The Human Centipede Review

After having accidentally stumbled upon the trailer for The Human Centipede on Apple trailers I finally managed to get a copy of it yesterday. Allowing for a full 24 hours to process what I had seen. I now feel obliged to provide a review.

The scene is set in a motel (somewhere) in Germany for two good time party girls travelling round Europe to hit a nightclub in the middle of the countryside...wait what? Yes in the middle of the COUNTRYSIDE.

At this point I thought I have made a major mistake and I am in for an extremely pointless B movie horror experience.

Well without giving too much away this little gem actually does the business. Moments of sheer camp hilarity thanks to a brilliantly nuanced performance by the wonderfully named (and talented) Dieter Laser as Doctor Heiter. Fine screaming, tears and pleading from the female leads and a frankly impressive turn from Akihiro Kitamura as the Japanses tourist.

The gore was not overwhelming and the surgical scenes were not as unpleasant as I had anticipated but the unsettling tone and aforementioned camp hilarity mixed to give an altogether different experience.

Think Takashi Miike meets David Cronenberg and you will have a notion of the body horror fetishism the director is aiming for.

The proposed sequels will hopefully elevate this to the horror franchise status that so many other films have undeservedly received.

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haha i checked this out last night...... sick. i heard there is a sequel that is alot worse and banned in uk. Haha u can buy the tshirt.

I cant wait for part 2....it comes out in September,i think

Being a comicbook nerd,
I was kinda disappointed that the story wasn't about a masked vigilante who got his superpowers as a result of being bitten by a radioactive centipede.

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Right now, all I'm wearing is a mustard-stained wife-beater T-shirt, no pants & a massive sombrero.

Did you guys watch a different movie than the one I saw? I didn't think there was anything campy about the film. I thought it was just stupid. I usually associate camp with something that's fun and a bit silly. There's no point in The Human Centipede where things feel fun or silly. It's just really stupid people doing really stupid things.

One of the worst films I think I've ever seen.

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plot for Human Centipede 2 from imdb

The story of a man who becomes sexually obsessed with a DVD recording of the first film in the series, The Human Centipede, and uses sandpaper to pleasure himself whilst watching the film. He decides to create a "human centipede" of his own, this time comprised of twelve victims as opposed to the first film's three. He uses his human centipede to his own sexual delight, taking sexual pleasure in watching the victims of the centipede defecate in each other's mouths, and using barbed wire wrapped around around his penis to rape the woman at the end of the centipede

^
I'm sure this one's going to be worse..

haha from 3 to 12 they didn't over do it there did they .

It should be banned for being boring not for it's offensiveness.

I cant wait for second part...i know that is sick waiting for the movie where a guy use barbed wire wrapped around his penis to rape the women on the end of human centipede containing 12 people that are in mouth-anus connection,but i don't care,no one is perfect...

It's banned in Britain, not getting a release so far. The sequel that is. Sounds like it's been made JUST to shock/be as disgusting as possible.

Yeah,banning the movie in 2011...i know,i am disappointed.

It must be very very strong in the sexual violence department to get banned. The reasons for those who are interested(obviously there will be some spoilers in the following for both films):

The BBFC has rejected the sexually violent, and potentially obscene DVD, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) This means that it cannot be legally supplied anywhere in the UK.

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is a sequel to the film The Human Centipede (First Sequence), which was classified ‘18’ uncut for cinema and DVD release by the BBFC in 2010.

The first film dealt with a mad doctor who sews together three kidnapped people in order to produce the ‘human centipede’of the title. Although the concept of the film was undoubtedly tasteless and disgusting it was a relatively traditional and conventional horror film and the Board concluded that it was not in breach of our Guidelines at ‘18’.

This new work, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), tells the story of a man who becomes sexually obsessed with a DVD recording of the first film and who imagines putting the ‘centipede’ idea into practice. Unlike the first film, the sequel presents graphic images of sexual violence, forced defecation, and mutilation, and the viewer is invited to witness events from the perspective of the protagonist.

Whereas in the first film the ‘centipede’ idea is presented as a revolting medical experiment, with the focus on whether the victims will be able to escape, this sequel presents the ‘centipede’ idea as the object of the protagonist’s depraved sexual fantasy.

The principal focus of The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is the sexual arousal of the central character at both the idea and the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture, and murder of his naked victims.

Examples of this include a scene early in the film in which he masturbates whilst he watches a DVD of the original Human Centipede film, with sandpaper wrapped around his penis, and a sequence later in the film in which he becomes aroused at the sight of the members of the ‘centipede’ being forced to defecate into one another’s mouths, culminating in sight of the man wrapping barbed wire around his penis and raping the woman at the rear of the ‘centipede’.

There is little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience. There is a strong focus throughout on the link between sexual arousal and sexual violence and a clear association between pain, perversity and sexual pleasure.

It is the Board’s conclusion that the explicit presentation of the central character’s obsessive sexually violent fantasies is in breach of its Classification Guidelines and poses a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers.

David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said:
“It is the Board’s carefully considered view that to issue a certificate to this work, even if confined to adults, would be inconsistent with the Board’s Guidelines, would risk potential harm within the terms of the VRA, and would be unacceptable to the public.

“The Board also seeks to avoid classifying material that may be in breach of the Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964 (OPA) or any other relevant legislation. The OPA prohibits the publication of works that have a tendency to deprave or corrupt a significant proportion of those likely to see them. In order to avoid classifying potentially obscene material, the Board engages in regular discussions with the relevant enforcement agencies, including the CPS, the police, and the Ministry of Justice.

It is the Board’s view that there is a genuine risk that this video work, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), may be considered obscene within the terms of the OPA, for the reasons given above.

“The Board considered whether its concerns could be dealt with through cuts. However, given that the unacceptable content runs throughout the work, cuts are not a viable option in this case and the work is therefore refused a classification.”

Too bad for people in UK that like to watch gore movies because some snobs decide what they can or cant watch...to me,real art of movies is crossing the barriers,especially in gore horror...A Serbian Film was also banned by BBFC,i think...

There's a major difference between breaking barriers and being disgusting for disgusting's sake. The Human Centipede and A Serbian Film aren't breaking down any barriers. They're just being controversial and revolting for the sake of making their audience cringe. They are completely artless films.

Watch Short Bus for an example of breaking barriers in a positive manner.

A Serbian Film was released with a few minutes cut out(mostly the baby scenes) here in Britain, not banned.

As for Human Centipede 2, I'm not bothered that I will not get to see it. There was some Japanese film called Grotesque that was banned here too for sexual violence not so long ago.

Sexual sadism doesn't go down too well with the BBFC here.

Gore is a sub-genre of horror that have purpose to disgust viewer with extremely explicit scenes...so i think that whole sub-genre is artless...but that sub-genre should at least exist in my opinion... The Human Centipede and A Serbian Film brake down barriers in that sub-genre,and set new,and some other film will break thous new barriers too...in that sub-genre there is no difference between breaking barriers and being disgusting as much as they can...my point is that thous movies will never be able to go in race with movies from other genres,but in their own corner of fictional universe,they really did break some barriers...only point of Gore is to be as much disgusting as they can,so banning their movies because of that will really destroy whole Gore sub-genre,and destroying entire sub-genre cant be good...

Nausicaä i understand that you don't care about banning Human Centipede 2,but Gore fans will be really pissed off

But, what's the point of breaking the barriers of gore? To gross people out? So what. That's easy, any idiot can do it.

I just think it's better to stimulate the mind than to try to turn the stomach. Pushing the boundries of gore in film is just filmmaker mastubation.

If that was true we'd still be using ketchup

I all-ready mentioned that Gore will never be able to go into competition with movies from other genres,but some people really like to be grossed out by a movie some times...btw,i must say that i am surprised how no one hasn't beat Srdjan Spasojevic(director of Serbian Film)here in Serbia...i mean he called movie about raping,necrophilia,pedophilia-A Serbian Film...also,when Milos finish raping his own son,while his brother rape his wife,when Vukmir say ,,this is a real normal Serbian family,,(wtf!)...i have a wish to beat him up because of that,and i am really surprised that i haven't heard that someone did that all-ready...