Xena: Warrior Princess (TV Series) The Haunting of Amphipolis (2000) User Reviews

"Haunting" has an "Evil Dead" feel

[xenatorres · 8/10 · 22 September 2007]

What should have been the season six premiere of "Xena" (as it was once scheduled to be during the massive shuffling of the first four episodes before they aired), "The Haunting of Amphipolis" might not be on par with "Adventures in the Sin Trade" or "Fallen Angel", but it followed the trend of pushing the envelope and doing something new and unique.

The episode has a very "Evil Dead" feel, with a nice blend of action, horror, comedy and, yes, cheese (the good kind). It is mostly a bottle episode and relies on the talents of Lawless, O'Connor and Wilkinson to carry it – it's in good hands. O'Connor delivers her creepiest performance in this episode – it's certainly something you'll want to see.

The biggest highlight of this episode is the return of Livia in a fabulous scene that is a mirror of a scene from "Dreamworker" in which the newly reformed person faces their dark half. Wilkinson is brilliant as Eve verses Livia, matching Lawless' "Dreamworker" performance while, at the same time, making the scene fresh.

Mephistopheles = Best Designed Villain In the Entire Xena Series

[Zabon · 10/10 · 13 March 2013]

There's a few reasons why this episode is so awesome. Firstly, it features a very magnificent villain in inception and design: Mephistopheles, the blue/green-skinned king of hell. As if having the demonic appearance and wonderful skin tone, design, mannerism, and actually vile tactics weren't enough, Mephistopheles goes to the depths of possessing Gabrielle and being a psychotic monster just to invoke Xena to battle him in Hell's domain. The entire Hell arc was extremely awesome in its conception, but this episode was a killer kick for Horror genre fans as well as fans of villains. For one, the fight against Mephistopheles was very well-orchestrated. He manages to kick Xena full throttle in the back, sending her sprawling, whilst using his double-edged trident-like spear weapon. And is ever-successful at saying some of the most brilliant lines: "I thought you were the God-killer, Xena! How were the mighty Olympians so easily taken!?" And, anyone who destroys the demonic king of hell must take his throne, a task Xena doesn't want to undertake. But when being forced into a position between choosing that and allowing the king of hell to be made flesh and cause havoc on Earth's plains, Xena must challenge him to the death. The atmosphere is also very unique; there's corpses and skeletons everywhere; lots of blood and lots of ghastly hallucinations to go along with the fear factor of the episode; the house they enter is completely a fear-inducing joint, with numerous demonic and ghostly incarnations. Firstly, the episode gets bonus points for featuring an adult-oriented atmosphere; Eve must spill the blood of Eli in order to allow Mephistopheles to walk the Earth and be made flesh. Once this happens, Mephistopheles comes out from hell in a demonic storm of chaotic viciousness; his veins pulsating and the blood rushing though his pores, including his brutish eyes, which are also filled with a brimstone of vile hate. This scene is on par with the evil villain power-up scenes seen only in anime legends like Dragon Ball Z. This results in Mephistopheles fighting Xena, who is forced into slaying him, piercing his stomach and stating "So be it," choosing to take him out and become the king of hell rather than allow him to reign hell on earth. This, coupled with the overall battle mechanisms and the evil schemes of Mephistopheles make this episode a very memorable and great one not only from a horror fan's perspective, but also that of a fighting-character lover.

Didn't really work for me

[veselinkrastev55 · 6/10 · 10 October 2021]

I had a very hard time suspending my disbelieve and bying the whole concept of this episode. Way too many Chirstian-like Heaven and Hell teams are introduced a bit out of nowhere. As a result there's a lot of exposition - basically the characters explaining to one another the mythology and logic behind what's going on. It just feels awkward and cringy. This is something of a common issue with this show and in many cases the cheesiness of the plots can be overlooked or even be enjoyable butin this particular episode it's all just too much. It's very had to believe that the charecters are so familiar with this Chirstian-like mythology considering it's supposed to be rather new to their world and also that Xena and Gabirielle had just been in cryogenic sleep for 25 years. And Eve becoming and exorcist all of a sudden...

Having just finished watching it, I'd say it's one my least favorite episodes of Xena. The whole haunted hause/cheap horror film theme just didn't feel right to me for a Xena episode to be honest. I think it might have worked better on Hercules.

Still, there are some elements that I liked. The scene of Xena mourning her dead brother was good. Also, the costume of Mephistopheles looked cool.

So very bad.

[tsevelevsl · 2/10 · 15 June 2021]

Every Christian-themed episode of Xena is worse than the previous one. This is so bad, it's not even toe-curling, it curls the whole body. It looks like someone tried to tell their friends the plot of Exorcist, Shining and several more horror movies while being very drunk, and this became the script.