Dick Maas passed on the opportunity to direct a sequel to Nightmare - Dal profondo della notte (1984) in order to do this film. He later stated that he should have postponed Amsterdamned, as the Elm Street sequel could have been his international breakthrough.
The whole speedboat chase is a reference to the speedboat chase in Sezione narcotici (1971) which is also set in Amsterdam. Even the colors of the boats are the same.
During the filming of the speedboat chase, the boat with actor Huub Stapel crashed into a wall when a stunt man made a steering error, which resulted in several injuries and took him out of shooting for three weeks. The accident left Stapel with chronic paresthesia in his fingers, and a rib protruding from his chest.
Huub Stapel, Monique van de Ven, and Serge-Henri Valcke dubbed their own voices in English for the English dubbed version of the film.
While most of the speedboat chase was shot in Amsterdam, some scenes were shot in the nearby city of Utrecht. These involve the part where both boats jump onto the quay and plow through the chairs and tables of a terrace. Such low-lying quays can not be found in Amsterdam, only in Utrecht.