This is How Movies Should Be Made

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

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

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Initially I thought I would like this. In the credit sequence that opens this, a curious camera emerges from underwater to steal illicit glimpses of the neon Amsterdam night. The colors are bright and soft, and they bleed into a night of unspoken promise. Combined with this, the grisly murder (of a prostitute in skintight leotard, this fundamentally 80's of slasher movie beings) that follows made me anticipate an Argento or DePalma.Alas, it is not. We don't get the adventurous camera that embarks upon discoveries of psychosexual violence, or even a second rate giallo, instead we get a hackneyed police proceedural.We get a car chase and a boat chase through the canals, in the hope that they will inject excitement. Instead, they bore me with their 'action flick' tedium. We also see a boat singlehandedly towed away by one man in scuba gear, then sunk (with a knife?).The resolution of this stuns with its badness, with its cheesy, cheap ideas of twists and revenge. Cop things on 80's TV were more intelligent than this.

Again, terror comes from the water, but don't let you be fooled, there's nothing that can be taken for granted in this eccentric Dutch horror flick. This is the third movie directed by Dick Maas, one of the most successful directors of the little known Dutch cinema, after the lucky "De Lift" (1983), awarded at the Avoriaz festival. "Amsterdamned" is a thrilling slasher that's almost a "psycho" version of the famous "Jaws", from which ironically borrows the famous scenes with subjective camera technique, underwater and on the surface. With his effective visual talent, Dick Maas (who wrote the script and composed the soundtrack, too), films a fascinating and putrescent Amsterdam, with its muddy canals and its magnificent settings. Apart from the inventions of Dick Maas' direction, the script, never banal and full of turning points, that always avoids to sink in "already seen" things, the credible acting by all the members of the cast, the excellent make-up of the disfigured maniac, shrewdly showed only in the end, are praiseworthy. This is entertainment cinema at his best. You must see it!

This movie opens with what probably is the best and most atmospheric thriller-sequence ever filmed in the Netherlands! While the credits are shown, a serial killers swims through the canals of Amsterdam, viciously lurking at potential victims that moor by the quayside. This scene is simply terrific and it somewhat feels like how Dario Argento would direct "Jaws"! Yes, it really is THAT intense and THAT disturbing. When the professional diver/maniac then comes out of the water, he brutally kills a prostitute and this means the first murder in a long series that'll terrorize the entire city of Amsterdam. Police inspector Eric Visser (Huub Stapel, with whom director Dick Maas already made the commercial successes "De Lift" and "Flodder") and his team try very hard to catch the killer but he always escapes thanks to his vast knowledge of the canal-network. With "De Lift" in 1983, Maas already proved that he was the only Dutch director of his generation capable of bringing unsettling and tense horror stories, but "Amsterdamned" is an even better movie because the atmosphere feels more realistic and the story is a lot more involving. With all the abrupt plot-twists and the extremely violent death-sequences, you could almost describe "Amsterdamned" as the only Dutch GIALLO ever made and it's perfectly able to compete with some of the better Italian efforts in this lovely sub genre of horror. Even the chilling musical score (composed by Dick Maas himself, as well) feels very giallo-like. Of course, the film isn't entirely flawless. Some action scenes (like the grotesque speed-boat chase) are just a tad bit exaggerated and the one many red herrings eventually ruin the credibility. Still, "Amsterdamned" unquestionably is one the best Dutch-spoken thriller ever and even horror fanatics across the ocean should consider importing it, if it were only for the nasty and downright shocking scene in which a severely mutilated corpse is dragged over a glass-topped tour boat filled with boy scouts. Great stuff!!

This movie is fun to watch because of its poorness. Audio is overwhelmingly bad, where all lines are dubbed and poorly synchronized.Also, Eric Visser must be one of the worst policemen around, since he basically does nothing to solve the crimes. Then again, that is sort off typical for dutch policemen anyway!Being from Amsterdam (and actually was at the set of the speedboat-jump over the bridge) it is great to see so many shots of the city centre. And (opposed to what many say), except for the bit with the people having lunch next to the canal, which is shot in Utrecht, almost all shots are taken in the Amsterdam canals.I guess if you like (bad) horror movies this one is a must.Bas