I didn't have high expectations going into Tom Six's "The Human Centipede". The trailer seemed to give away the film's macabre punch line. I figured it would be your run-of-the-mill low budget, poorly-acted, unintentionally hilarious horror film, albeit one with a novel but thoroughly demented premise. After viewing the film, I was shocked for a number of reasons.
Foremost, it's actually a decent and for a few stretches good movie. German actor Dieter Laser anchors the film with his portrayal of the Mengele-like Dr. Heiter. In every scene his lunacy percolates under the surface like a fever. From his unblinking gaze to his slow and deliberate movements, his demeanor screams "I am not sane." Well that and his fetish for stitching mammals together via their gastro-intestinal tracts.
As ripe for pornographic exploitation as the film's premise is, I was happily surprised at how restrained the film turned out to be. There is blood and viscera, but the film never crosses into "Two Girls, One Cup"-level scatological licentiousness. In fact, the one scene where the logistics of the "human centipede" are depicted, any revulsion is generated from the viewer's own imagination. But that seems to be the lesson that most good horror moviemakers have learned: what I conjure in my head whether in anticipation or as it happens is infinitely scarier and more disturbing than what you can show me on-screen.
I've seen some reviews categorize the film as "torture porn," along the lines of Eli Roth's "Hostel" or any number of chop-the-girl-up-in-creative-ways flicks that have come into fashion lately. I'd disagree that "The Human Centipede" falls into this category. There is misogyny, fetishism of violence and a general nihilistic misanthropy-thing going on, but these all seem like expressions of the antagonist's insanity than a cynical ploy from the director. Director Tom Six seems more interested in ramping up the anxiety in his audience to unbearable levels and for the most part he succeeds.
The movie starts out in typical genre fashion with two girls stranded in the woods who come across an eccentric loner. There is subtle humor in the opening scenes. It stems from the soon-to-be-victims being utterly unperceptive to the signals that their host is unbalanced. Six does a good job of disarming the viewer here. The tonal shift is jarring after herr doctor captures his prey and the audience finds itself on edge from there on out.
Six then proceeds to guide us through some heretofore unrevealed circle of Hell and strands us there. The post-modern austerity of Dr. Heiter's home makes for a perfect mousetrap with its seemingly endless identical doors and antiseptic white walls. The audience is left feeling perpetually mortified and helpless as our protagonists try their best to persevere their collective nightmare. Don't look for a ladder at the end either.
The films biggest missteps are the leaps in logic that the characters undertake which many horror films succumb to; at a few pivotal junctures, the characters behave in a way that blinkers reason in order to advance the plot (sort of like how lazy rom-com screenwriters rely on the "big misunderstanding" almost without fail in the second act). This dunderheadedness doesn't break the film, but it does detract from what is otherwise a well-crafted psychological torture film.
The film is subtitled "First Sequence" and according to IMDB, the sequel will be out next year. I can't imagine revisiting the universe that director Tom Six has created with this film and most likely won't. However, this one will earn (well-deserved) cult status and will probably be a midnight staple at art houses for years to come. I'm not sure what conclusions one should draw about humanity from this.
(P.S. - I am don't know what's more shocking about this film: the fact that director Tom Six conceived the idea of surgically chaining humans together like linking logs or that nobody thought of it before.)
