Taking part in the Dutch film viewing challenge on ICM,I dug into the back of my DVD shelves for unseen titles. Having picked up their output when seeing it in sales,I noticed in my line of UK DVD company Shameless, a Dutch Thriller,which led to me visiting Amsterdamned.
View on the film:
Whilst not their smoothest looking transfer, Shameless present a good, slightly dark picture and a very good, clean soundtrack of Dutch or Eng Dub (most of the cast did their own dubbing.)
Turning down the chance to make a Elm Street sequel (which he later said he regretted,due to missing his chance to get his foot in the door in Hollywood) to instead target his own auteur vision, writer/director/composer Dick Mass reunites with cinematographer Marc Felperlaan to dive into a Action-Crime Giallo/Slasher hybrid!
Inspired by the Slasher influenced third and final wave of Gialli, Mass holds on a knife edge a balance in the murder set-pieces between the drizzled in red Slasher slayings, (complete with jump scares) with more suggestive, foreboding tension in the long first-person tracking shots and the black scuba diving outfit-wearing psycho bubbling under the waters swimming towards the Giallo.
Although featuring a surprising lack of skin, Mass, (who mentions in the making of his love for US crime films) brings the thrills in superb,off-beat Action show-stoppers. Taking full advantage of the unique location, (and backed by his own rumbling synch score) Mass connects slick tracking shots and sharp whip-pan views with a gritty edge which digs in during nail-biting boat chases down the canales,and tight car/motorbike races down the narrow, blue tint burning, streets of Amsterdam.
Setting Eric Visser's (played by a terrific, aggressive Huub Stapel) murder investigation round the canales, the screenplay by Mass keeps the murders wickedly unpredictable, thanks to spending a little time with each possible victim, building fear of the psycho coming up for air at any moment. Holding Visser out as the lone cop not convinced the case is solved until the bitter end, Mass makes the unveiling of the killer after rough and tumble exchanges, (including a intense fight in a submerged boat) go off the boil, due to a last minute twist feeling out of place from being more in keeping with US Slashers, instead of the murky waters of Amsterdamned.
View on the film:
Whilst not their smoothest looking transfer, Shameless present a good, slightly dark picture and a very good, clean soundtrack of Dutch or Eng Dub (most of the cast did their own dubbing.)
Turning down the chance to make a Elm Street sequel (which he later said he regretted,due to missing his chance to get his foot in the door in Hollywood) to instead target his own auteur vision, writer/director/composer Dick Mass reunites with cinematographer Marc Felperlaan to dive into a Action-Crime Giallo/Slasher hybrid!
Inspired by the Slasher influenced third and final wave of Gialli, Mass holds on a knife edge a balance in the murder set-pieces between the drizzled in red Slasher slayings, (complete with jump scares) with more suggestive, foreboding tension in the long first-person tracking shots and the black scuba diving outfit-wearing psycho bubbling under the waters swimming towards the Giallo.
Although featuring a surprising lack of skin, Mass, (who mentions in the making of his love for US crime films) brings the thrills in superb,off-beat Action show-stoppers. Taking full advantage of the unique location, (and backed by his own rumbling synch score) Mass connects slick tracking shots and sharp whip-pan views with a gritty edge which digs in during nail-biting boat chases down the canales,and tight car/motorbike races down the narrow, blue tint burning, streets of Amsterdam.
Setting Eric Visser's (played by a terrific, aggressive Huub Stapel) murder investigation round the canales, the screenplay by Mass keeps the murders wickedly unpredictable, thanks to spending a little time with each possible victim, building fear of the psycho coming up for air at any moment. Holding Visser out as the lone cop not convinced the case is solved until the bitter end, Mass makes the unveiling of the killer after rough and tumble exchanges, (including a intense fight in a submerged boat) go off the boil, due to a last minute twist feeling out of place from being more in keeping with US Slashers, instead of the murky waters of Amsterdamned.