Fantastic Fest 2009 Review: THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (THE FIRST SEQUENCE)
Rating: 1/5
Writer/Director: Tom Six
Cast: Dieter Laser, Akihiro Kitamura, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie
Studio: Six Entertainment
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE tells the horrifying tale of two American tourists (Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie) on vacation in Germany that happen to knock on the wrong door after their car breaks down in the woods. The door, and home, belongs to the crazed Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser), a retired surgeon who dreams of surgically connecting three people to form a human centipede. Unfortunately for the two girls, and a Japanese man (Akihiro Kitamura), Dr. Heiter seems to be the leading surgeon in his field of ass-to-mouth reverse Siamese surgery.
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE is one of those films that looks to achieve what films like HOSTEL and others of the torture porn genre never quite did. True shock, awe, and disgust. To show the human psyche at its worst and most inhuman. Yet, where films of that horror subgenre seem to possibly have a point buried in there somewhere, THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE does not. Instead, we are given 90 minutes of something intended to shock and awe, but that instead just becomes pointless and vulgar for the sake of being vulgar.
Do not misunderstand, for I am not one to be easily turned off by macabre. Quite the opposite, in fact. It is not the idea of the film that does not work, yet that it is presented within such a long time frame. After 90 minutes of watching a crazed surgeon (who is really the only enjoyable performance or quality about the film) interact with two crying girls and a man yelling in Japanese that are attached from orifice to orifice, you reach the end only to ask yourself what the point of the film was. Furthermore, you do not necessarily care about the characters enough to give a damn what is happening to them during said 90 minutes, no matter how horrible the situation may be and how helpless they are.
If THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE were to work as a film, it would have been better suited for a 10 minute short. Unfortunately for us, we get 80 extra minutes to revel in its repulsive story. And if that was not enough, this is only the first sequence, as THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FULL SEQUENCE) is due out sometime in the near future. Let's just hope someone involved knows how to use a scalpel, so as to cut apart instead of sew together this abhorrent piece of A2M cinema.
Oh, and in case you're wondering...yes, there is in fact a pooping scene.
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