Alias

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.

Everyone who owns the Belgian film "De Potloodmoorden" will explain the film's presence in the collection with the excuse that the movie isn't good, but that you should own it for its novelty value. "De Potloodmoorden" is credited as the first Belgian attempt at a giallo (the Italian equivalent of a film noir, with - if possible - added gore and nudity). The only other film coming close of the giallo genre was the lackluster "The Antwerp Killer" (some gore, no nudity, no plot whatsover, no sign of anyone with the ability to act). And now in the year 2002, only thirty years after the best gialli were made, comes "Alias", a film by Jan Verheyen.

Verheyen is, as mentioned elsewhere, apart from director also the host of Filmnight Special, a Friday night show for lovers of cult cinema. This, of course, shouts for a quick and cheap reference to Alex Cox, the British director who was allowed to give his opinion on movies shown in the BBC2 series Moviedrome. There is an interesting analogy here, but I will explain that later. Whereas Filmnight Special started as a cheap excuse to show some trash the channel had to buy to get blockbuster, the second and third series focused on more interesting movies and some months even had a theme: Hammer films, gore (Cannibal Holocaust, films by Peter Jackson and Lucio Fulci), cult classics, interesting failures and the Worst Films Ever (open another page to see why From Hell It Came, Trog and The Frozen Dead were aptly chosen). Only one movie could pass as a giallo: The New York Ripper. Maybe Jan Verheyen should've dedicated a month to this genre, it certainly would have made some comments friendlier.

At its worst, a giallo is a boring thriller with a misogynous undertone where women get to show as many body parts as possible before having their throat slit. At its best, it's an equal to the film noir with suspence, an erotic undertone and (still) buckets of blood. "Alias" does to the giallo what "Straight To Hell" (by Alex Cox) does to the spaghetti western: it's an ode to a genre, showing not only the highlights, but also the weaknesses. Having seen a few gialli certainly helps to appreciate "Alias". It's far from perfect, occasionally too vulgar (which can be expected in a film by Verheyen) and some performances really are terribly poor (I did my best not to cheer whenever a bad actor was killed). Still, Verheyen deserves all the credit we can find for casting Hilde De Baerdemaeker, who is staggering in her debut film.

In an era where too many movies are far too clean, an ode to the giallo is more than welcome. That this was made by a movie buff who knows how to direct, is a great plus. Fanatics will certainly recognize the hints at films by Mario Bava, Dario Argento and even a few less familiar names, which is also nice as the line between hommage and rip-off is very fine indeed. Verheyen managed to keep his balance and make a nice film that I gave 8/10. Which, incidently, is also the score I gave to most good gialli. Told you it was a hommage.

Verheyen, the director of this much discussed thriller, is an avid fan of B-horror/thrillers films. If you're not down with that and you haven't seen for example Italian cults like the Argento films, I understand that this film is pretty strangely build up. Also in ALIAS nothing really exciting seems to happen at first sight. It's the last part of the film where Verheyen suddenly changes course and shows us some really sick characters and bloody situations and then you realize (or you should realize) that all the small situations the personalities have encountered led to a finale so in-your-face for a Dutch public. ALIAS has a strong Argento touch in the psychology and story telling (e.g. Terror at the Opera). I liked it.

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.

This Belgian attempt at combining thriller, slasher and romance could have been very, very bad. But as it is, this is a movie that is stylish, quite well acted and entertaining for most of it's running time.

The plot is absurd, no doubt about it. We get a budding romance, incest (well, sort of), psychopaths galore, voyeurism and a little sex. I wasn't expecting a lot when I put started to watch this DVD, but soon became involved in this twisting tale of murder and betrayal. Eva (Hilde De Baerdemaeker) becomes a witness to what might have been a murder or just a suicide. Along the way she meets Dieter (Geert Hunaerts who is a major hunk!) who's a man who might or might not be a raving psychopath. What follows is a suspenseful tale, not in the least predictable, but very implausible.

Stylishly shot (for the most part in picturesque Gent), this is a movie that is very easy on the eyes and the comparison other reviewers have made to this being a Belgian "giallo" is quite accurate I think. Dario Argento's "Tenebrae" spring to mind since it is built the same way story wise and also contains a wild and gory climax. Actually, the climax is quite unexpected because the build-up until then points to a more subtle ending. Instead we get a really whacked out finale with the blood flowing very freely. I liked it even though it sometimes feels a bit rushed! :)

The actors do okay, I guess. I wasn't very impressed by Hilde De Baerdemaeker (at crucial moments she seems a bit unresponsive), but considering this was her first part in a major movie it's not that bad. Geert Hunaerts is fine as the mysterious Dieter and Hilde Van Mieghem really shines as the "mother" who turns out to be...well I don't want to spoil to much for any future viewers, let's just say that she is hiding some VERY dark secrets behind her respectable exterior. A chilling performance and, at the same time, an amusing one too.

I wasn't to impressed by the soundtrack. It serves it's purpose I guess, but it's your average "suspense track". Otherwise a movie I thoroughly enjoyed even if I understand that this might not be everyone's "cup of tea", so to speak. Give it a try, however!