Review of Nikos the Impaler

"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.