text: "De vierde man" (The Fourth Man, 1984) is considered one of the best European pycho thrillers of the eighties. This last work of Dutch director Paul Verhoeven in his home country before he moved to Hollywood to become a big star with movies like "Total Recall", "Basic Instinct" and "Starship Troopers" is about a psychopathic and disillusioned author (Jeroen Krabbe) going to the seaside for recovering. There he meets a mysterious femme fatale (Renee Soultendieck) and starts a fatal love affair with her. He becomes addicted to her with heart and soul and finds out that her three previous husbands all died with mysterious circumstances...<br /><br />"De vierde man" is much influenced by the old Hollywood film noire and the psycho thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Wells. It takes much time to create a dark and gripping atmosphere, and a few moments of extreme graphic violence have the right impact to push the story straight forward. The suspense is sometimes nearly unbearable and sometimes reminds of the works of Italian cult director Dario Argento.<br /><br />The cast is also outstanding, especially Krabbe's performance as mentally disturbed writer that opened the doors for his international film career ("The Living Daylights", "The Fugitive"). If you get the occasion to watch this brilliant psycho thriller on TV, video or DVD, don't miss it!