Amsterdamned

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Dick Maas directs. Marc Felperlaan behind the camera. Dick Maas scores. Hans van Dongen cuts. Produced in Netherlands. Dialogue in Mandarin, English, Spanish, Dutch.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 238 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 3Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Mandarin, English, Spanish, Dutch.
• 4Part of the "Amsterdamned Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 5Directed by Dick Maas, shot by Marc Felperlaan. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Dick Maas. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Hans van Dongen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Huub Stapel and Monique van de Ven and Serge-Henri Valcke carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "The danger lies just below the surface".
• 10IMDB entry: tt0094651 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Marc Felperlaan

Original score

Dick Maas

Editing

Hans van Dongen

Production design

Benedict Schillemans

Runtime

114 min · 1h 54m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$98,003

Original language

NL

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Amsterdamned (1988) ↗

IMDB rating

6.6/10 · 10,719 votes

MPAA

R

US box office

$98,003

Part of

Amsterdamned Collection

All entries in Dick Maas' Amsterdamned movie series.

• 
  Amsterdamned

  1988 · this one
• 
  Amsterdamned II

  2025

Also by

Dick Maas

• 
  Adelbert

  1977 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Picknick

  1977 · ★ 7.7
• 
  Flodder

  1993 · ★ 7.6
• 
  Rigor mortis

  1981 · ★ 7.0
• 
  Flodder

  1986 · ★ 6.4
• 
  Flodder 3

  1995 · ★ 5.8

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Amsterdamned (1988) DUTCH TRAILER [HD 1080p]

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2019-11-10
  ★ 7/10

  Revenge on society. Innocent people had to be slaughtered. Amsterdamned is written and directed by Dick Maas (also providing the musical score). It stars Huub Stapel, Monique van de Ven, Serge-Henri Valcke, Hidde Maas, Wim Zomer and Tanneke Hartzuiker. Cinematography is by Marc Felperlaan. Hard-boiled police detective Eric Visser (Stapel) sets out to capture a gruesome serial killer who is terrorizing the canals of Amsterdam - apparently from the water itself... If you was to list the genres this film homages you could be here for some time, while any attempt to pigeon hole it as one specific genre piece is pure folly. The strength in Mass' movie is that it successfully blends a number of filmic strands to great effect, even serving up some deliciously humorous dialogue in amongst the suspense and murderous shenanigans. Working off from a unique standpoint of having a serial killer operating from beneath the waters of Amsterdam's canal system, this gives the pic its own identity. Sure some of the sequences have been tried and tested elsewhere - notably a superb homage to "A Nightmare On Elm Street" - but Maas stitches it together with a thrilling panache that's aided by Felperlaan's atmospherically piercing colour lenses. The characters are neatly etched in a matter of fact way, giving them an earthy and vulnerable realism that's refreshing. While some scenes are suspenseful/frightening because it's left purely to suggestion over blood inducing show and tell. It's a bold choice from Mass not to go overtly Giallo Slasher on his audience, but by choosing to tantalise in the name of keeping the mystery aspect alive proves to be a good decision. There's some truly great scenes to hold attention here. A bloody victim's body literally paraded aboard a sightseeing tourist boat, an extended speedboat pursuit that's fit for a Bond film, and Visser's trawling through Amsterdam's murky underground waterway tunnels is quality horror staging. There's proof positive here that the director knows his genre tropes. Acting is a mixed bag, but there's no faulting Stapel as our main man. He instils Detective Visser with a steely film noir resolve that's most engaging, even, as it happens, looking into the bargain like a future Vincent Cassell. As the main female draw card, Monique van de Ven is sensual without being overt, and she makes a smart accompaniment to Stapel's more rugged edges. Sadly the finale is something of a let down, not so much in the reveal, but in the quickness of it all, it feels rushed and ill thought out, especially given the pic runs at just shy of 2 hours in length. There's also the issue of the heavy synth score, which while a staple of many an 80s production, was even by 1988 feeling very old hat. Personally I kept drifting off into Harold Faltermeyer 's score for "The Running Man", only this was the one note version. Small complaints, though, for this is a very smart and well thought out Dutch thriller. 7.5/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  First Floor Features

  NL

Key crew

• ProducerLaurens Geels
• CastingDorna X. van Rouveroy
• EditorHans van Dongen
• ProducerDick Maas
• Production DesignBenedict Schillemans
• StuntsVic Armstrong

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• slasher
• psycho killer

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1988-11-25R

Also known as

International titles

• 魅影狂魔CN