The Human Centipede: It's not THAT bad!

Okay. Consider all the horror movies that have come out in the past three years. All, or most, have nothing to do with horror, except play with our fears of getting hurt; i.e., stabbing and killing, like every other movie ever. 

I was happy to find that The Human Centipede [First Sequence], didn't follow the same route. 

The Human Centipede uses a different type of horror, a horror utilized in the award winning Black Swan. Know which horror I'm talking about? If you don't, I'm talking about BODY HORROR! 

Body horror is exactly as it sounds; horror based on our human bodies, which usually showcases the body being destroyed or malformed in some way. Example; Natalie Portman's character in Black Swan began to graphically grow feathers from her arms in her epic transformation scene. On viewing the feather's plucking from her skin, it causes us as the audience to grow chills, and begin feeling what she feels, if we could ever imagine something as powerful as that. 

Something like that occurs in the movie I'm reviewing now, except, it's much worse, cringing even. 

In The Human Centipede [First Sequence] two female American tourists are drugged and kidnapped by a mad doctor (played by Dieter Laser) who is a famous surgeon whom specialized in separating Siamese twins. He has such a hateful appetite for human life, he spends his time alone, pondering what he could do with his medical skills. This is when he forms the idea of instead of separating people, he wishes to conjoin them, creating his own creature, the "human centipede". To him, the unlucky tourists he captured, as well as a Japanese tourist he catches later, are now his guinea pigs for the operation. 

One major reason why people were so turned off by this movie is the disgusting way he joins the trio, conjoining their mouths to the other person's...behind. The mere idea, the shock value alone from the thought of being in that position, and for us even seeing the trio like that for a little more than an hour long, really freaked the viewer's out. What they don't realize is the director did us a favor, because the two female victims (the very bad actresses who's names I wont say because it isn't too important) are shut up the rest of the film, besides their constant moans and cries after the surgery. The only people who speak are the doctor, and the Japanese victim, who is the front of the creation, but he only speaks his native language, which somehow adds to the uncomfort, even though the viewer can read the subtitles. 

What makes this movie so scary isn;t the actual monster the doctor manufactures, but the doctor, well, actor's performance as the twisted surgeon. Laser's performance is so convincing and so satisfying to any horror fan, because he really absorbs his role. If he was spotted walking around the street, and knew him from the film, most likely they would run away, because they'd forget that he was acting, and think that he was going to kidnap them and knit their faces to someone else's behind. To me, Laser deserves more roles as an actor; he did so good as an evil German doctor, he could almost be compared to the likes of Hannibal Lecter, considering both are remarkable film characters, and unforgettable.

Also, I didn't like that people said the film was "gross" because it showed too much. To me, it showed hardly nothing, except of course for the surgery scene. It doesn't show any "crap" although it's implied in one scene using only sounds, when the poor middle girl has to feed. But that scene is so short it passes by in second, but for some reason the audience will target it as the topic of discussion, and downplay it, unable to fully gain the complexity and horror it shows. The thought of being force-fed crap, and actually having to sit and watch somebody do so, then showing the emotional fallout of the centipede as it sits during the night in a cage crying out muffled yelps for help. 

It's those types of things the film runs on; gross sights and people moaning through their bandaged scars. Tom Six, the film's director, uses his first film as an opportunity to showcase torturous cries, all the way even over the closing titles. It wasn't in my book too much, when you think about the situation they're in, it would have been odd if he kept them silent. In a way however, it almost displays a pleasure certain individuals get off too, the sound of constant physical and mental pain, and Six has the doctor enjoy every second of it, even crying in happiness at his first look at his creation; indeed it proved to be one of the more unsettling scenes in the movie. 

If I may end this short; The Human Centipede [First Sequence] will please any true fan of the horror genre, and will delight them to know the story is quiet, and a quite possible original tale that will get under the skin of any newcomer, unable to handle the makeup and props. And I can see a promising future for director Tom Six after having the pleasure of viewing his controversial debut film, that went as far as being the most discussed horror film of the year during it's release. 

If I had to rate it, I'd give it an approval; enjoying the plot but suffering while the main actresses spewed each uninspired word of their dialog until the doctor begins to speak, then it turns good again. It isn't the best, but it will make you squirm. Oh my God, you will squirm.