Discover Top Posts Tagged with #amsterdamned

apparently this movie is about a serial killer who makes his kills in Amsterdam's canals (in scuba gear, presumably) and I'm hesitant to watch it because no way can it live up to appearances. In my current world of Amsterdamned 1988 inexposure, this is the best film ever made

#also hesitant bc I don't typically like slashers/giallo. getting my horror fan card revoked #amsterdamned

𝔖𝔠𝔬𝔬𝔟𝔗𝔬𝔟𝔢𝔯 𝕯𝖔𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝕱𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖊 #2.

Welcome back to our Double Feature! Where I rate and compare a horror film with a similar plot to a Scooby-Doo episode. Tonight's mystery?

"A Clue For Scooby-Doo" opens with Scooby & The Gang hanging out on the beach... in the middle of the night. First you break into a museum, now you're cooking hot dogs and partying in the middle of the night? Of course, this is when they bump into a ghostly deep-sea diving suit that seems keen to keep anyone and everyone out of the water. They begin poking around and asking questions. The biggest revelation is that this is the ghost of Captain Cutler, a deep-sea diver who died somewhere out there. Now he's sinking various ships, and plotting his revenge.

They go to ask his wife, Mrs. Cutler (who is about as hammy as a pork roast) what happened to Captain Cutler. The Witch-coded widow tells them that she is responsible for the resurrection of her husband. They're never like "Sorry; this guy is shipwrecking various ships and terrifying people, and your response is "Wha- IT'S YOUR FAULT." Scooby and the Gang recognize this hag digs her witch vibe, and nothing is gonna stop her.

But what's really important, is apparently Scooby-Doo thinks laundry water tastes like soup! That's probably why Shag n' Scoob eat bizarre dishes like peanut butter & sardines with chocolate sauce. That, and a photo of Captain Cutler is posted directly on the wall.

Leaving the place, not feeling very fulfilled, Scoob discovers a patch of seaweed (50% sea, 50% weed), that has the same eerie glow as Captain Cutler! After some research, Velma deduces it's a type of seaweed that only grows in the Graveyard of Ships.

This of course means, a great fun, deep sea diving adventure. Surprisingly, most of the episode from here on until the big reveal is pretty spooky. Unnaturally so for the early outings of the gang. The Ted Nichols soundtrack doesn't get nearly as loud as in The Black Knight episode, and the suspense is allowed to breathe. The answer itself is also quite enthralling.

It turns out that, Captain Cutler, faked his death and in-tandem with his false-witch widow decided they'd steal the boats via submarine, and repaint them in a hidden underwater cave. Overall? A 10/10 episode, classic capture, and there's a lot of just good scares to be had. I can't believe they just found an old corpse down below in a different old ship. Whether this was related to Captain Cutler, or if this figure died prior to this, it isn't said. But the questions that arrive is just, good. The question is, can our competition compete?

Amsterdamned is a (1988) Dutch Giallo that takes place in... well Amsterdam. A killer is using the tunnels, systems and canals of Amsterdam to hunt and stalk seemingly random victims. Without much of an M.O. and only a near focus to get onto, the detectives don't have much of a clue.

Enter Eric Visser, our lead detective on this case.

He's... not really your Sherlock Holmes type, he's not even a noir type. He's sort of out of place in this sort of movie, because he's kind of an action hero. The first thing we see him do is fight a robber at a bakery with nothing but his fists and some cuffs. He's honestly kind of rad. (Also a little hot.)

I'm gonna choose not to tell you too much about the plot. Instead I'll focus on some scenes I find really interesting in terms of the comparison. For instance, there's this great scene where one of the detectives is checking out the scene of one of the murders. Which happens to be in a boat that sunk to the bottom of the canal, but they're worried that guy might be down there still. So, they attach their detective guy to a small rope, and if trouble comes they pull him back up to the surface. (Which is already a little Scooby-like.) This guy heads down there, and it's dead silent. It's funny, we've been in this room not but a scene earlier, but with just daylight above to light up this small cabin, it somehow seems alien. He's in there, looking around when the corpse of the previous victim floats over, and immediately he's scrambling to move away because he thinks it's the killer. He gives a tug on the rope to signal he's okay and decides to call off the investigation. When he sees Tall, Dark and Creepy with the knife, what follows this scene, is something I can only describe as being incredibly Indiana Jones. It really reminded me of the Venice boat chase from Last Crusade. Truly just great cinema, fantastic thriller. Up until about the end. I really don't wanna spoil it, but the ending to this film really ruins it for me, because the big reveal doesn't lead to a big climatic fight against our bad guy, it's sort of an airhorn at the symphony. I would not call this a perfect 10/10 film, probably like a 7. I think it's got a very predictable killer reveal, but the mystery is tense, and the set-up is fairly original. In fact; it's so original, that one could argue that perhaps I'm reaching a bit for its comparison to A Clue For Scooby-Doo. Honestly? I can kind of see the issues already in it, but this is for all intents and purposes, a horror murder mystery film that features a Deep Sea Diver, and it's got a few great scenes in common. In fact, it was very difficult finding a film that matched my needs so specifically. So... honestly, I think Scooby-Doo might take this round. I was very impressed by Amsterdamned, with some very good kills, but overall A Clue With Scooby-Doo didn't need more than a few Scooby-Snacks to catch that villain with a satisfying end.