"Madness taken to the extreme"

Title: The Human Centipede (First Secuence)

Year: 2009

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Director y Writer: Tom Six

Runtime: 92min

Cast: Dieter Laser, Ashey C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura.

Produc.: Six Entertainmet

Budget: €1,500,5000 approx.

The Human Centipede is about two american girls, Linsday (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie), who are walking around Europe and one night have a fault in their car in the middle of a forest. The girls go to get help and give to arrive at an isolated house, whose owner is a retired psychotic german surgeon, Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser), who has got in mind to carry out the most unusual and unhealthy of the operations.

First of all, it is important to clarify an elementary matter, which is that every film, regardless of subject or other possible controversial aspects, is quite worthy of a rating. I say this because while on checking the famous site IMDB, I found that a critic named Roger Ebert had made the following comment: "The star system is unsuited to this film (…) It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don´t shine." This man refused to score in his criticism, which is not the same as to put a zero, which would be to consider the movie as one of the worst movies ever made. He also added that it does not really matters if the film is perceived as good or bad.

Personally, I respect his point of view, but disagree with it.

Then I intend to do two things. On one hand I feel that, no matter how bizarre and grotesque this film may seem, is entitled to a defense. On the other hand, I want to analyze the concept mentioned above, which states that "the film is what it is."

What it is The Human Centipede? Let's start there.

It´s about a former doctor, or if one prefers (and more understandable, when defining the character), a "mad scientist", who kidnaps three victims, sedates them to put them to sleep, and then performs the most atrocious of the operations, uniting them as is that insect with several legs and known by everybody, that we call centipede. And yes. I know the idea sounds extremely frightening and inhumane. But… Does it really have to be a “but”? many would ask. Yes, indeed.

It's a horror movie, with a high degree of morbid and extreme madness. However, likewise it does not stop being a movie, and what we are shown does not stops being just fiction, product, not of a sick mind as many think, but a guy with a lot of imagination, someone to whom one day simply came up to conduct the most bloody-minded idea. It is always possible that someone out of his mind have ideas like this. While there is also the chance that a human being perfectly sane, but with extravagant ideas, comes to his mind wanting to do a film like nothing that had ever been thought of before. I myself, after having seen it, have no doubted about my sanity even for a second, and I continue to carry on with my life in the same way as before, without any guilt whatsoever or any need to treat me in the Vilardebó psychiatric hospital.

If you've seen movies like the SAW saga, you´ve met Jeepers Creepers or any zombie movie of George Romero´s, Tom Six's film should not torment or disgust you too much, or anything similar, because I would even say that it is more what has been left to the imagination of the public (both, through its title as what it was said just released), than what it´s actually seen on screen. Because in reality we only have three players, who spend half the movie whimpering, walking on their knees every time the director said "action" and pretending, two of them, to have their lips sewn to someone else’s anus (that, if I didn´t misunderstood all of the surgeon explanation). A very good job of makeup and proper coordination between actors can effectively give us the illusion that they were united on a permanent basis.

Another important detail to bring up, is that if we do not want to see this new approach from Tom Six, that should not involve more than: not going see the movie, not renting it, buying it or downloading  it from the Internet.

Many might think I'm crazy for thinking this way and carrying out this analyze, disaggregating and rationalizing each of the elements of this film and its viewing itself, but I think is the most accurate way to understand things more clearly, without censoring it, deleting it directly off the map and saying it sucks.

Turning briefly to the analysis of its history, the film begins well, with the typical "two girls lost in the woods with a broken car", then "the two girls seeking help," and later, "the two girls ending up with the wrong person" All this, a very simple but effective premise, allowing us to meet a Dr. Heiter splendidly portrayed by Laser, which seems to be really coconut upset. Thus, when we are introduced to Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura), the japanese, it means to have added the final touch, for the director to feel encouraged to develop his bizarre little tale. Up from this moment we´ll have three desperate victims of a lopsided mind, trying to escape from the residence of the maniac.

Within the negative, perhaps the biggest problem of the film is its pace, since the last 30 minutes get a little dense and a bit bored. For this reason, The Human Centipede ends up being "what it is" and not "what it could have been." A movie that could have been of an acceptable level, but ultimately stays in the "almost" acceptable, but not without out unbalancing us in the process.

My rating: 4/10

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