The Human Centipede (First Sequence) Will Leave Viewers Depressed and Psychologically Exhausted
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is well-acted and visually striking, and its impact comes not from gore, but from raw human emotion.
Written by James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
May 9, 2010
Image Gallery
Release: 2009-2010 (Various Festivals), April 30, 2010 (US Limited)
Directed by: Tom Six
Written by: Tom Six
Starring:
Dieter Laser as Dr. Heiter
Ashley C. Williams as Lindsay
Ashlynn Yennie as Jenny
Akihiro Kitamura as Katsuro
Lindsay (Williams) and Jenny (Yennie) are two college girls in Germany looking for a good time. They leave their hotel room and head out into the night to find a club they’ve heard about. On a road in the woods, they suffer a flat tire and, after avoiding a lecherous fellow driver’s sexual advances, end up striking out into the woods to lights they see in the distance for help. If you’ve watched many horror films that have come out over the last few years, this probably seems like a story you’ve heard before, but as The Human Centipede progresses, it becomes anything but.
They come upon the house of the retired German doctor, Dr. Heiter (Laser). Heiter claims he will help them get a car to rescue them and offers them some water. Unfortunately, the phone call is faked and the water is drugged. Before the women know it, they wake up in hospital beds in Heiter’s basement. Heiter, previously in his life, became known for separating conjoined twins. Now free to pursue his own interests, he’s taken a liking to…reconnecting things.
After a somewhat successful preliminary experiment in which he created a “Siamese triplet” from his beloved dogs, Dr. Heiter has decided to move on to creating a “Siamese triplet” of humans, or a�“human centipede”, surgically linked together by their gastric system, i.e. anus to mouth, and forcibly surgically adjusted to perpetually be on their hands and knees. He plans to combine
the two girls as the middle (Lindsay) and end (Jenny) and connect them to the front of the centipede, a third victim he’s abducted�named Katsuro (Kitamura). Given that much of what I’ve discussed happens fairly early in The Human Centipede, it is only a minor spoiler that I say he successfully completes the deranged operation (it’s also shown in the trailer). What are his plans for his new “creation” and is there any way his victims can escape the mad doctor?
Much of the publicity and controversy on The Human Centipede calls the film “sick”, but I respectfully disagree. The reason this film works is because it toys with the viewers’ minds while they watch. The surgery may occur in the film, but the “gory details” are unseen, thereby forcing the viewers to imagine them in their head, given the visual of the stitches and scars on the victims’ faces. The logical progression of… bodily fluids… in the centipede is also kind of underplayed and only implied once, forcing the viewer to think more about that than they are actually shown. After the surgery, the victims become completely dehumanized. Almost everything the doctor does to the “centipede” could be linked with how someone would treat a dog or something they consider to be subhuman. Their humanity seems to almost end up completely destroyed. That, coupled with the visual look of the victims (all three are basically in nothing more than a diaper and kneepads) and the almost antiseptic “clean” of the cinematography (seemingly at odds with the disturbing visual being shown and unusual in the current trend of films) has a tendency to deeply off-put viewers and leave them either shaken to some level or thinking about the film afterwards.
In terms of acting, Deiter Laser is phenomenal in his role, a fact that I’m unsure is fully a compliment. Never for one moment does the audience not think there is something deeply wrong with this doctor. This includes later in the movie when events cause him to face the possibility that everything he has worked for could be destroyed. He shows no remorse for his actions and, as a result, inspires no sympathy or identification in the audience. He is simply deeply evil and fully convinced that his actions are justified, almost Nazi-esque.
The actors that make up the centipede itself are quite good, particularly Kitamura’s Katsuro who, being the head of the human centipede, is the only one capable of speaking to Heiter. Throughout the film, he gives a great performance full of anger and rage at his captor, made all the better by the idea that he can only produce emotion with his face and voice and has no usage of his body, legs, or hands. The two women also work well, showing pain, resignation, fear, disgust, and more without actually having the luxury of speech. One would be hard-pressed to find a role that looked more demanding or possibly psychologically damaging than the one these three actors endured.
The Human Centipede (First Segment) is not for the faint of heart. It may not even be for some of the strong of heart. The movie asks questions about the value of humanity and presents a situation that seems depressing, deranged, and inescapable. The horrors of the movie, both explicitly shown and implied, combine to leave a lasting impression, good or bad, on any viewer. Questions or comments about The Human Centipede (First Sequence)? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
Take me to Horror Movie Reviews!
Talk About This on The Ossuary Forums!
Horror Movie Freaks is the FREE eZine from Best-Horror-Movies.com that will give you the new horror releases, the new horror news and the new horror reviews that you CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT!!
Subscribing is easy, painless and free.
Do it NOW!!
