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''Amsterdamned'' is a 1988 Dutch
slasher film A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as ...
directed and written by
Dick Maas Dirk Herman Willem Maas (Dick) (born 15 April 1951) is a Dutch film director, screenwriter, film producer and film composer. Maas achieved fame after the success of his music videos for the Dutch band Golden Earring, including " Twilight Zone" an ...
, and stars
Huub Stapel Hubertus Wijnandus Jozef Marie (Huub) Stapel (born 2 December 1954, in Tegelen) is a Dutch actor. He is especially known from the films ''De Lift'' (1983), '' Flodder'' (1986) and '' Amsterdamned'' (1988) by Dick Maas. He also appeared in the G ...
,
Monique van de Ven Monica Maria Theresia "Monique" van de Ven (; born 28 July 1952) is a Dutch actress and director. Life and career From 1973 until 1988 she was married to Dutch cinematographer and director Jan de Bont, with whom she lived in Los Angeles for a n ...
, and Serge-Henri Valcke. The plot revolves around a serial killer who uses the famed canals of the Dutch capital to murder random people, one of which involves a detective's girlfriend linked to the murders.


Plot

Opening in a
point-of-view shot A point of view shot (also known as POV shot, first-person shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positio ...
, a murderer looks around the city of
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
at night through the canals. He sneaks into a
Chinese restaurant A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves a Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in the Cantonese style, due to the history of the Chinese diaspora and adapted to local taste preferences, as in the American Chinese cuisine and Canad ...
's backdoor and steals a butcher knife while the cooks aren't looking. The killer finds his first victim in a local
prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
who, after refusing advances from a cab driver, gets thrown out of the cab. A bag lady watches from a distance as the killer plunges the knife into the hooker and drags her back into the water. The next morning, a tour boat on the canal collides with the body of the prostitute, who has been hung on one of the small bridges. As the tourists scream, the body drags on the top of the boat until an opening shows her bloodied body and face. Assigned to the case is detective Eric Visser, a hard-boiled detective who is raising his 13-year-old daughter Anneke after a split from his ex. He spends an hour in a bath, comes home late from work, and tends to drink now and again. Nevertheless, Eric is praised as one of the best detectives on the force. His partner, Vermeer, meets Eric at the site where the body was found with fellow cop Potter attempting to get through to the baglady, who tells Eric that it was a
monster A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...
who killed the prostitute and that it came out of the water. That night, two
environmentalists An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...
are taking water samples in an ongoing investigation against a nearby chemical plant. However, when the killer emerges, one of the men is taken underwater and when his partner attempts to grab the anchor, he is horrified to find the man's head on the anchor. Scared, the surviving environmentalist swims to the nearby shore and calls for help when he sees a truck pass by. As the truck driver comes out from a distance, the killer grabs the environmentalist and drags him back into the water. When Eric and Vermeer see the bodies of the environmentalists, he is convinced that there is a serial killer. Eric runs into John, an old friend from the police academy. John works for the river police and we learn that Eric's ex-girlfriend used to date John before Eric stole her from him. When John asks about what happened, John and Eric renew their friendship and are now partners on the case to find the killer. During a search at a local sporting club, Eric meets Laura, a museum guide as well as Martin Ruysdael, a former diver turned psychiatrist and Laura's doctor/friend. Eric begins to have eyes for Laura and she begins to like him too. Meanwhile, that night, a
salvationist The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, comprising soldiers, officers and adherents col ...
and a young woman on a
gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...
the next day are the next victims of the killer. As Eric begins to get frustrated with nothing turning up, he and John eventually think they find a suspect in a former
chemical plant A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures (or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transfo ...
employee known for his violent outbursts. When the suspect is caught, Eric begins to have doubts. When he sees Laura that night, a skipper at the nearby dock is the killer's next victim with the boat sinking. A witness notice that and call the police. John decides to go underwater and investigate the next day. At first, he finds the skipper's body but as he approaches out of the skipper's sunken boat, the killer emerges and a tussle leaves John slashed and killed. Eric arrives to hear the bad news about John. When the killer is located at a
marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or ...
, a speedboat chase ensues between Eric and the killer. Eric eventually tracks the killer to a local sewer only to be shot at close range in the shoulder with a
harpoon gun A harpoon cannon is a whaling implement developed in the late 19th century and most used in the 20th century. It would be mounted on the bow of a whale catcher, where it could be easily aimed with a wide field of view at the target. Powered by ...
. When the killer attempts a
coup de grâce A coup de grâce (; 'blow of mercy') is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal. It may be a mercy killing of mortally wounded civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the sufferer's consent. ...
, Eric shoots the mask before waking up in the hospital. When Laura goes to her appointment and finds Martin isn't home, she stays but hears a noise in Martin's underwater basement. She finds the broken mask and thinks Martin is the killer. An attempt to call Eric fails when he is still unconscious. When he awakens, the nurse tells him of Laura and both he and Vermeer head to Martin's house. Martin arrives and waits for Laura only to hear a sound in his basement. Laura confronts him and hits him repeatedly with an oar. However, the killer comes out of the water and grabs Laura. Eric arrives in time and shoots the killer. Martin finally confesses that the killer is a childhood friend of him and fellow diver who was shunned by society after a commercial diving job caused him to be disfigured by uranium hexafluoride poisoning. The killer arrives at his home, where he reveals himself and decides to take his own life before the police arrive. Before ending the movie, Eric Visser and Laura move on the canals in boat.


Cast

*
Huub Stapel Hubertus Wijnandus Jozef Marie (Huub) Stapel (born 2 December 1954, in Tegelen) is a Dutch actor. He is especially known from the films ''De Lift'' (1983), '' Flodder'' (1986) and '' Amsterdamned'' (1988) by Dick Maas. He also appeared in the G ...
as Eric Visser *
Monique van de Ven Monica Maria Theresia "Monique" van de Ven (; born 28 July 1952) is a Dutch actress and director. Life and career From 1973 until 1988 she was married to Dutch cinematographer and director Jan de Bont, with whom she lived in Los Angeles for a n ...
as Laura * Serge-Henri Valcke as Vermeer * Tanneke Hartzuiker as Potter * Wim Zomer as John van Meegeren * Tatum Dagelet as Anneke Visser * Hidde Maas as Martin Ruysdael * Lou Landré as Chef *
Edwin Bakker Edwin Bakker (born 20 October 1967) is head of the knowledge and research department of the Netherlands Police Academy and professor of Terrorism Studies at Leiden University. Biography Bakker was born on 20 October 1967 in Leiden, in the Nethe ...
as Willy * Barbara Martijn as Prostitute * Leontine Ruiters as Girl in gumboat (credited as Leontien Ruyters) * Jules Croiset as Mayor *
Jaap Stobbe Jaap may refer to: * Jaap Sahib, Sikh prayer * Jaap (given name) Jaap is a Dutch given name that is short for Jacob or Jacobus (Jacob or James in English). People with this name include: Academics * Jaap R. Bruijn (born 1938), Dutch maritime h ...
as Cab driver


Release

''Amsterdamned'' was released on home video in the United Kingdom by Vestron in November 1989.


Reception

At the American Film Market in 1988, the movie would go on to become the third highest selling motion picture that year. Vestron Pictures released the film dubbed in English on home video. The dubbed version featured the voices of lead actors Huub Stapel, Monique van de Ven, and Serge-Henri Valcke in English, as they spoke English well. The film was given a limited release, grossing $14,819 on 5 screens in its opening weekend in North America, and a total of $98,003 over its entire run.


Stunts

The speedboat chase scene and other stunts were handled by Dickey Beer. Legendary stuntman turned stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong worked on the film as a stuntman. The speedboat chase scene left Huub Stapel out of production for three weeks when the boat he rode in crashed on the set of the film. A scene in which the killer drives his speedboat off a ramp from one side of a bridge to another had been seen in a few cinema programs on U.S.-based station TLC. Parts of the speedboat chase were filmed in the
Oudegracht The Oudegracht, or "old canal", runs through the center of Utrecht, the Netherlands. It starts in the southeast of the city. Here the Kromme Rijn (the original main bed of the Rhine river) and the Vaartse Rijn The Vaartse Rijn is a canal con ...
of
Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack by Dick Maas is available on the
Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Appl ...
streaming platform. Loïs Lane - "Amsterdamned"


References


External links

* {{Authority control 1988 films 1988 horror films 1988 thriller films 1980s mystery films Dutch thriller films Dutch horror films 1980s Dutch-language films Films set in the Netherlands Films set in Amsterdam Films shot in Amsterdam Films shot in the Netherlands 1980s serial killer films Underwater action films Films directed by Dick Maas Dutch slasher films 1980s slasher films