Feb
22
“Human Centipede: First Sequence” Review
Filed Under Movies
How do you review a film like Tom Six’s “Human Centipede: First Sequence?” The premise alone is enough to make the average movie-goer dry heave. But those are the kinds of films I actively seek out. Horror fans like me are never content with whatever level of desensitization they’ve reached. Instead we have to keep challenging ourselves with films that redefine the “WTF movie” genre. Last year, Lars von Trier’s “Anti-Christ” fit that bill. 2010 brings us the first flick about three young people grafted together, head-to-tuchus, by a mad scientist in “Human Centipede: First Sequence.”
I somehow bullshitted my girlfriend into seeing “Human Centipede,” and I’m more than a little surprised she’s still talking to me. I’ve stomached some pretty staggering examples of the “body horror” subgenre. Even so, I was grossed out by this pic. None of the “Hostel” or “Saw” films really hold a candle to this. Those are straightforward gorefests. “Human Centipede” doesn’t wade around in graphic violence and rather spends more time on the psychological horror of waking up and finding your face stapled to someone else’s butt. I think it’s a stronger film because of it.
Dieter Laser, an actor with probably the best name ever bestowed upon a human being, plays Dr. Heiter, a crazed German surgeon who once specialized in separating Siamese twins. Now he’s obsessed with sticking people together. Although his initial experiments with his Rottweiler “three-dog” end in failure, he kidnaps three tourists — BFFs Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlyn Yennie) and a young Japanese man named Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura) — and tries again. The end result is the human centipede of the title, Siamese triplets linked by their digestive and excretory systems.
You know how they say there’s no such thing as an original idea? They have clearly never seen “Human Centipede.”
This is an audience movie. I attended a sold-out show hosted by Cinefamily, and the communal experience was part of the fun. This is a blackly comic movie. The level of absurdity here is so staggering, you’ve got to laugh at times. Laser’s performance as Dr. Heiter is on the level of Peter Cushing’s manic brilliance in the Hammer “Frankenstein” pictures, and Kitamura’s turn as Katsuro is a study in why I love subtitles.
I can see a strong cult building around this movie. I hope so, anyway. It succeeds at what it sets out to do. From what I’ve been reading, a sequel’s in the works, “Human Centipede: Full Sequence.” The next one apparently will have twelve people linked together. The mind reels.
-Brad Lohan
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