The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

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The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

June 28th 2010 03:16

This movie from Netherlands writer/director Tom Six has one hell of a marketing campaign in full swing. The Human Centipede (2009) has been playing the festival circuit for quite a few months now, and for regions where it’s not playing there’s the trailers to whet your palette. Lucky New Zealanders get to see the movie on the big screen, but it wasn’t included for Australian festival audiences. I’m curious as to whether it will go straight-to-DVD.

I haven’t read any reviews (and there are dozens and dozens), and I had only seen the teaser trailer, and read an interview with the director in a recent issue of Rue Morgue magazine. I was definitely intrigued. I made the quiet assumption that the movie was some kind of boundary-pushing schlock-fest. With a premise such as a mad surgeon experimenting on humans by fusing them end-on-end to create a biologically functioning “centipede”, the movie surely had to be a comedy, albeit black as midnight on a moonless night.

The Human Centipede Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie

Ashley Williams as Lindsay and Ashlynn Yennie as Jennie

The Human Centipede was a pleasant surprise. Perhaps "pleasant" isn’t quite the right word; it was a repugnant delight! An intelligent European sensibility exudes from the movie, there’s even elegance in the direction, the creeping camerawork, a sense of minimalism in the movie’s design. The performances are good (I was really not expecting that), with Dieter Laser as Dr. Heiter a truly stand-out piece of work; what a truly sinister-looking man, tall and thin, with a face like a lizard. He’s that classic "Nazi" rogue madman armed with a hypodermic and a scalpel and a crazed glint in his oily eye.

Dieter Laser as Dr. Heiter

So, we have two pretty, but none-too-bright American tourists, Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) and Jennie (Ashlynn Yennie), in Germany and aiming to get to a club for a party, but they strike out with a flat tyre on-route through some dark woods. A dirty old man stops his car and flicks his tongue at them assuming he’ll get his lard arse laid, but the girls aren’t having a bar of him. They make their way through the rain and trees and come across a lone house and manicured lawn. It is the home of Dr. Heiter, a doctor skilled in conjoined twins’ detachment surgery. Later a young Japanese man (Akihiro Kitamura) is acquired by Heiter.

Akihiro Kitamura as the young Japanese victim

Of course the good doctor is no longer interested in separation. He craves the reverse; like an even more perverted Frankenstein he wants to create, having already tried with three of his beloved Rottweilers who now rest in peace under his lawn. It’s time to up the ante; time to create the human version of his large-scale centipede. And what does that entail exactly? Surgically fusing the mouth area of a middle person to the anus of a person in front, then fusing the anus of the middle person to the mouth of the person behind, thus creating an elongated digestive tract. Uber-gross? Oh yes, oh yes, indeed!

One of the doctor's charming diagrams

Sure the whole biological concept is utterly preposterous, but what prevents The Human Centipede from falling on its face is director Tom Six’s restraint. His astute direction actually heightens the movie’s nightmare factor, because the audience is forced to imagine even worse. The worst parts of the surgery is only glimpsed at (mind you the teeth pulling and scalpel carving into the knee joint was wince-inducing), and the post-surgery results are mostly hidden behind bandages. But one is completely privy to what has gone down, since the good doctor explained via diagrams to his horrified patients, er, victims while they were clamped to their beds.

The doctor admires his handiwork

Lindsay's feisty behaviour earns her middle position

The Human Centipede actually works best as a creeping psychological thriller with visceral pure horror overtones. It’s a perfectly engineered nightmare that forces the viewer to feel appalling empathy with the victims. As the situation begins to spiral out of control one wonders how on earth the movie can end, but Tom Six does the movie justice, in terrifically nihilistic fashion. He has a sequel-of-sorts planned; The Human Centipede (Full Sequence) which, due to the First Sequence generating so much interest, is now going into production for release next year. I’m very curious as to what story he tells there, considering how the First Sequence pans out. “It’s not a standard sequel,” he explains, “It’s something completely different. I can tell you the tagline. '100% medically accurate' was the first one. The second installment will be '100% medically inaccurate!' And it’s going to be a centipede of twelve people … I can go full force and show things that have never been shown before. That will really upset people.”

Grueling as the movie is in places (such as the grimacing climb up the spiral staircase); the movie is paced well, and sports a dark sense of humour that is very Germanic; the doctor allows his creation to crawl towards the front door in a pathetic attempt to escape and then spanks them with his bridle like naughty dogs, and when the doctor first sees his creation on their knees in his living room as a functioning unit it becomes a very emotional moment for all concerned.

Yes, The Human Centipede is sick and twisted and well-made, like a true horror movie. Not for all tastes, but rewarding for those who can stomach its revolting centerpiece.

Here's the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

13 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by David O'Connell

June 28th 2010 06:58

Screen Fanatic

Surprised to see you liked this one Bryn! I saw it a couple of weeks ago and wrote a little summary on Jason's blog post about the trailer. Sorry mate, I don't disagree with you often, but I thought it was pretty awful to be honest. Just shoddy in nearly every department and really limply directed. Real B-grade fodder especially in terms of the low-grade production values. The whole concept of it is sick and disturbing (which is great as far as I'm concerned!) but only in what it conjures up in your mind. By the end I thought it was just going through the motions and dead boring. 90 minutes was really stretching it with such a thin premise.

Comment by Bryn

June 28th 2010 07:41

Horrorphile

David, of course it's B-grade fodder, the basic premise smacks of 70s grindhouse meets Euro sex-death mondo weirdo, and perhaps because I went into the viewing with low expectations it surprised me. I wasn't expecting brilliance, but I thought it was a hell of a lot better than it could have been. I didn't think the production values weren't low-grade at all. Compared with the multitude of horrors that are currently unleashed on the market these days that set out to be cutting edge or to push boundaries I really liked the uncompromising finale, and the mood and tone of the movie was nicely sustained.
Hey, if we agreed on everything discussing movies would be boring.

Comment by Michaelie

June 28th 2010 10:44

Flick Wit

Ewwww!

I am actually really interested in seeing this Bryn, it seems too repulsive to miss

Comment by Mountain Fog

June 28th 2010 15:36

at last, coprophilia in 3D...well three mouths, okay so it's only two that..err.. suck...ewww!!!

I admire your bravery in bringing this new pinnacle of cinematic nauseousness to everyone's attention Bryn.

It does make one wonder about the subtext, or more properly the unconscious and universal unconscious aspects regarding the motivation for creating the work... is this a sly social commentary on life in the modern world and Germany in particular?

cheers

fog

Comment by jkund17

June 28th 2010 19:29

techy.Bytes
Defendgreen
Web Stripe
Quirkus

Dude this movie is Disgusting no wonder ur banned from Google Adsense.....Why would anyone watch a movie like this??

Comment by Bryn

June 28th 2010 22:36

Horrorphile

Michaelie,

too repulsive to miss

... indeed.

Fog, actually the concept came about after the director mentioned to friends that a child molester they saw on television should have his mouth sown to the ass of a fat truck driver ... wahey! So it started as a sick joke (his previous features have been twisted black comedies, but he's also an ardent fan of Cronenberg and body horror), and of directors who are prepared to go beyond borders.

jkund17, ahhh yes, but you came and read the review didn't you, and you probably watched the trailer ... dude, you don't belong here in the Darkness if you're placing moral judgment on me.

Comment by JohnDoe

June 28th 2010 22:39

Film & TV on DVD

I missed this one at cinemas but not by design...really hope to catch it on DVD. Looks like fun, irresponsible titillation

Comment by ShaunK

June 29th 2010 10:49

Screen Adventure

hahahaha - the stair case climb huh - sounds challenging. I'm with JD and Michaelie. It sounds like I could have alot of fun with this.

Comment by Mountain Fog

June 29th 2010 11:06

Bryn,
I looked this film up and considering the original inspiration for the film, having child molesters mouths sewn to arses of truckies, darkly amusing as that is, it seems odd that he didn't continue with that theme, as it would have probably gotten much more favourable reviews, considering the revenge and vigilante thematic that constantly courses through US films in particular.

I have long wondered about the USA industry and its preoccupation with violence as a solution to all things, it is almost like it is designed that way on purpose, like some kind of mass brain washing programme to keep the populace angry, thereby supporting violent solutions to all problems, like war, instead of diplomacy.

Then again, war movies supporting the USA's military dogma are easier to get funding for, along with military logistical support, even when the film is sappy drivel like Pearl Harbour.

Also, I read Human Centipede does indeed have an underlying suggestion of social commentary, albeit a scintilla of it, that being a German in command of medical atrocities, (calling Doktor Mengele), the Americans (females representing innocence and life creating victims), and an angry Japanese male at the front, shitting on the Americans, (a scatological type of Pearl Harbour?) who the doctor could battle with, (a WW2 supremacy theme maybe?), so most of the main belligerents of WW2 are represented.

What now seems more obvious, admittedly without seeing the film, is Tom Six has consciously decided to remove any overt reason for the mad doctor's experiments, and that has robbed the film's protagonist of a possible raison d'être and an understandable narrative?

According to studies, some, if not most psychopaths, for that is what we are dealing with here, in the doctor character, do not need a reason for killing, for it is the experience of killing they enjoy, or torture, which possibly Six failed to properly address in the script?

Or was it it really due to poor scripting and slack direction?

cheers

fog

Comment by ShaunK

June 29th 2010 11:13

Screen Adventure

and an angry Japanese male at the front, shitting on the Americans, (a scatological type of Pearl Harbour?)

hahahahaha - interesting theory Foggy

Comment by Bryn

June 29th 2010 11:53

Horrorphile

Fog, to be honest I enjoyed the stripped back narrative minimalism, rather than getting bogged down in rationale. Tom Six aimed for the jugular, or in this case, the gut, and punched hard. But at the same time, he still had restraint. It's an odd balance, but once you've seen the movie - if you ever do at all - you'd understand what I mean ... maybe ... perhaps. Or maybe I'm just shallow and screwy ....?

Comment by Mountain Fog

June 29th 2010 13:39

Bryn,
is it publicly released?
Can I hire it somewhere?

fog

Comment by Bryn

June 29th 2010 22:13

Horrorphile

No theatrical or DVD release date scheduled yet for down under (although it is playing in the NZ Film Festival) ... Hang fire.

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