Netherlands, 2025
Review:JA Kerswell
A somewhat murky return to Amsterdam’s canals in Dick Maas’ belated sequel to his international 1988 slasher hit. 37 years after a psycho scuba diver used the waterways as a hunting ground for a bloody series of murders, another rash of similar slayings causes panic in the city, and it is up to a young detective to work with a retired cop to catch the killer. Mixing action, horror, and some wry Dutch humour, it certainly has its moments, but risks sinking under nonsensical plotting and an ending far too opaque for its own good.
The film opens with two American tourists on a midnight pleasure cruise along Amsterdam’s famous canals, whose boat is trapped under a bridge and attacked from underneath the water by a presence with a huge hunting knife. The next day, horrified tourists see the couple’s mutilated naked bodies propped up on a pedalo, which bursts into flames. A young detective, Tara (Holly Mae Brood), is brought in to investigate the slayings as more dismembered body parts are found in the waterways. Hopes that this is a one-off are dashed when the body of a drag queen is found disemboweled and hanging from the mast of a famous ship. When the authorities are reminded of the scuba murders 37 years ago, Eric (Huub Stapel, reprising his role as the detective who worked on the case in the first film), is invited back to the city to give his opinion—initially to Tara’s annoyance. However, as more bodies turn up, the pair decide to work together to piece together the clues that might lead them to their killer. Things get more complicated when new DNA evidence ordered by his daughter clears the man identified as guilty for the 1988 murders, who died at that film’s close, clearing the way for perhaps a returning mystery culprit. However, a further spanner is thrown in the works when a local professor suggests that whatever is behind the rash of murders might not even be human …
AMSTERDAMNED was something of a satire on slasher movies from earlier in the 1980s, with the sheer ridiculousness and impracticality of the killer’s scuba outfit exploited for all its absurdity. However, beyond its impressively baroque and ghoulish murder set pieces, Maas’ main focus lay beyond the slasher-movie theatrics—something even more evident in its sequel. Unfortunately, the sequel’s plot is a soggy house of cards that starts to fall apart after the midpoint. A good 20 minutes are given over to the pursuit of a character who turns out to be a red herring, although it does give Maas a chance to recreate the first film’s celebrated speedboat chase through the city’s canals (albeit with less effect here). The film introduces the intriguing possibility that the killer may not be human when a professor attempts to warn the police about the legend of a subaquatic creature that has hunted the city’s waterways for centuries, called “The Bully”. Maas teases whether the murders are the work of a human hand or something more supernatural (or perhaps both). I won’t spoil it here, but the flip-flopping conclusion adds little clarity. Although the idea that, by the film’s close, the police think they have vanquished their ‘man’—when their foe is able to propel bodies twenty feet into the air and overturn a SWAT boat by swimming at it—is probably the film’s most ludicrous and illogical turn.
As with Maas’ 1988 film, AMSTERDAMNED II is not an outright comedy, but it does feature comedic elements that work in its favour without overwhelming its horror and action elements. In fact, it is where the film arguably succeeds the most. One of its long-running witty asides is that, in the first film, the authorities were worried the murders would scare away tourists (a reference to JAWS (1975)), but in the sequel—because of rampant over-tourism—it is suggested that the new slayings may actually be welcomed to help prevent overcrowding. Much of the other comedy comes from the now-retired Eric being completely out of touch and bemused by modern life. Struggling with his self-perceived irrelevance as both a man and an ex-cop, he finds a sense of purpose in investigating the rash of new murders, which makes for a nice story arc for his character. He also spars well with the younger detective, forming an odd-couple-turned-buddy-cops dynamic in the classic action-movie mould. Brood as Tara is good, too. Although her only character development is that she has an abused, junkie sister—a plot cul-de-sac that remains thoroughly underdeveloped. She also manages to miss hitting a suspect she shoots at point-blank range, not once but twice!
The film admittedly looks great, with expansive, sweeping overhead shots of Amsterdam’s iconic cityscape. However, some dodgy digital effects and the use of AI in certain sequences give the film an uncanny valley feel that threatens to break the suspension of disbelief. Maas had previously rejected the idea of a sequel but briefly flirted with an adjacent project, ROTTERDOOM (set in Rotterdam), in the 1990s. AMSTERDAMNED II was filmed in Amsterdam on a budget of 6.5 million at the tail end of 2024 and received a theatrical release in its home country.
Perhaps Maas would be able to tidy up any loose ends in AMSTEDAMNED III if it happens, and get his full cryptid freak on. Although middling box office suggests this franchise is likely to stay at the bottom of the Amsterdam canals for at least another 37 years.
BODY COUNT 12:
Female 3 / Male 9
AMSTERDAMNED II (2025) Trailer
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