in Shocktober

The Human Centipede: First Sequence (2009)

Gross. Before I write this let me take a minute to throw up (violently throws up). Okay, jeez what an experience. I’ll give it that, Human Centipede: First Sequence isn’t like anything else I’ve ever seen. It’s not that it’s really even the visual aspect, rather the psychological aspect. Sure, you can see three people sewn together butt-to-mouth with one intestinal tract but that’s not the scary part. The scary part is hearing about the entire procedure before it’s performed and then imagining yourself in that situation. In that area, Human Centipede succeeds. Still, there’s a fine line between scary and just sadistic.

Human Centpede is about a German surgeon, Dr. Joseph Heiter (Dieter Laser), with dreams too big to fail. A former surgeon with a background in removing siamese twins, Heiter spends most of his day looking at people’s butts. He does this so that he can find three-people of equal build (and butt shape) to turn into a Human Centipede. A human centipede in this case being three people, sewn together, one intestinal tract and with severed knee ligaments so they cannot stand. I’ll give it to Dutch writer/director Tom Six, that’s the scariest premise to a movie I’ve ever heard. Eventually, Dr. Heiter captures two ditzy American tourists (Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie) and a Japanese man (Akihiro Kitamura) and makes his dreams come true!

I won’t spoil the ending so I’ll jump to my overall opinion. I don’t usually like to say that a movie goes too far but I’m doing it here. I don’t care if it makes me seem like a prude. Horror movies can be sadistic and have unhappy endings, most do. Though in a movie like this there has to be a point where the audiences gets some kind of catharsis. The characters in this film are put through so much and the fact that nothing really works out for anyone is really frustrating. Tom Six treats his characters and the audience like a angry child who likes to torture bugs. The whole thing makes me uncomfortable. I do think the film has some redeeming qualities in its originality and over-arching terror but it’s not for me. If you wanna watch this just make sure you bring a bag for barfing instead of a bag for popcorn.

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