rHEflTffi$NBENTTPED
Everyyearthehorrorworldisshockedbya supposed must-seemoviecausing
moreoftenthannottheshockis morethattheseso-called moviesarenothingmorethanover-hyped mess! Ihe Human
Centipedehasbeenlikenedbysomecriticsto a carcrash.Whatcanwe reallyexpectfroma film thatcomeswith such
bullshithype?
orror fans know their stuff. We,
as a general rule, are pretty
resistant to hype. When we are
told that such and such is 'the
most disturbing movie ever
made' or that people were
throwing up during screeningsand walking
out part-way through the film, our interest
may be piqued to seesuch a film, but as to
its chunk-blowing significance,we tend to
wait and make our own minds up. Tom
Six's Human Centipede (First Sequence) is
being touted as such a film; a movie so
depraved it may just turn an audience
insane.
30 secondsafter the first movie made the
first dollar, exploitation cinema was born.
Exploiting the audience'sdesiresfor
entertainment and sensationalismhas been
the mainstay of the film worldo and
exploitation movies in particular have
always had the premise of promising much
more than the film actually delivers-what
hucksters call'selling the sizzleonot the
steak'. The Human Centipede, in this
respect,emergesout of a fine and
somewhat less-than-nobletradition of
exploitation cinema.
The premise is certainly puke-worthy. A
mad German surgeon, who made his name
separating conjoined twins, has the dream
of creating a 'human centipede': the
sharing of a single digestive track by three
victims. To do this, Dr. Heiter (Dieter
Laser) kidnaps two young American
women (Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn
Yennie) and a Japanesetourist (Akihiro
Kitamura). His plan is to surgically attach
one personts mouth to another's anus, and
then repeat the procedure one more time,
effectively creating a three-segmented
human centipede.
Dutch writer-director Tom Six has noted
that he was largely influenced by the body-
horror imagery of David Cronenberg and
Takashi Miike, as well as the
experimentation on unwilling medical
subjects by the Nazis. Supposedly'the
casting of two Americans and a Japanese
tourist as the film's central victims to a
GOREZONEJULY 201O58
Sadly,
a frenzyin mediaoutletsworldwide.
German mad scientist was symbolic of
the participants of World War II. While
that's a nice theory, and certainly one
picked up on by a few critics, it doesn't
really work; there were other
participants in that war too, none of
whom are given any symbolic
representation in the film.
Much detail is given in the surgical
explanation of the procedure, which Six
assureshis audience(as it screamsfrom
the film's poster) is '1007o medically
accurate', The attention to surgical
minutiae regarding how one's mouth
could effectively be sutured to another's
butthole is tremendous, with several of
the official stills for the film depicting
Heiter's drawings for the experiment
(which were apparently drawn by Six's
doctor friend), rather than action from
the film.
As Six notes,'I consulted a real surgeon
in Holland. At first he thought I was
"l trytoGrcatG
oliginalfilms,wny
tnatalGd0nG
wlitcstolies a medical knowledge is quite
hundred mou$and timesP Gteate
someming new,[usn boundafies,
whyGIsebothelfl"
I Dieter La*r was gobsmacked wfien Madonna asked fot
advice on hw to define heriawline.
I
crazy becauseit was going against hb
medical oath, but later becausehe b e
movie fan he wanted to helP me. He
designeda very detailed accurate
operation for me as you seein the
film when Dr. Heiter is showing the
drawings they are real oPeration
drawings. So this surgeon could
ll
actually make a human centipedeir r
b
hospital. Of course you'd have to bt
rl
very sick as a surgeon to do it for
I
real.'
t
It would be churlish of me to nitlit
on the science of the film, hower cr.
surely to create a'human centipt*'
along the lines proposed (and
I
completely ignoring that instead Jt
centipede,what Heiter actuaI t
createsonly has 12 limbs) it Eorl t
more efficient if the secondand
in the line were decapitated.
their oesophagusessurgicallr
the anusesand their nen-ous 5t
reconfigured to act as a whok d-
Such a procedure would. out of
necessityocut out the mouth
from the equation. Such an crrr
far from simply denf ing thc
accuracy of the film, the hcd
retained and independent ir
create the 'eww, gross' rsrtt--
particularly when Katsuro cr
longer hold his bowels and
profusely to Lindsap'.xho cr
nothing but swallorr. Eacl
segment must retain its
and individualitl'and not br
subsumed by dehumand
need to imagine rrhat nc
put in that situation: tbt'rt
no gross-out effect if thst
empathy.
Six has gone on record
create original films rb
that are done a hundrtd
times? Create somethL{
boundaries. g.hr eke b.fuD'
problem is that llrr Hnt 'ldrn
isn't as original as dl 'L- GJdmmtr
the attaching of thrct Fill mrmilllilll

to-anus is not something I,ve encountered
before in a movie, but the mad scientist
(German mad scientist,no less)who creates
monstrositiesgoesat least as far back as
Herr Doktor Frankenstein. Add in a little
perverted '(Hansel and Gretel" by way of
Hostel and,suddenly things aren't feeling so
fresh anymore.
The whole point of exploitation cinema is to
promise everything and deliver as little as
possible.These are the original high-
concept films. There is nothing beyond the
idea of being surgically grafted on to
someoneelse'srear end. Remember the
schoolyard 'sick jokes'? What's the
definition of gross?Two Siamesetwins,
joined at the mouth, and one ofthem pukes.
The Human Centipede never really rises
above that level of sophistication.
Six noted in an interview with Will LeBlanc
that: 'I knew when I had this original and
strange idea that there would be a lot of
people that would hate it and be disgusted
by it. But I also knew that there must be
people who would really love this idea and
love this film. So you know if yourre making
a controversial film this will always happen
to you. During a test screeningin Holland
there were girls walking out of the theater
crying who were really afraid to talk or
even look at me after the screening.tWith
all due respect,horror movies, like any
movie, generatea range ofresponses, not
just love it or hate it. Roger Ebert,s
commentary on the film is significant: 'I
am required to award stars to movies I
review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star
rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the
movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter?'
Such commentary suggeststhat horror fans
will go and seeany film with the promise of
excessivegrossness.'Body horrort, a term
coined to refer to David Cronenberg's
worko is largely critic-proof. In fact, horror
Subscribeat http://gorezone.co.uk
"l lmewwhen I nadmis
ofiginalandsttange idea
matmelewouldbealot
ofrconlematwould hate
it and[e disgusred [y it
Butlalsolnewthat
melemustbG[co[le
whowould teallyloue
thisideaandlouetnis
film."
fans don't want the critics to
like their films becausehorror
fans need to be marginal. We
don't want oar jilms to be
mainstreaml that destroys the
joys of discovering new directorsonew
films, new levels of perversion and the
grotesque.'Hands off our genre,' we
scream.
Ebertts comment, however and
despite the number of times it is
quoted in discussionsabout the film,
is taken out ofcontext. His review of
The Human Centipede is largely
positive. Earlier in the review, Ebert
comments, 'I have long attempted to
take a generic approach. In
other words, is a film true to its genre
and does it deliver what its audiences
presumably expect? "The Human
Centipede" scoreshigh on this scale.
It is depraved and disgusting enough
to satisfy the most demanding
midnight movie fan. And itrs not
simply an exploitation film.' For many
critics, there is a tone of dismissal in
their reviews. Rolling Stone's review
opens with this salvo: 'This horror
show from Dutch director Tom Six
will be heaven for devoteesof four-
star torture porn and zero-star hell
for everyoneelse.' So only those who
like torture porn (a poorly-defined
term at its best, but one whose
meaning everyone knows) will like
this, but everyone else(i.e. 'normal'
people) should stay away from such
films. What the critics seemto
assume,and assumequite unfairly, is
that horror fans are an
indiscriminatinglot. Any
concept promising the bizarre and
stomach-turning is like porn to us.
Consider this next comment from
Jeannette Catsoulis writing in the Nep
York Timest rA must-see for
coprophiliacs and spanking
enthusiasts... [this] may be the year's
first mainstream fetish movie'.
'Coprophiliacs', for those of us
unsophisticatedenough to not read
the New York Times means 'shit
eaters'. Catsoulis continues referring
to the film as a'twisted,DD
GOREZONEJULY 201O59
BA0
tut0utts

hammy bio-horror Iwhich] is sufficiently

original to lure even the most satiated
genre fans'. Much like torture porn, the
mainstreaming of 'extreme horror' gives a
non-horror readership the illusion of
knowing and understanding contemporary
horror cinema. Despite horror being the
new ^StdrTrek (at least in fashionable
circles), the real fans are not interested in
mainstream horror. Ifyaz know about it,
Ms. Catsoulis, then the chancesare we've
already seenit and have moved on to
pleasuresbeyond. Hang out with some
real genre fans, as Hellralbar's Pinhead
would say, for'we have such sights to show
yout,
Six has a fan page on Facebook (even my
cat has a fan page, but then again he is a
very popular kitty). Reading the comments
on that page, a distinct picture of fans of
The Human Centipede begins to take shape.
What emergesis a picture considerably
removed from the gore-junkies mainstream
newspaperssuggestwant to seethe film.
Paul Shunk, for example, notes: 'You blew
Cronenberg out of the Body Horror
genre!!! Human Centipede was
AWESOME!!!' Other commentsinclude:
rI was literally nauseatedbefore watching
the film I was so scared. and I loved it'
(Scottie Corley); 'You are really making
some awesomefilms' (Tristan O'Brien);
and 'WOW. You knocked me off center
and it takes a LOT to move me' (Marz
Richards). Attend any horror film festival
and you'll seethesefans who make such
comments; they come in for one, maybe two
films in an evening,dragging their
dates with them to show how tough they
are. They can watch totally sick movies.
These are not fans. These are wannabes.
The real fans hang out at the back of the
venue, chatting amongst themselves,who
watch every film. These are the people who,
during the ubiquitous short film segments
of any horror festival, take notebooks with
them to record their thoughts and who take
their votes verv seriouslv. Real horror
GOREZONE
J U L Y2 O 1 O
60
"l Gonsultedatealsutgeon in
Holland. AtfirsthethoughrI was
Glazy lecauseit wasg0ingagainst
hismedical oalh,butlater
[ecause heisamouiclanhe
wanled mnel[me.Hcdesigned a
I She notied her name was
on Heston Blumenthal'smenu
uelydctailed 0[clati0n
accuratG
and that was just for starte6! you
fol meas sceintnefilmwner
llr.lleiterisshowingthedrawings
meyarclealo0cration
drawings.'
fans don't post on Facebook fan pages.
Even funnier than the wannabes are those nho
take films like The Human Centipede way too
seriously. Again on Six's Facebook page are a
number of people who use the spaceto bitch
about the film's morality. 'Will somebodl'
pleaseshoot Tom Six in the head and help ri<t
the world of the garbage that is people like hirl
With all of the real problems we have in the
world today why can't people make constructir.t
movies' (Scott Douglas Haag). For the record-
Six's film is constructive; it demonstrateshor
to construct a 'human centipede'.Faith Hatcl
comments: 'tom...i hated your film, you are r
truely sick indiviual. wile i was watching thfo
movie i was wondering what the hell kind of e
person would sit down and and in geat dehel
write a script this revolting. The sear concr?r d
theis story is crap! what the hell where vou
thinking conecting 3 people by the ass hok- ru
kind of shitty stort is that anyways, it
dosne evern have a good ending. arter
)
BAD
tttoutt$
i watched this movie i couldn't even go to
sleep because of the feeling in my stomic......
you should be ashamed for putting thoughs
images and ideas into peoplesdeads,your a
sick peoson and need therapy, die slowly!'
So we're up to two death threats now.
Finally Lisa Matt comments: 'Everyone who
likes this film: in another time and place,
you would have been running concentration
camps. I have no doubt about it. You should
all be sterilized.' In any argument, the first
person who mentions the Holocaust loses;it
is too crude a trump card to play. However,
not withstanding that piece of advice for
the novice orator. other critics have made
comparisons of Dr. Heiter with the Nazis.
Catsoulis in the New York Times goes so far
as to wonder if the film is 'a commentary on
Nazi atrocities or a literal expression of
filmmaking politics'.
Six has even been compared to Uwe Boll, as
being the Dutch contribution to modern bad
cinema. His distinct enthusiasm for
moviemaking and the stark modernism of
his mise en scine suggestthat he should be a
better filmmaker than the end products of
his movies indicate. Anyone who has heard
of The Human Centipede will know what it
is about; the concept of the film is pre-sold.
For the first half of the film, we wait in
promised anticipation for the
Cronenbergian/Miike-esque excesses. But
watching Kitamura, Williams and Yennie
crawl about on all fours bandaged together
looks more like university hazing than a
medical experiment. I did wonder if cast
flatulence was a problem on the set; one
really can suffer too much for their art.
According to some fans of the film, The
Human Centipede should be viewed as a
comedy, not a horror film. They suggest it
be watched with a senseof humour.
But, at the end of the day, what will keep
thebtzz going about Tom Six and The
Human Centipede is the genre fans, and
their publications. Bloody Disgusting gave
BNERXG
the film a positive review, awarding
it a score of 6/10. as did Dread
Central's Gareth Jones.However.
366 Weird Movies is not so easily
charmed: 'So, the answer to the
question of how director Tom Six
would pad the film to fill up the extra
88 minutes of screen time turns out to
be an ingenious and efficient one: he
relies on tried and true horror movie
clich6s, trusting that we'll never
catch on becausethis time, it's a
human centipede playing out the
predictable formula. So it's different,
see?The full movie is no
improvement on the trailer, but it is
45 times longer. Now that I think
back on it, the 2 minute trailer may
have been paddedotoo.'
Regardless of whether you are a fan
of Tom Six's variant on body-horror,
or whether you seehim as a non-
commiffal horror wannabe, a sequel
is currently being planned for mid-
2010 shooting inLondon. The
Haman Centipede (Full Sequence)
promises much more than part one,
"lfuring atostsctGoning
inllollandtnetowete
girlswalning outoIthe
tnGarcl GilingwnowelG
lGaluafiaidt0tall 01
euGnlool atmealtGl
tnesGlceninu."
According to Six himself, who in
interviews becomescagey when
asked about the sequel, this new
film will be much more graphic,
have many more bodies attached
(some rumours suggestfour times
the number of victims, thereby
making a l2-person human
centipede with 48 digits flaying
about), and will make Fl'rsl
Segmentlooklike My Little Pony
in comparison. Or that could just
be exploitation hucksterism to get
the wannabes excited. MJK
DD m" Human Centipede (Full
Sequence)has no scheduled release
date but will be reviewed in a future
issue.