Fantastic Fest 2009

Director Tom Six, producer Ilona Six and actors Akihiro Kitamura and Ashley Williams Live in Person!

Tom Six's The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is an insane biological horror film that enthusiastically explores territory that few filmmakers dare to tread. In The Human Centipede, Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser) is a leering, sepulchral surgeon from Germany whose specialty is separating Siamese twins. Dr. Heiter decides to evolve his craft by sewing together living beings together at the "mucous-cutaneous zone" (guess) in order to create Siamese triplets with a single digestive system. After his experiment in creating a three-segment rottweiler ("a beautiful three-hound construction") fails, Dr. Heiter tries again, shifting his attention to humans. First, a trucker is stolen away while relieving himself on the side of the road, Next, two clueless party girls who come knocking on Dr. Heiter's door after getting lost in the German forest get pulled into the experiment. After erasing the trucker from the picture, the doctor finds another victim: a crazed Japanese man wandering around Germany. The doctor concludes the initial phase of his experiment by splicing together the two girls and the Japanese man. At this stage, the film really goes berserk as Dr. Heiter attempts to impose his personal brand of order and discipline on an increasingly out-of-control situation.

In some ways, HUMAN CENTIPEDE adheres to what audiences have come to expect from horror movies. The lunatic doctor playing God is a long-standing horror trope, and the plot seems to deliberately play with a number of genre conventions. However, as might be obvious from the subject matter, most other aspects of the film are absolutely unconventional. The HUMAN CENTIPEDE signals its orifice-splicing intent early on, and doesn't hide where it’s headed. Every ounce of disgusting potential is squeezed out of the scenario through a mix of direct and implied approaches. HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE) delivers exactly what it promises, and then some. (Rodney Perkins)