Thanks for the memories!

Crappy film

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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!

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.

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.

"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)