General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Ares

Ares is a Dutch psychological horror television series released by Netflix on January 17, 2020, and the first Netflix Original series produced entirely in the Netherlands. Its eight episodes follow the medical student Rosa Steenwijk and her best friend Jacob Wessels as they join a secret, wealthy student society in Amsterdam whose power rests on demonic secrets reaching back to the Dutch Golden Age of the seventeenth century.¹^•² An earlier Netflix series set in the Netherlands, Undercover, was a Dutch-Belgian co-production set up from a Flemish broadcaster, so Ares counts as the first fully Dutch original, from its writers and directors to its producers and cast.²^•³

Key fact	Detail
First broadcast	January 17, 2020, on Netflix, launched in 190 countries⁴
Format	Eight episodes of roughly 30 minutes, psychological horror mixed with coming of age, in Dutch⁵
Production company	Pupkin, produced by Pieter Kuijpers, Iris Otten, and Sander van Meurs, co-produced with Netflix⁵
Writers and directors	Written by the collective Winchester McFly under Michael Leendertse; directed by Giancarlo Sánchez and Michiel ten Horn¹
Lead cast	Jade Olieberg as Rosa Steenwijk, Tobias Kersloot as Jacob Wessels, Lisa Smit as Carmen Zwanenburg⁶
Central premise	A secret Amsterdam student society whose traditions conceal a demonic pact tied to the dark side of Dutch Golden Age wealth¹
Status	One season; listed as canceled/ended⁷

Spoilers

Premise

Rosa Steenwijk is an ambitious pre-medical student from a troubled home who, through her friend Jacob, is recruited into Ares, an exclusive and powerful Amsterdam student society. Membership promises wealth, power, and connections, but the initiation process turns sinister: the society guards secrets about how the Netherlands became rich, and its rituals are tied to a demonic world from the Dutch Golden Age that members opened by accident. As Rosa rises within the society, Jacob suffers a bizarre accident, and the price of belonging becomes increasingly literal and bloody.¹^•⁸^•⁵

The series was pitched to viewers as psychological horror rather than gore-driven horror. Its makers cited slow-burning films such as Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Shining (1980), and Eyes Wide Shut as tonal models, in which horror serves the story rather than standing as an end in itself.⁹

Production

Filming began in Amsterdam on February 12, 2019.¹ The basic idea came from Emma, the daughter of producer Pieter Kuijpers, who suggested "something with students and horror"; Kuijpers mentioned it to Netflix at the end of a meeting in which he had pitched around twenty other ideas, and the room reacted immediately. The writing collective Winchester McFly, led by Michael Leendertse, then produced a series bible within a month.⁹

The production was unusually large by Dutch standards. Producer Kuijpers said the team deliberately chose enormous, historically loaded locations that could not be rebuilt on a set, including the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum, where one scene shows society members dining beneath Rembrandt's The Night Watch and pointing out their ancestors in the painting.¹⁰^•¹¹ Director Giancarlo Sánchez, known for Mocro Maffia, was paired with Michiel ten Horn, whose strengths were described as visual styling, so that each could complement the other.⁹

Because the series launched worldwide, dubbing was prepared from the start: the lead actors recorded their own English dialogue, and German and Spanish dubs were also produced.¹²

Themes and real-world context

The show's central question, posed in its first episode, is how a country as small as the Netherlands became so rich and powerful. Screenwriter Michael Leendertse said the writers aimed to tell a story both about a young woman entering a secret society and about the uncomfortable origins of Dutch wealth in the seventeenth century.¹¹^•⁹ Visual motifs of old trading ships, chains, and the spoils of empire hint at the colonial and slave-trading past beneath the society's opulence.¹¹

The secret-society setting draws on a real phenomenon. Dutch student fraternities such as Veritas in Utrecht, Augustinus in Leiden, and Albertus Magnus in Groningen operate from gilded nineteenth-century mansions, use Latin ritual, and function as breeding grounds for politicians and bankers, in Leendertse's words. The real societies have repeatedly been hit by scandals over initiation ceremonies: in 2016 students in Amsterdam and Groningen were hospitalized after initiations that included jumping into canals, sleeping on rubbish, and a first-year having his head stood on by a senior member. Members of Groningen's Vindicat had once been required to sign a contract agreeing to pay €25,000 if they disclosed initiation activities, and a "bang list" of female first-year students with photos, phone numbers, and ratings circulated among its members.¹¹ The series takes this exclusivity to an extreme, portraying a fictional society whose evil deeds are rewarded with power.¹¹

Cast

Jade Olieberg plays Rosa Steenwijk, Tobias Kersloot plays Jacob Wessels, and Lisa Smit plays Carmen Zwanenburg. The supporting cast includes Robin Boissevain as Roderick van Hall, Frieda Barnhard as Fleur Borms, Hans Kesting as Maurits Zwanenburg, and the Golden Calf-winning actress Rifka Lodeizen as Hester de Hoogh.⁶^•¹

Reception

The series premiered simultaneously in 190 countries. Foreign press response was largely positive: The Cinemaholic described it as a strong combination of mystery and horror, and the American site Decider praised the cast's acting, particularly a lead performance that grounds the surrounding strangeness in emotional reality. Dutch audience reactions were more divided, with the word "disappointment" (tegenvaller) recurring in domestic responses.⁴^•¹³

On Rotten Tomatoes the season held a 69 percent Tomatometer score from a single collected review, with a more mixed audience scorecard.¹³ The series was later nominated for best international television program at the Seoul International Film Festival.¹⁴ No second season was made; the show is listed as canceled after its single season of eight episodes.⁷

Significance for Dutch production

Ares marked Netflix's first fully Dutch original and, according to its makers, raised the production standard available in the Netherlands: Kuijpers noted that Dutch budgets had previously not allowed British-style production values, while Sánchez said he had never worked on a production of that scale. The series was followed by further Dutch firsts from the same producer, including the first Dutch Viaplay original (Eén van Ons) and the first Dutch Disney+ original (Nemesis).¹⁰^•¹⁵

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026