Nikos (2003)

For other uses of the word Succubus, or movies involving Succubi, see Succubus (disambiguation).

DVD Box Cover of the movie Nikos

Nikos the Impaler is a B-grade splatter film directed by and starring German arteur Andreas Schnaas. It follows a reincarnated barbarian as he wreaks havok on modern day New York City. The film was shot in New York City on a budget of 40,000 dollars and was released direct-to-DVD. It is known in some markets as Nikos the Impaler and Violent Shit 4: Nikos. The name Nikos was also the killer's name in Andreas Schnaas' earlier film, Anthropophagous 2000. Schnaas himself played Nikos in both movies. Cameos in the film include Debbie Rochon, [Lloyd Kaufman, Darian Caine, Tina Krause, and Bela B. of Die Ärzte. The cast listing shows that a Succubus appears in this movie.

Overview

• Release Date: 2003
• MPAA Rating: 18+
• Runtime: 100 Minutes
• Director: Andreas Schnaas
• Writer: Ted Geoghegan and Andreas Schnaas
• Studio: RatPack Independent Films
• Genre: Fantasy, Horror
• Tag Line: He's going to paint the town red... blood red.

Synopsis

College professor Frank Heller (Joe Zaso) and his girlfriend Sandra (Felissa Rose) lead a ragtag group of museum patrons in a race for their lives. After a botched robbery attempt spills blood on the ancient mask of Nikos a lu Unziceanu (Schnaas), the barbarian returns to kill off virtually anyone and everyone that crosses his path. After wiping out the art museum, the maniac turns to a health club, gay bar, movie theater, and video store to continue his rampage.

Cast

Greg James	Steven Dunkirk
Lucki Wheating	Marta Talvik
John Sargent	Frank Dunkirk
Marita Black	Monica
Elizabeth Barris	Succubus
Leigh Allyn Baker	Gaika
Rod Koch	Matt

Critical Review

The following review is taken from the iMDB link in the external links below

• Pretty lame splatter-fest, but worth a go for a laugh or two
• Reviewed On: 14 July 2006
• Reviewed By: BA_Harrison

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.

External Links

• Nikos at Wikipedia
• Nikos page at The Internet Movie Database