The Human Centipede (First Sequence) | Review
‘The Human Centipede’ is a great horror film. I loved it. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a horror film that made me cringe in fear, not because the film is scary, but because the thought of something as horrible as a “human centipede” and perhaps being in a situation as the unfortunate characters were in the film is frightening.
The plot of the film involves a mad surgeon, Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser), who used to be a world-renown expert at separating conjoined twins. However, Dr. Heiter explains at the beginning of the film that he hates human beings. He doesn’t “separate” people anymore. Now, Dr. Heiter has a new profession – combining individual people together. Dr. Heiter tranquilizes and kidnaps people, and he plans to combine three individuals together – mouth to anus – in order to create his masterpiece, the human centipede.
Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie) are the film’s two protagonists at the start of the film. They’re American tourists on vacation in, if I remember correctly, Germany, or at least some country in Europe. One night they drive in the middle of nowhere and their car gets a flat tire. The two try to call for help but no they don’t speak German. In a stereotypical horror film fashion, the two protagonists decide to roam through a forest in order to find help. Lindsay and Jenny soon end up at the house of Dr. Heiter. Eventually they end up unconscious and trapped in the doctor’s basement strapped to hospital beds. Soon, a Japanese man, Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura) gets kidnapped by Heiter and strapped to a hospital bed in the basement, too. Dr. Heiter then explains to the three victims what will happen to them. On the projector screen they see a diagram of “the human centipede.” The three captives begin to panic and cry, afraid of what’s to come. Katsuro, who speaks no English or German, is the lucky one, and ends up as segment A, or the front. Lindsay and Jenny are segments B and C respectively, though I don’t know which one is worse, or if both are evenly bad.
The thing that I love about ‘The Human Centipede’ is that the director crafted the film well. The film is grotesque, but isn’t as gross as it could have been . The mouth-to-anus parts of the human centipede are covered up with bandages, so we never graphically get to see what it looks like. Nevertheless, it’s still disgusting and scary. The pain each of the victims are in as they are a part of the human centipede is truly gruesome and it makes me feel for the characters. This film is one of the rare horror films in which we actually care for the characters and the situations they’re in. I loved the language barrier between the human centipede and Dr. Heiter. Heiter can speak both English and German, however the only English-speaking captives are in the non-speaking segments B and C positions, Lindsay and Jenny. Segment A, Katsuro, can only speak Japanese, which means the doctor, the Japanese man, and the two English women can only communicate with one another physically, not vocally. Heiter physically abuses and hurts the human centipede, while Lindsay and Jenny can only tap Katsuro on the arm and make arm movements to communicate with him.
The situation the three captives are in are so terrifying and gruesome that their pain and struggle can be felt every single time they’re on screen. It’s painful to watch the human centipede move around, or even defend itself against Heiter. The final scene of ‘The Human Centipede’ is extremely emotional, which is great. For a horror film to pack as much emotion as this film did in its final scene is amazing, and the fact that I was emotional with the character in the final scene means something. Aside from the fast-paced and rushed third act, which was basically just a chase-and-shoot-out-scene, there’s nothing wrong about ‘The Human Centipede.’ The film portrays what was meant to be portrayed.
The acting is fine, definitely a lot better than the horrible acting in standard Hollywood-made horror films. There are some films that are so crappy, they’re good. This is not the case with ‘The Human Centipede.’ This film is great because it’s well-made, well-acted, well-edited, and just plain good.
The film’s director, Tom Six, intends on making two more ‘Human Centipede’ films. The second film, ‘The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)’ has already started filming, and is to be released some time in 2011. I don’t know how the director plans to make the sequel as great as the original ‘Human Centipede’, but hopefully that happens. What’s surprising is the director’s claim that the first ‘Human Centipede’ film is like ‘My Little Pony’ compared to the sequel. Whoa…
Three out of four Kents.
PS: A few people who saw the film with me couldn’t finish it and left before so, so be sure you can handle the film.
