Everyone seems to be buzzing about the release of Dutch filmmaker Tom Six's The Human Centipede (First Sequence), part one of a promised trilogy. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can view the trailer here (I wouldn't do it at work though). I was lucky enough to attend the sold-out midnight screening of The Human Centipede at The Nuart in Los Angeles.

Truth be told, my expectations were fairly high going into this screening for a few of reasons. First, the crowd at any midnight movie in Los Angeles is indistinguishable from attendees at Thunderdome. Second, the actors who made up two-thirds of the human centipede were in attendance and did a Q&A session after the movie. And lastly, I'm a sick fuck.

The plot is fairly simple. Two fairly generic American girls touring Europe get lost & stranded in rural Germany. Seeking help, they come across the home of Dr. Heiter, an apparently retired surgeon who specialized in operating on conjoined twins. The doctor promises to help the stranded girls, but instead he drugs & imprisons them in his basement operating room. Soon after, Dr. Heiter captures a Japanese tourist and imprisons him as well. He preps the victims for surgery and shows the three a series of diagrams detailing how he plans on making the trio into the human centipede.


The diagram is pretty self-explanatory, but in case you're dense, he connects the mouth of one victim to the asshole of the person in front of them, until there's a chain of people forced to eat the poo of the person who precedes them. The film provides a new, but not really more disgusting, definition of going "ass to mouth." If this ever happens to you, try your best to become the first segment.

As can be expected, none of the captives are too thrilled by the prospect of this altered existence. But they're tied to their hospital beds, so what can they do? Well, one of the girls manages to free herself and attempts to escape the Doctor's diabolical ranch house. To say that her escape doesn't go well is an understatement. In some of the most intense and bloody moments of the film, the victim is running solely on adrenaline and instinct as she desperately tries to get away. She isn't successful. The pissed off doctor informs her that her escape attempt means she'll be the middle segment of the human centipede. That's the one you really don't want to be.

The doctor completes his grisly project, and the human centipede is born. The Japanese guy is lucky enough to be the first segment, and the girl who didn't try to escape is the tail. Three people, surgically reborn as one creature, and the only one with the ability to communicate doesn't speak the same language as anybody else...It's truly a sinister plot. But the crazy shit is really just getting started at this point.

So is the movie any good, or is it just an attempt to make a disgusting movie aimed at adolescent gore-hounds? Well... I liked this movie. Notice, I didn't say I enjoyed this movie. This isn't a cheesy movie to mock while downing MGD with friends. It doesn't have screaming killers jumping out at the screen from behind corners. It isn't really any fun at all. And while the concept may seem ridiculous on the surface, the execution is anything but stupid. It's scary on a very primal level. You're forced to imagine how nightmarish life would be inside a body you have no control over while your brain continues to function normally. The sick premise may pack theaters, but the reason the movie is effective is because of what isn't shown on the screen.

We aren't told much about the crazy doctor. We know that he used to be a surgeon specializing in separating conjoined twins. And we know that he's still in mourning over the recent death of his beloved "3 Hund," which was the prototype of the human centipede featuring three (probably very confused) Rottweilers.

The almost total lack of a back-story means that there's no way to empathize with Dr. Heiter or even begin to understand his ghastly motivations. This works to the movie's advantage; as neither the audience nor his victims understand why any of this is happening. Dr. Heiter is a force of evil that can't be understood; therefore he can't reasoned with.

On the other hand, because the victims are essentially blank slates, they're easy to sympathize with. You won't find yourself cheering for one "segment" of the centipede over any other. They're all equally unlucky victims of a plot they can't comprehend. They could be anyone. And because of that, viewers can easily imagine the horror they'd feel if they were put in this grisly situation.

Is The Human Centipede the sickest movie ever made? Probably not. I personally believe that honor still belongs to Salò. Both Salò and The Human Centipede feature victims completely losing their freedom and being forced to eat shit, but Salò leaves nothing to the imagination (including the shit-eating). The Human Centipede is much more subtle. Yes, subtle. There isn't any excrement depicted on the screen. Yet, because it's visually absent, the implication of a bowel movement forces the viewer to carry out the act in their minds, which is far more chilling.

Although there's no shit, there is blood. Lots of blood. But not necessarily excessive amounts of blood. Characters bleed about the amount you'd expect (maybe less) when the dreadful things begin to happen to them. After all, Dr. Heiter isn't some axe-wielding psycho conducting experiments in a moldy crypt full of rotting corpses; he's a brilliant surgeon with a very nice house that happens to have a sterile (almost pleasant) operating room in the basement. Whatever gore happens on the screen seems all the more repulsive because of the comfortable setting.

During the post-film Q&A, the two cast members in attendance were asked if their parents had seen it yet. Ashlynn Yennie (the end of the centipede) said that her mom hadn't seen it yet, and looked like she hoped she never would. Akihiro Kitamura (the front of the centipede) said that his mom saw it and loved it. He added, "We are Japanese. We are very kinky."

If you're feeling kinky, you can catch the film in one of the 14 cities it's playing in. Chicagoans can see it at The Music Box. It's also available via On Demand from most digital cable providers.