Amsterdamned (1988)

Surface-diving you through Amsterdam, the serial killer takes us through randomly executed hits. While the classic Dutch film loses on humour with words like Goat-Fucker and Rusk-Dick after translation, it keeps you tuned with all the 8 killings. Eric Vissner as detective Eric Visser doesn't do much in the film except romance the beautiful Monique Van de Ven without caring less about her young daughter. Highlight of the film is the hero's jaw-line, repeated gripping villain's breathing and the speedboat chase during the climax. Must-watch if you into world cinema and classics only.

In Amsterdam's Red Light District, a young prostitute catches a taxi home and is almost raped by the driver, but she manages to fight him off and flee before any harm comes to her. Sadly for her, there's also a murderous lunatic on the loose, who stabs the poor lady to death and drags her bloody corpse into the nearby canal. Her body is discovered in gruesome fashion as her lifeless body is displayed on a bridge, only be smeared across the top of a boat filled with screaming tourists. As the body count rises, gruff detective Eric Visser (Huub Stapel) is assigned to the case, but this killer proves particularly difficult to catch. As well as possessing a high level of intelligence, the masked psychopath also uses the many canals running throughout the city for shelter. With pressure building from his bosses, he must work fast before the killer strikes again.Almost like a warped advert for tourists, Amsterdamned portrays the great city in all its beauty. We see everything the city has to offer; the canals, the Rembrandt paintings, the breweries, and of course, the Red Light District. If it didn't include the many brutal murders, this could have been made by the tourist board. The city provides the backdrop for a string of stylishly-executed slayings, including a beheading by moonlight and a knife through a dinghy you won't soon forget. It also finds the time (and the budget) for a terrific, outlandish speed boat chase between the killer and Visser (put together by the brilliantly-named Dickey Beer), which pulls out all the stops and puts many films with much bigger budgets completely to shame. Infused with a giallo-esque sensibility, director Dick Maas makes an entire city feel somehow claustrophobic.At almost two hours, Amsterdamned also long outstays its welcome, padding the film out with unnecessary sub-plots that seem to either disappear (Visser's relationship with his teenage daughter is given a lot of focus of early on, but then the film seems to forget about her completely) or fizzle out into nothing. While these moments are often filled with amusing dialogue (the strange sense of humour will likely have you laughing at loud on occasion), they also deliver long stretches of boredom. However, with its silly title and by-the- numbers premise, Amsterdamned is far better than it has any right to be, and will certainly surprise anyone going in expecting a routine slasher picture. Trimmed of some fat, this could have been something to write home about, but this is still an entertaining and creative little Euro-horror.

Now I can't believe that this little gem has passed me by for so long, especially being a big fan of slashers and giallo movies, well this was a nice treat and it's appealing enough and just when you thought you've seen everything that this genre has to offer, "Amsterdamned" puts a unique spin on things by featuring a killer dressed in scuba diving gear swimming around the canals of Amsterdam looking for his next victim.It's all well paced, being mainstream enough for thriller fans and yet gruesome e and sleazy enough for horror fans. That is also dozens of red herrings that keeps the viewer interested enough to keep watching up until the final reveal which okay can be a bit of a cop out, but the dozens of stunts that were handled very well, and when the killer pops out of the water to claim its next victim, it is genially scary and given the fact that he can do this and escape easily into the canals does add a sense of danger to the proceedings and makes everything a lot more tense and frightening.The main central character Vissor played brilliantly by Huub Stabel who's trying to solve this case before the killer strikes again and also has the best scene in the movie with the speed boat chase, which was exciting and thrilling at the same time, and will always be an iconic memorable scene. This movie also uses the beautiful city of Amsterdam to its full effect showing all the beautiful sights and scenery. Another standout performance was Serge-Henri Valcke who clearly steals the show with his funny comedic elements, which adds a touch of greatness to this movie.All in all "Amsterdamned" is a great watch and is a definite highlight in the giallo genre and has a great mix of everything and plus a really cool killer.

Apart from the stupid title this is an exciting horror movie. The plot is somewhat bizarre though, but that's part of the excitement. Highly recommended for horror fans. This is one scary movie. The title is just so hilarious. I couldn't believe it. I saw this in the Netherlands when I was there playing chess in the 1990s. I guess it is interesting to see some horror movies which are not American. This is a very European film. To be honest, I cannot remember it very well, but there were some nice scenes in the canal. It seems like a good detective story as well as a nice horror movie. I seem to remember that the search for the strange killer is one of the most interesting aspects of the movie.