Fantastic Fest 2009: ‘Human Centipede (First Sequence)’

It’s hard for me to really be honest about this film. It’s made to disturb and disgust and it succeeds on every point, but I hated it. As a film lover my moral compass was spinning trying to figure out what to think of it. Is it just shocking for the sake of being shocking, and does that make it good or bad?

Let me back up and explain the premise of this little horror film. Human Centipede is the story of 3 completely random strangers getting kidnapped by a mad scientist and are forced to become a creature of disgusting inhuman means. The mad scientist is Dr. Heiter. He’s one of the best surgeons in the world when it comes to separating  Siamese  twins. Now he’s retired and he’s determined to, rather than separate two or more people, he wants to attach them together. This is a disgusting premise so beware. Dr. Heiter’s goal is to surgically attach three people together mouth to anus. One person in the front would be the head, then a middle section who eats the feces of the front, who then is attached to “the genitals” who eats the middle section’s feces and then well.. they finally get rid of it.  The people involved also have their knees destroyed so they’re stuck on their hands and knees for the rest of their existence as one creature.

It’s one of the creepiest ideas I’ve ever heard of and the fact that I saw the movie actually bothers me. After the screening there was a Q&A with the director and he’s fully aware that the film is as creepy and disgusting as it is. The director Tom Six injects enough creepy humor to keep it from being just too much.

The movie isn’t necessarily gory, but the idea of being forced to do one of the grossest things possible in order to survive against your will… It’s a rough proposition.  I can’t blame you for not wanting to see the film  based on what I’ve written. There’s no way this movie could ever appeal to the mass audiences. As a horror film it does scare you. There are incredible moments of suspense and once you learn what Dr. Heiter’s plan really is (which is explained in great detail with diagrams) you may question if you want to finish the twisted journey. I was sitting in my chair wondering if I could handle what was going to come next. I did, and I could, but am I a better person for it? probably not.