Nikos the Impaler (2003) User Reviews

Not Really Filmmaking

[NIXFLIX-DOT-COM · 4/10 · 31 August 2003]

NIKOS THE IMPALER is not actual moviemaking. It's really nothing more than a group of people wondering how much carnage they can orchestrate with a limited budget. Even for those who enjoys gore, as I do occasionally, NIKOS doesn't offer enough COMPETENT gore and blood and guts to satisfy.

Perhaps the real audience of NIKOS is those who doesn't require their gore to be well done. If so, then NIKOS is for them. It's mostly childish gore, and most of the killings come by way of decapitations. Really, once you've seen five characters getting their heads badly chopped off by a big sword, do you really need to see 10 more?

4 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detail review and reviews of films in this genre)

Pretty lame splatter-fest, but worth a go for a laugh or two.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 14 July 2006]

You've got to admire Andreas Schnaas: despite no discernible talent for film-making, he's been churning out low-budget gore movies since 1987. I first experienced his bargain basement horror 15 years ago with the abominable 'Zombie 90' , and I recently picked up 'Nikos the Impaler' in the hope that maybe he had improved somewhat over the last decade and a half. No prizes for guessing that he hasn't!

This tale of a bloodthirsty 11th century barbarian brought to life in present day New York features some of the worst direction, editing and acting it has ever been my misfortune to witness. Schnaas and his team seem to have no idea how to piece a film together, but somehow, despite this (or because of this), 'Nikos' turned out to be fairly entertaining—a case of a film being made bearable due to its utter crapness. Of course it doesn't hurt that Schnaas loads his film with joke-shop gore and includes a gratuitous shower scene for the blokes (albeit one featuring a skanky woman with bad tattoos).

Schnaas's first film to be made in America, 'Nikos' starts off slowly, and the first half an hour is a real chore to sit through. After that, the blood starts to flow and fans of no-budget gore-fests will love the OTT death scenes. The unrealistic no-frills splatter FX come thick and fast and are good for a laugh, if nothing else.

Nikos, the big bad Romanian who is resurrected when blood is accidentally splashed on his mask at a museum/gallery, slices and dices his way through the cast, splashing blood and body parts all over the place. After slaughtering the people in the gallery, he continues his killing spree on the streets of the Big Apple, wasting the occupants of a cinema, the staff of a gym and finally some people in a video shop. At this point the movie goes completely bonkers, and Schnaas throws in some ninjas, a vampire and Hitler for good measure!

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well, for a while it is, but the lack of a decent plot and any evidence of technical ability from the makers ensures that proceedings become tedious before long. There's only so many inept beheadings you can take before you start longing for the end credits to roll instead.

More fun but kinda meh Schnaas trash gore

[Bloodwank · 5/10 · 13 November 2011]

Nikos the Impaler sees Andreas Schnaas treading pastures new. Instead of Karl the Butcher a new legend of the terrible barbarian Nikos, instead of forests, hills, bunkers the city, a museum and the mean streets of new york. Instead of German actors with subtitles or hilariously poor dubbing, actual American actors speaking in the English language and instead of Schnaas' traditional svelte 75 odd minute run time, nearly 100 minutes. Basically its a big step up in the world, ambitious stuff. And does he manage it? Well, yes and no. To a certain extent. Kinda, somewhat, almost. Not his best and not his worst, Nikos the Impaler is basically worthy. Newcomers may be mildly amused and it may hopefully inspire them to check out the better of Schnaas' work, this is probably a good gateway film, but its far from great and it won't turn the heads of anyone who isn't already into trash-gore flicks, nor will it especially invigorate existing Schnaas fans. The big problem is the run time, there simply isn't enough useful material to fill it. The opening and the ending drag, the former through setting up characters in more detail than they need given that their only purpose is as meat puppets, the latter through the pointless introduction of ludicrous Hitler, Eva Braun and ninja appearances, handled in utterly perfunctory, unimaginative fashion. And so with a film basically dragging, the good stuff has a tough job to keep it all moving. Fortunately the acting is committed despite some awful dialogue, so the lovely Felissa Rose puts on a good show, Joe Zazo is suitably heroic (and handles the worst of the dialogue) and Brenda Abbandandolo brings more sympathy than expected to a thankless just above cannon fodder role. Schnaas himself plays the evil Nikos as is his wont, clad in armor and swinging a sword he makes for a decent villain. The gore is cool too, abundant stabbing, decapitation and limb lopping mostly. The grue is never especially elaborate or sadistic though, and not quite regular enough for the expanded run time. In the end the whole film sags a bit, never less than watchable but it gets a bit tired a ways before the end, never unlikable but its good to see it go. Worth a watch for guru's of this sort of thing or those looking for a relatively un-frightening entry to this sort of thing but otherwise skippable, 5/10 from me.

Ridiculous

[The-Horror-of-it-All · 1/10 · 24 May 2003]

This movie is ridiculous. Let me add that it is fun to sit around with a bunch of friends and watch, and there's two ways to go about it. You can either put it on mute, and make up your own lines, or turn it up and listen to the ridiculous dialogue and hear people with no talent (for the most part) deliver lines. Nikos is a Romanian Barbarian or something who gets killed or something and some buffoons bring him back in modern day New York. He then proceeds to run rampant around awful sets and the few places that the film makers were allowed to shoot. Bloods flows. Much blood. I think the f/x are fantastic for what the $3.50 budget allowed. The team does a great job with what they had, and I'm guessing it was not that much. Then there's your lead characters. The guy that plays Frank has got to be kidding me. Ham is not the word. He seems to stumble throughout the film as though he's in the worst cartoon to date. Get a paper route my man. Felissa Rose, the one with the mouth from Sleepaway Camp, has her moments. But they're generally not when she's talking. Darian Caine skanks up and gets naked. There's a girl in this film, I think she's supposed to be Velma from Scooby-Doo, but she's a bit less believable than the cartoon character. There's also a bunch of doofy college kids and some dude with huge clownish hair. As for the people I have mentioned, I'm surprised they can read. Congrats. Then there's a dozen or so cops walking around this picture. I think they had 3 costumes between them all. My heart bleeds for the two officers in the movie theater, as their goofy uniforms almost take away from the fact that they're amongst a handful of people in this movie who actually belong on a screen. The short cop throws in some ham for us, the tall cop actually shows concern for the situation(he probably got fined for actually acting) and then tosses in some blatant Schnaas plugs. What does all of this mean? Rent it, buy it, steal it, whatever.....get a group of friends and watch the blood flow. That's why you get this movie. Schnaas obviously had a lot of fun throwing this together, using what he had, stretching it out, and Schnaasing it up as Nikos.

a complete waste of time

[yank_soto · 29 March 2004]

My questions is-How much were people paid to give positive reviews for this piece of crap? Maybe they were sent free screener copies of film and they felt obligated to say nice things about it? I say this because I was fooled by the reviews and I went out and bought this piece of garbage. I was expecting a semi professional film at least but I was wrong! This thing is nothing more then a glorified home video and a really poor one at that.

The gore was maybe the worst, most amateur looking work that I've ever seen in a film. The acting was horrid. Everything about this movie was terrible! I mean, if this is the director's best work, then I can't imagine how bad his other films had to be. How can any film be worse then this thing?!

Do yourself a favor. Take my word for it, this movie is awful! Not so bad it's good or anything like that, it's just plain awful. A complete waste of time and money. AVOID IT.

Oh Dear sweet mother of God!!!

[sonofsatan · 1/10 · 18 August 2003]

This is a truly abysmal movie, this is one of those movies where you can truly see that acting and saying your lines takes a least a bit of talent, and most, if not ALL in this movie has the acting talent of a three year old, they.... well they SUCK, i have seen better acting from kindergarter plays. The story is acceptable if nothing fancy, but the rest is bad or worse, the "gore" effects are laughable, this is truly a LOW budget movie, and it shows in every single scene. Normally i dont mind naked females in movies, but here it was so... not needed, the scene with the naked women was just sad.

The only way to watch this movie is with drugs and/or a lot of drunk, REALLY drunk friends, then it would most likely be a godsend, or at least viewable.

crappy acting...crappy killing...crappy filming...crappy music...crappy everything

[kristian-bakdal · 1/10 · 16 November 2003]

Wow, I'm rather amazed I've seen a lot of bad horror movies in my life, but this one is probably the worst yet. I haven't seen any of Andreas Schnaas' other movie, but from what I've read this is his best movie. So I might just have to see the rest to see if it's really possible to make anything worse then this one. The acting was crappy, not really the biggest surprise this is after all a low-budget B-movie. But usually B-movie know how to make fun/interesting killing. This is not the case in Nikos. Basically Nikos is just a crappy Jason-clone who walks around killing people with his big-ass broadsword. and that's all he does! A guy walking around killing people with a big sword can actually make a decent movie, if the killer does it in new and interesting ways. Nikos doesn't do that, he just lobs of people's heads (with a few exceptions not may though).

I wouldn't recommend this money to my worst enemy, no one should be made to watch this movie, it's simply too crappy.

EXTREME HILARITY!

[mw_director · 1/10 · 4 July 2004]

Prepare to laugh like you've never laughed before, people. Andreas Schnaas is the new Ed Wood! He can barely line up a shot, and whoever edits for him acts like he just bought his first iMac and is trying to puzzle his way through iMovie without reading the manual or even the onscreen tutorial. This is absolutely glorious cheese, a one-movie festival of filmmaking ineptitude, with performances that wouldn't pass muster in a high school play. The gore scenes will have you rolling on the floor in such convulsions of hilarity that EMS might have to be called in to feed you oxygen. When Nikos is brought back to life and promptly hacks off the head of the grandmotherly museum curator (with a totally "plywood spray-painted silver" sword), I thought I'd wake up the whole block with my laughter. This movie is fecal beyond the dreams of proctologists, but I swear, if you want to have an MST3K movie party at your place one night, your guests won't need to get wasted or toke up to appreciate this comedy of errors!

Actual worth as a film: 0/10 "Cracking up all your friends at a party" value: 10/10

Gore, Barbarians, Ninjas, Hitler, Gore,... And A Runtime That Is Far Too Long For Its Own Good

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 2/10 · 10 December 2008]

"Nikos" aka. "Nikos The Impaler" aka. "Violent S**t 4" was my first venture into the World of German Gorehound Andreas Schnaas, and yet I think I can say that the name of his "Violent S**t" franchise does it justice. This film is violent, all right, and it is also a steaming pile of fecal matter. Even though "Nikos" must be one of the most (intentionally?) crappiest films I ever laid eyes on, it is undeniable that it is also occasionally vastly entertaining (in a very silly, low-brow manner). The film begins in 1003 a.d., when the terrible Barbarian Nikos (played by director Schnaas himself) is executed in a nauseating manner (an allusion to Joe D'Amato's notorious classic "Antropophagus" 0f 1980). A millennium later, the evil Barbarian is resurrected during an exhibition in New York. A college professor (Joe Zazo), his sexy Latina girlfriend (Felissa Rose), a nerdy female student and two idiot male students, as well as a bunch of other visitors, including an elderly couple from Montana, two gay guys and a fat Italian American who talks like a poor man's Tony Soprano are stuck in the museum and have to escape the blood-lust of the resurrected Barbarian, who then infests the entire city. Inbetween butchering people, Nikos also resurrects Hitler, Ninjas, and a 'Princess Of Darkness'... It is undeniable that the film is occasional hilarious in its (seemingly intentional) awfulness. Yet, it gets very monotonous after a while, as it is basically only Nikos butchering vast amounts of people for an endless 100 minutes. I also hate how many contemporary low-budget Horror/Gore productions have annoying nonstop background music for no reason, and "Nikos" is a perfect example for this unfortunate tendency. The mask that Nikos is wearing was apparently inspired by the mask in Mario Bava's 1960 Gothic masterpiece "La Maschera Del Demonio" (aka. "Black Sunday"), and it kinda hurts to mention Bava's milestone, doubtlessly one of the greatest Horror films ever brought to screen, in the same sentence as this piece of crap. Other than that, Schnaas also pays tribute to some of his own films, which are played in a theater (yeah, right, because his films are screened in New York all the time). After an unendurable beginning, the film gets slightly better towards the end. There is one amusing scene in a video store, in which Troma mastermind Lloyd Kaufman has a talk with prolific Trash actress Debbie Rochon and drummer Bela B. (from the German punk band "Die Ärzte"), just to be interrupted by Nikos. We also see the hot Sex/Horror/Trash actress Darian Caine taking a shower, and some of the gore is also fun to look at (my favorite sequence was one in which a guy gets his face chopped off his head). Even so, "Nikos" is very monotonous and overall boring film that is at least 30 minutes too long. Only recommendable if you are capable of enjoying awfulness, and even then I recommend to fast-forward through the first half. I personally had a good laugh every now and then.

New School Gore: Extreme Awsomeness

[Tromafreak · 6/10 · 12 December 2008]

Aw, come on, another shot-on-video horror movie? Wait, what's that? Starring the Legendary Felissa Rose? And a special appearance by Lloyd Kaufman? Directed by Andreas Schnaas??? Well, hot damn, I'm sold. This gore-drenched super-8-epic begins in 11th Century Romania. A Barbarian with a chip on his shoulder, Nikos, kills and eats just about anyone he feels like. One night, some torch-baring Romanians finally put an end to the monster, in a scene right out of Anthropophagus, simply gruesome. Fast forward to present day New York. Somehow, Nikos is resurrected in a Museum, when blood touches his mask, whatever. After a lot of dialog, and not much else, Nikos slaughters nearly everyone in sight, right before taking it to the streets of New York City to make up for lost time. Nikos goes on a rampage, slaughtering everyone in his path, to a mostly speed-metal soundtrack. As if senseless mutilations weren't enough, Nikos eventually resurrects Hitler to join him, along with a zombie, a vampire, and even some Ninja's for good measure. That actually sounds pretty stupid, now that I think about it. Stupid, but completely Hardcore. Andreas Schnaas has mastered the art of the gore film.

That's right, gang, German Gore has invaded the U.S. although things seemed a little more German in Germany, oh well. If you dig excessive (comical) gore, and don't mind watching something that didn't take $80 Million to make, you might not hate Nikos The Impaler, and if you're slightly disturbed, like someone I know, you might even develop an affection for it. Just about as gory as Schnaas's previous sin, Zombie Doom, although, it's not every day you see senior citizens slaughtered so graphically, so, obviously, in some ways, Nikos is better, especially if you consider that shower scene. This Schnaas guy obviously has a love for classic gore, it shows in his creativity, we need more guys out there like this lunatic. Nikos The Impaler isn't nearly as terrible as some of these other reviews might imply, seriously, it isn't that bad. For something that is THAT bad, check out Zombie '90, and this one will look real interesting, real fast. Who the hell cares, anyway? Starring Felissa Rose!! That fact alone should make up for any inconvenience Nikos may cause. 8/10

Hilarious trash loaded with cheesy gore.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 5/10 · 17 August 2007]

A bloodthirsty and sadistic Romanian warrior named Nikos is inadvertently brought back to life during a pish-posh art gallery opening in New York.He butchers a lot of stupid people,then the carnage spills onto the streets of New York eventually taking us to a lesbian bar,a movie theater and a video store."Nikos" is a trashy horror flick loaded with tons of gore and awful acting.The body count is very high,though.The characters are poorly developed,but certainly the film delivers the grue.Heads are chopped and squished,breasts are torn off,the guts are spilled and the body parts are cut.The gore is pretty extreme and there is a lot of familiar faces including Felissa Rose,Lloyd Kaufman and Debbie Rochon.Overall,"Nikos" is a lot better than dull "Demonium",but still I'd like to recommend it only for die-hard fans of German gore.5 out of 10.

Great low-budget horror

[Sinister_Zombie · 8/10 · 18 May 2006]

First and foremost, I do NOT regret buying this one bit. Its a low-budget gore movie and thats exactly what you get, with added comedy.

The plot is very simple. Big bad barbarian called Nikos becomes a bit of a problem for some ancient Romanian people, so they go along and kill him. With his dying words he states that death will not stop him. Cut to modern day, with an exhibition of ancient Romanian art in full swing. Of course there just happens to be the mask of Nikos hanging around in a store room and right on cue - a robbery attempt occurs. Well, suffice to say, blood gets spilt, and right on Niko's mask too. Thats his signal to rise up and wreak bloody vengeance on anybody and everybody in his way.

Its a monster/survivors style film, which really goes crazy at the end. I won't spoil it all, but Nikos manages to find some "special Powers" from somewhere and goes about resurrecting a few people to fight alongside him.

The gore is good for what this film is. There's no ultra-realism, nor is it striven for. Some effects are so obviously fake, but strangely they don't detract from the overall impact of the film. We have people getting beheaded, cut in half at the waist and slit right up the middle! See, Nikos has one massive sword which he's quite fond of swinging at people, so we get a lot of action.

Acting is amateur I'm sorry to say. And while you do expect flicks like this to have amateurs, I would have to say this is quite low. I've seen plenty of other films with better actors and lower budgets so...thats probably what knocked 2 stars off my score. Don't take it too hard though. The actors manage to drag the story along and they do OK in the screaming/running/dying categories.

The words "Shower Scene" always seem to attract people's attention and certainly here we have a fairly good one. In the DVD extra's we have the full uncut (if you have the unrated DVD) version. Darrien Cane is a woman who's starred in a lot of Seduction Cinema films before so you may or may not be familiar with her. Whilst on subject, this is really the only spot of nudity we have. Its fairly explicit and all the better for it if you ask me.

In conclusion, yes - do go out and buy it if you like this kind of thing. By "this kind of thing" I mean low-budget horrors with an emphasis on fun, campy gore and something great to have a beer to. Let me just mention the different versions though. IMDb tells you that the UK version is cut, and it is. In the shower scene, Nikos interrupts and there is a few seconds of literal breast-ripping that the BBFC didn't like. Subsequently this isn't in the rated version. If you can, get your hands on the uncut version - either directly from Andreas Schnaas on his site or from an importer.

Splatterfest!

[LambertoBava · 7/10 · 9 February 2005]

This is along with Demonium Andreas Schnaas biggest Budget movie. It's his newest long-movie, and it's a gory splatter-fest! The actors suck, the filming is mostly good, but sometimes that sucks to. The effects of the movie is very good! And there is a lot of them! There is also nudity, something most men around the world likes. And if they don't like naked womens, they are probably gay. And you will also find a gay couple in this movie. So now you maybe think that this movie has it all? But no, it don't. Actually, it don't have much except good effects and one naked women. And oh, the stupid plot off course. A barbarian from old Romania! And it is now in New York. Killing people! Hehe, I don't think Andreas Schnaas cared so much about the plot and about the actors. I think he though mostly about the gory feeling that you get of this movie. Couse it is a good splatter movie. If you like splatters, this off course is a must.But this isn't the bloodiest, goriest movie on the planet either. If you want a bloody as hell German movie, check out "Das Komabrutale Duell".

So to the conclusion; If you like splatter movie, check this out.

If you hate movies with bad filming with a DV camera, bad actors, and so on, don't check it out.

Painful in every way

[dasa108 · 1/10 · 25 June 2022]

This movie has all the elements to disappoint a viewer with very low aspirations: horrible acting, unsustainable script, awful photography, bad music and an incoherent ending. For those of us who know about Z movies, this is precisely one of the worst we've ever seen and it has no redeeming quality except for brief nudity. There is no way to recommend this garbage.

The Tagline Says It All

[moviemanic07 · 5 August 2007]

The tag line on the DVD box says it all: "The Big Apple Gets A New Immigrant And A Very Big Problem." Oh so true. Unfortunately, that immigrant isn't the barbaric Romanian Impaler, it's the lame-ass German director. Geez. If your only interest is cheap but plentiful gore, and strippers taking showers, then director Andreas Schnaas delivers. If you want a story or acting or any of the other crafts associated with motion picture story telling, you must go elsewhere. It's easy to see why his films are also known as Violent Sh*t. His list of actors makes me think that he cast the film at a horror convention. Nothing wrong with that. Sadly, he gives few of these Grade-Z horror movie veterans anything to do. Joe Zaso, in particular, is wasted as a romantic lead.

The most interesting thing about the film is the commentary track by the director. Listening to it, you come to the distinct conclusion that he felt he made a good film. Now that's hilarious.

It's way more watchable than a Troma film

[patorange · 5/10 · 15 July 2022]

It's a film that's meant to be fun and that's it! I don't think the filmmakers were trying to make a quality film. The situations though are kind of interesting, I think the worst part of the movie really is the score. The film score just sucks on so many levels.

Felissa Rose is by FAR the best actor in the film. I would even say she did a great job knowing that this was her first film since "Sleepaway Camp." And the fact that Lloyd Kaufman is in it makes for a great moment!

Considering what they were trying to accomplish, it doesn't seem that far-fetched to say they did a pretty bang up job (minus the music).

The camera work and sound design is pretty funky as well; some of the actors are pretty terrible too but if all those things were fixed then I think the result would be similar to "Evil Dead" or "Dead Alive" even.

And like I said it's way more watchable than let's say "Troma's War."

Really?

[mandytgreene · 4/10 · 9 May 2018]

Just pass on it. I can't tell you how disappointed I am in this movie. It looks and sounds terrible, the acting, ugh! Not a fan.

Terrible but entertaining after a few beers!

[schism101 · 5/10 · 3 January 2009]

NIKOS THE IMPALER is the sort of horror film that doesn't require that much intelligence or thinking or...well its a horror film that just perfect for watching after a few (hundred) beers. Evil Romanian tyrant Nikos, is executed in ye olden days and then through some unlikely coincidences and spilling of blood thanks to a botched robbery in a art gallery he is promptly resurrected in modern day new york and goes on a much needed killing spree, dispatching relative unknown and wooden actors, in various gory set pieces. Simple as that and no intelligence required. Along with the awful soundtrack, and cheesy effects, there's also a great/bad cameo by Lloyd Kaufman for all you troma fans out there other than that the film has enough late night watching value to warrant at least some attention, just drink beforehand!

Very, very entertaining, but for all the wrong reasons

[ian-535 · 8/10 · 18 January 2005]

Nikos the Impaler is pure dirt. It has the most bizarre plot ever involving a barbarian, Hitler, ninjas and a vampire.

A robbery in an art museum goes terribly wrong which results in an ancient barbarian being bought back to life (as you do), who then goes on to create havoc and mayhem all throughout the modern city.

Special mention must go to the camera work in this movie, it's the most screwed up I've ever seen, they keep cutting the tops of people's heads off. It's hilarious.

Also, for some reason in this film, Hitler is a right fatty! It's a very good film because it's so bad that you have to keep watching it to find out what will happen next. There's a brilliant scene in video store where a young couple are trying to choose a film for the night and Nikos (the large barbarian) is walking round, happy as Larry with no-one noticing him....classic! If you watch this movie I guarantee you will never have seen anything quite like it before.

I would give this movie dirt/10 for production values, but for entertainment value 8/10.

Like Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan but in tongue in cheek!

[ihatecyberbullies · 30 November 2003]

A fun movie to watch. Not meant to take seriously but a neat party flick! I am in charge of showing indie film's at an underground cinema known as the Celtic Cafe Cinema in Vancouver, BC and I showed this one for sure. I hope Andreas makes a sequel. Alot of gore and alot of slapstick. Very much like a Troma Team movie. Both a comedy and horror mixed in one. Felissa Rose as Sandra Kane does a good job especially her screaming and Joseph Zaso who plays her boyfriend Frank Heller does a decent job as well. Brenda Abbandandolo who has the supporting role as Daisy does well too. This was a shoestring budget I must say but the killings are creative and very graphic with gore! A good music score too! There's even the typical shower slaughter scene at a workout gym.

Another Schnaas madness

[ultra_tippergore · 5 December 2006]

Not as great as Violent Sh*t 3, Nikos the impaler is still a funny no-brainer bloody movie. It features a very good amount of gore, dismemberment's and blood to keep entertained the audience, of course, don't pretend good acting (in this one, don't pretend mediocre acting...the acting is just awful) or good "plot". The movie is boring the first 30 minutes but then it becomes a non-stop gory schnaas typical madness. As i wrote before, not as great or gory as VS3 but still entertaining. The plot: Nikos is a barbarian that comes back to life in actual NY. Then he begins killing everyone. Apart from the killings, you get for the same price: some ninjas, a zombie, an old lady splited in two by a sword an...Adolf Hitler!!! 6/10

Mindless fun!

[Jim-D · 9/10 · 21 August 2003]

If you think you're going to be watching art, then this is not the movie for you. If youre in the mood for gore, cardboard acting, cheesy plot twists, and boobies, then this might be right up your alley. Its a weird cross between Troma and the stuff that Brain Damage Films is now putting out, but it really quite enjoyable. Nikos slashes and tears at everyone in this movie, with the final act really heating up and turning into pure lunacy. Watch this one with a case of beer, some pizza, and a group of your mates - and be sure to Mystery Science Theater the Hell out of it. You'll have a riot. 8/10

The beginning sucked but then it got BLOODY AS HELL!

[matthewmrussell · 8/10 · 13 July 2004]

I got this movie because it sounded interesting. The first 30 minutes were a serious bore though. The acting was HORRIBLE, the plot seemed thin (well it is for the most part) and there was little violence... in general I was ready to turn it off.

Then the movie kicked into overdrive and heads were rolling. Plus the film also becomes hilarious, with guest appearances by full frontal female nudity. Hitler and Nikos just generally running around Manhattan annoying (read: dismembering) people.

If you watch it please wait until after 30 minutes before turning it off because it seriously gets good.

BTW: it looks like it was filmed with a sony handicam or at most a Canon 3CCD camera, but after a while you grow to understand that this was low low low budget.

8/10

Great pulp movie

[djgroen · 8/10 · 29 August 2005]

If you're looking for a professional movie with in-depth acting and nerve-crunching special effects, please turn around and surf back from whence you came.

Nikos is none of that; the camera-work is amateuristic at best, the characters are even more flat than my home country and the average viewer would make a better actor than the ones participating in the movie. The special effects (and movie font) remind most of an old PC role-playing game and the plot lacks any form of subtlety.

All these elements combined make for a very low-budget, amateuristic and unpretentious production that you'll either hate... or love.

Nikos will not impress the viewer, but the freedom of the makers gives a very unforced and unique impression to it. As contradicting as it seems, it is the kind of pure pulp that stays interesting and doesn't cease to surprise.

The movie has some parallels with Bad Taste in terms of budget and seriousness, but personally I find Nikos the Impaler to be far more interesting, original and hilarious. In short...

Watch it if you are into: Bad Taste, the Evil Dead trilogy, Freddy vs, Jason, Shaun of the Dead or similar movies. Don't watch it if you prefer serious high-budget movies that immerse the viewer in a different reality than this is not the title for you perhaps.