the movie was over, I thought it wasn't bad. And it isn't. The acting is good, some moments are really frightning and we saw a new actress here: Hilde De Baerdemaker. She has one of the main roles in this movie and she does that very well. The weak points of the movie? Well, the ending is a bit to cheap, it looked like Verheyen hadn't much time left and why does he always put those freaky sex scenes in his movies? OK, I'm not extremely catholic and I have nothing against sex or nudity or beautiful women, but in every movie Verheyen uses some "hardcore sex" That really sucks. Also, some people said it was "the most scary movie that they'd ever seen". Well, not exactly... It IS scary, but it's no "silence of the lambs" or "de lift", made in the Netherlands, by the way. My final opinion: not bad at all, but due to the ending & some stupid scenes, who think they're scary, this movie is not a masterpiece. But, this is belgian made, for our country it's allright. With a larger budget, this would've been better than "de lift". Nice try.

"De Alias" is Belgium's first true high-profile exploitation movie. You might not guess it by the looks of the poster, and even the trailer merely suggest a slick thriller, but nothing could be further from the truth. Director Jan Verheyen artfully combines a romantic encounter with some pretty twisted twists.

"De Alias" gets off to a tense start, when a man is being dragged from his isolation-cell in some loony-bin, is being put in a car, smacked in the face and driven off a cliff. The police barely has a clue what might have happened, so the case is quickly closed.

Flash-forward to the city of Ghent, where two girls (newcomer Hilde De Baerdemaker and Veerle Dobbelaere) by accident film the apparent suicide of a beautiful young girl, who jumps naked out of a forth-story window. A little later, the girls are nearly robbed of their camcorder, if it hadn't been for a mysterious stranger (Geert Hunaerts), who beats up the thugs and returns the camera. Eva, one of the girls, is immediately smitten with the hero, and decides to go for a drink with him. But little does she know that the stranger may, or may not have anything to do with the girl's suicide earlier on ...

When reading this, you might think that this looks like the outline for yet another predictable thriller. Wrong! Screenwriters Verheyen, Dirickx and Koeck have made considerable effort to create a twisty, yet believable story, that goes pretty far, without losing it's credibility. The first half of the film moves along smoothly while introducing the characters, raising the tension and revealing the true identity of the mysterious stranger. But it's only in the second half of the film that the plot takes a turn for the worst and the pace really picks up. The viewer is being thrown from one revelation into the next, while the protagonists are dropping like flies. Voyeurism, sex, violence, incest ... you name it, "De Alias" has it all, and still manages to be neither gratuitous nor tasteless. Director Jan Verheyen is obviously very fond of the '70s trash-cinema and enthusiastically recycles those themes into a truly exciting and gripping film. Some films he may or may not be paying direct homage to are "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", "Psycho" and "Se7en". Just look at one of the final scenes, where the protagonist is invited to a macabre dinner-party, or the scene where the killer's father is reloading his gun, while his terrified victim has to watch him. Truly cinema at it's weirdest.

Despite all these merits, the film does have a couple of flaws, not in the least the terrible performance by Veerle Dobbelaere. She simply isn't up to par. For some reason she doesn't look the part and has difficulty making her character believable. On the other hand, the performances by Hilde De Baerdemaker and especially Geert Hunaerts, are excellent. The direction and photography are exceptionally good (especially for a Flemish film), the music is appropriate and for once the dialogue isn't predictable and idiotic.

In short: like Verheyen's previous film "Team Spirit", "De Alias" is one of those rare Flemish films that succeeds in being different, without forgetting to be good. If you enjoy a weird film, you might like this one. (7.5/10)

In the pleasant city of Ghent, in Belgium, the girl-friends Eva (Hilde De Baerdemaeker) and Patti (Veerle Dobbelaere) videotape the robbery of a car first and later the suicide of a hooker. When Eva's camera is stolen by the thieves, Dieter (Geert Hunaerts) retrieves it , returns the camera to Eva and has an affair with her. Meanwhile, Patti decides to investigate the tape and finds a dark secret about the incident and Dieter.

"Alias" is a good European thriller, filmed in the beautiful city of Ghent. The first half part of the story is very promising and original, but unfortunately the conclusion falls in the usual clichés of horror movies. The unknown actresses of this movie are extremely beautiful and charming, have great performances and are another attraction. I particularly loved the performance and beauty of Hilde De Baerdemaeker, and I hope to have the chance to see her again in other movies. I expect also to have the chance of one day visit this lovely city of Ghent, which seems to be wonderful. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Alias – Relações de Sangue" "("Alias – Blood Relations")