Amsterdamned

Amsterdamned (1988)

Runtime: 113 minutes

Directed by: Dick Maas

Starring: Huub Stapel, Monique van de Ven, Serge-Henri Valcke, Hidde Maas, Wim Zomer

From: First Floor Features

More than just a great title.

In the past I've seen Dutch director Dick Maas's (a tremendous name) The Lift, which was entertaining enough. Those that are subscribed to Shudder and have the app on their smart TV, you'll know that aside from all the movies they host there are also three streaming channels... which don't always do a great job of encompassing all they have—what I mean is that some movies are in heavy rotation, Amsterdamned included. Guess what randomly popped up last night when a peek was taken to see what was on the channels... it was a sign for me to give this a shot.

Turns out, Amsterdamned is a giallo-inspired picture where a mysterious diver uses the many canals of Holland's capital to traverse the city and off various people. Investigating is a laid-back bearded man who manages to strike up a romance along the way. Note that this is light in tone so there are plenty of moments meant to be humorous... and the majority actually were. This does have its bloody moments for those that dig such things, and also a few macabre ones. Like in a giallo, there are red herrings, slashings, groovy music, etc.

Perhaps it's a bit too long-almost 2 hours-the lead's daughter is a thankfully minor character as she's a stereotypical annoying 12 year old girl, and there's at least one character decision which made me groan. Be that as it may, overall this was pretty good. As a Dumb American it was unique to have a slasher villain be a diver who uses canals; in the United States it's just not a thing to have a large city have any (let alone many) canals cross-cut it. Amsterdam also appears to be a lovely city... which also happens to have quite the Red Light District and lax rules when it comes to certain things.

For the action fans there are actually two setpieces to mention. The first is a bike chase which is cool... however, the standout (and the highlight of the entire film) was an epic boat chase through the waterways that go through the largest city in The Netherlands. As others have noted it is like what you'd see in a Bond film... and there was one in a later Bond film. It was a quality scene as it was done by famed stuntman turned stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, who worked on a few 007 movies. It was a wise decision to give this a shot-aside from preferring it over The Lift, this motion picture was more fun and noteworthy than expected.