Amsterdamned

Slasher Trash with Panache?

Review: JA Kerswell

An enjoyably droll thriller with a unique disguise for its killer, AMSTERDAMNED boosts its police procedural with slasher movie wrappings. Someone in scuba gear is navigating the waterways of the Dutch capital and killing seemingly at random. A hard-bitten detective is on the killer’s tail, but how do you catch a foe who can vanish into the water at the drop of a flipper? Accented with humour, it still delivers the requisite action-packed thrills—but is arguably let down by something of a damp squib resolution. 
 
Eric (Huub Stapel) juggles his role as a single parent and police detective in the city. After the murder of a sex worker, he is put in charge of the case and is puzzled when the only witness to the slaying says a monster with huge feet and claws is responsible. However, the killing of two ecologists collecting water samples suggests a serial killer is on the loose. Clues found at the scene of the crime indicate the suspect was wearing scuba gear and attacked the victims from under the water after pulling them in.
 
Eric investigates the city’s scuba diving community to try and find a lead. At one club, he meets amateur diver Laura (Monique van de Ven), who introduces him to what turns out to be her psychiatrist, Martin (Hidde Maas). With no firm leads as to the identity of the aquatic assassin—and with the bodies starting to pile up—Eric faces increasing pressure from his bosses to catch the killer before he is booted off the case … 

Director Dick Maas has worked in both comedy and thrillers—something which is very evident in AMSTERDAMNED. The film is never really played for laughs but is wryly humourous throughout. Maas clearly enjoys the absurdist touches he brings to his movies—he has, after all, made two movies about killer elevators—but he also fully commits to his script's horror/thriller elements. Although effective, the killer’s disguise is gloriously ridiculous. However, Maas refrains from showing the villain duck waddling in flippers. The laboured, heavy breathing and prowling subjective POV camerawork are a nod to the earlier slasher movies of the decade. The film excels with some bravura set pieces, such as a bloody corpse being dragged over the top of a tour boat as screaming nuns and cub scouts watch on! It also features a high-octane chase scene with Eric chasing the killer in dualling speedboats through the canal complexes of Amsterdam that has to be seen to be believed—and left lead Huub Stapel out-of-action for three weeks after the boat he was driving crashed. 
 
Maas was inspired by North American genre directors, and there are clear nods to HALLOWEEN (1978) and JAWS (1975)—but he injects welcome European weirdness throughout. Some of the eccentricities of the plot also bring to mind some of the nuttier Gialli—such Eric’s young daughter’s would-be psychic boyfriend. Perhaps also borrowing from its Italian cousin, the film is driven by its police procedural narrative, which emphasises Eric’s battles with the killer, his personal life, and his blossoming romance with Laura. The scuba psycho's identity is suitably left-field, but it feels a bit of a cheat, considering the movie seemingly sets itself up as a whodunnit and scatters red herrings throughout.
 
Maas had scored some international success and attention with his 1983 horror film THE LIFT (which was distributed worldwide by Warner Bros). AMSTERDAMNED built on that success, getting a theatrical release both in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was shot on location in Amsterdam for a budget of $4 million (a fortune then for a Dutch production). In The Observer for its UK release, critic Philip French said AMSTERDAMNED was: “ … a fast, gory, immensely entertaining Dutch thriller that cheekily crosses Jaws and Dirty Harry.” The critic in the Manchester Evening News praised the film’s “cruelly-creative slayings.” Thirty-seven years later, the film will receive a very belated sequel in 2025: AMSTERDAMNED II. Maas and the lead, Stapel, will return.
 
Arguably, the film could have benefited from upping the slasher movie theatrics, but AMSTERDAMNED is still damn entertaining.   

BODY COUNT 8: 
Female 3 / Male 5

1. Female stabbed to death
2. Male found decapitated
3. Male found dismembered
4. Female pulled into the water
5. Female is slashed (off screen)
6. Male killed (method unseen)
7. Male slashed to death
8. Male shot through his head with a harpoon

Go to the home page.