Human Centipede The First Sequence (2010)
Directed by Tom Six
Written by Tom Six
Starring Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura
Release Date April 30th, 2010
Published September 15th, 2010
Let's not be coy about this, you know exactly what “Human Centipede” is about. You aren't reading this out of curiosity about the movie; you want to know just how sick it is. You are wondering just how sick “Human Centipede” made this critic. It has sickened numerous others and the premise and that level of sickness has fostered your fascination.
So let's get to it then, how sick is “Human Centipede?” On an upchuck scale “Human Centipede” stood at two near pukes but surprisingly no actual projectile vomiting. Yes, I managed to keep my dinner down while watching “Human Centipede,” a feat I count myself proud of. The premise alone had my stomach flip flopping as I placed the DVD in the player.
The premise could not be more vile, a twisted German surgeon, Doctor Heiter (Dieter Laser), wishes to create a human centipede. He captures subjects, two doltish American girls, Lindsey (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie) with the bad luck to have stalled their car outside the Doc's home and an unlucky Asian fellow, Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura) who the doctor hunted down with his trusty dart gun.
With his subjects drugged in his lab he sets about explaining his plan. He will fuse the subjects via the digestive system by sewing them mouth to anus. The calm with which Dr. Heiter imparts this information to his victims is arguably as disturbing as the actual surgery which takes place shortly after time is passed with perfunctory escape attempt by one of the American girls.
We are aware, and director Tom Six makes little pretense of our being aware, that this escape attempt is merely a way of padding the film's run time. We know the doctor's experiment will be successful; the inescapable fact of the hype surrounding “Human Centipede” stipulates that a human centipede must be delivered otherwise there is no reason for the hype to exist.
Credit Tom Six for tacitly acknowledging the padding and yet using the time well to craft some strong visuals that set up other strong visuals later. Indeed, “Human Centipede” is a shockingly crisp looking film with strong angles and bright clean lines. Never before has such striking cinematography been used to present something so utterly vile. Great talent has been spent to bring us the “Human Centipede.”
So, does this mean I like and recommend “Human Centipede?” This is not as easy a question as it would seem. I must admit the film is insanely effective. Tom Six sets out with very particular goals and achieves them with great panache. Every feeling he wishes to impart to the audience is felt. You cannot escape how compelled you are to feel exactly the dread, disgust and horror that Tom Six is seeking with “Human Centipede.”
It's all so professional and strangely restrained. While one will be expecting something truly, awe inspiringly sick, what you get in “Human Centipede” is something even more twisted and ingenious. Yes, you see the human centipede and you see some sick visuals of these three people moving as one with their mouths where no mouth should ever be. Yet, the sick questions are not answered in a visual fashion. Six leaves in the audiences’ minds the twisted practical questions about the predicament facing the victims.
Please tell me you know what I mean by practical questions because one of the great horrors of “Human Centipede” is pondering for too long the excretory concerns, among other things that make up those practical questions. In this way, “Human Centipede” has the genius of the shark in “Jaws;” it's all about what you don't see.
It's clear that I appreciate things about “Human Centipede.” So why am I reluctant to recommend the film? It's rather simple now that I think about it, how does one recommend an experience like this? How can I possibly recommend you see a movie about victims’ sewn together mouth to anus? It's just too twisted. If you are someone who wants this experience I don't really want to know that about you.
Hey, I have to see this movie. As a critic, watching movies is my job. Seeing “Human Centipede” and writing about it is what I do. You have the option to not have this experience and not share the nightmares that are fading for me a day later. There is simply no way to recommend you see this movie even as it is a dastardly effective and well crafted horror movie.
