Alias

When the movie started i felt good. Hilde De Baerdemaeker is a good flemish actress and i love Gent and i was happy to see the city i know so well in a movie. I liked the first half hour very much... but it went downwards after that. Hilde (Eva) played very well, but that was about it. At the ending, where they "all" are at "Le Vallon", it became worse. I kept hoping the ending would make the film right, but it didn't. It's too bad Verheyen couldn't keep the level of the first half hour of the movie. I gave it a 6 and that is mild.

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")

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

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.

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.