Human Centipede Hit For Six

The Human Centipede

(First Sequence)

(2009/Netherlands)

‘‘Feed her, feed her !’’

From the land of tulips and windmills comes the pestle and mortar of grind house gazumping that you do not have to put your mortgage on to seek out. This is one to categorise under the need to not know exists, as otherwise like any true infamous word of mouth and shocking press, once learned of, you cannot help but need to see for yourself. Once drawn into that inevitable trap you will almost certainly come away from the experience of ingesting The Human Centipede: First Sequence with a sense of feeling unclean !.
This is without question a boundary of shocking experimental cinema gone beyond any realm of entertainment. The on screen debauchery and visceral realisation is almost all implied, but even a seasoned gore hound will be left feeling queasy at the subject matter. There is not even a release in the form of unintentional humour to mock such an implausible act of human degradation. Director Tom Six throws a desperately daring dice into the cinematic arena of perversion, and craps out a gastric abomination to alienate all but the carcinogenic harbingers of putrid pleasures. Be only drawn to this as a fly would be, to feed off the end product that should otherwise be flushed out of sight.

The premise of the piece is of a renowned surgical genius in the field of Siamese separation, brought to the brink of his sanity by his self imposed solitude in his remote fortification. Doctor Heiter is a modern day Dr. Frankenstein, experimenting on animals and ultimately upon human beings in his relentless obsession to create a human centipede. An abomination of science, conjoining three people together, connected by surgical procedure to each other by mouth to anus !. It proves to be as offensive and utterly nauseating to behold as it sounds. Crippling natural movement to the hosts by removing knee cartilage and severing tendons to cripple the ability to stand, leaving the afflicted unable to move other than by being effectively on all fours. Three human beings, operated upon against their will at the whim of an insane genius, and paraded about within the confines of his remote boundaries.
Two attractive young women from New York, vacationing in Europe and one very unfortunate Japanese fellow, all just happening upon the mad scientists home off the beaten track in Germany, fall victim to his perversion of science. Reduced to twelve lumbering limbs and mouth to anus conjunction, in one gastric bypass that does indeed at one point deliver the resultant by product of feeding at the head mouth end to later deliver on the resultant digestive dispatch down the line !. If ever there were a viewing moment to throw up in your own mouth, this for sure is it !.

The portrayal of Doctor Heiter could not have been better cast than to actor Dieter Laser, his characterisation of a gifted man borderline insane is right out of the Nazi genocide texts. Calculative calm to the extreme of nastiness personified. Unbearably bold acting that is truly memorable but for the actors future, perhaps ultimately damning with such a film upon his resume !?.
Perhaps then The Human Centipede: First Sequence is today the perceived abomination in the face of human respectability that Todd Browning’s Freaks was back in 1932. When the boundaries between fiction and reality are transfused we become ill at ease as the questions that we do not wish answered are thrust before us, forcing us to question our own moral fibre. It is still here, however, with The Human Centipede: First Sequence highly questionable as to what purposeful plus point may be gained from such a turbulent atrocity, captured upon celluloid and thrust at unsuspecting patrons likely to decorate that directly sitting in front of them with a coat of regurgitated stomach bile. If ever the collectable vomit bag, from the grand old gimmick days of times gone by, were truly a necessary adjunct to the price of admission, then this would be it !.
Unbelievably pre-production has apparently already begun on The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence. To be once again directed by Dutchman Tom Six. After such an abomination as this surely he and his centipede cinema days will be Amsterdamed forever more !?.

Movie Rating: Seek Absolution Before, During & After Viewing

Review Paul Cooke / Source Pal Region 2 DVD

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
Director Tom Six
With Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams,
Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura,
Andreas Leopold & Peter Blankenstein