“The human centipede – First sequence” – (92 minutes, Netherlands 2009, rated R)
Two girls from New York (Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie) find themselves stranded in the German countryside after getting a flat tire. Seeking refuge from a leering local and the rain, they knock on Dr. Heiter’s (Dieter Laser) front door, asking to use his phone.
Unfortunately for them, Heiter, an expert on the surgical separation of Siamese twins and dedicated misanthrope (Heiter, get it?), has decided to “create” rather than “destroy”, and plans to stitch the girls and a Japanese man end to end, as it were, mouth to nether region (get it?) forming a continuous digestive system… A Siamese triplet.
You pretty much know what “the human centipede” is about going in, you’re just not sure how bad it’s going to be. You also know ten minutes in that whatever’s coming to the two girls, they deserve it: they would make Darwin spin in his grave. They are the first stereotypical characters of the movie, and pretty much scream from beginning to end.
The two cops who appear towards the end also are clear stereotypes, virtually identical in both look and clothing. The thing about stereotypes is that they can actually be funny, as in biting satires, but more often than not, they’re just lazy.
But the movie’s not bad, actually, and perhaps it’s not such a good thing. Once you get past the concept of stitching people in a string, there really isn’t much horror, nor suspense.
Dieter Laser, who looks like the unnatural offspring of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Christopher Walken, hams it up fairly well considering what he has to work with. But to be truly effective the movie probably should have gone further.
Watch the trailer:
As it is, some people walked out of theaters during some scenes, but it’s probably because of the ideas presented rather than the action, unlike the violence depicted in “the killer inside me”.
No, “the human centipede” is a joke I think, of a particular brand of European humor: the World War II joke. You only have to listen to the exchanges between Heiter and Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura), or rather read Katsuro’s subtitled insults.
Some have asked whether “the human centipede” is the most disgusting film ever, and it isn’t, it’s far from being explicit or even suggestive enough, and does not remotely belong in “two girls, one cup” territory.
Writer director Tom Six actually pulled his punches I think, perhaps out of concern about losing financial backing, who knows. But for disturbing fare, one needs look no further than early Cronenberg.
“The human centipede – first sequence” gets 2 jellybeans.
