Review CXIII - The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

Review 113
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)

The slasher genre has never been a particular favourite of mine. While I enjoy a good zombie movie every once in a while, like Dead Alive, Friday the 13th and the like do not appeal to me. But I've gone on this rant before, so there's no need to start again. However, gore films as of recently, circa 2000, have turned into super gore films that aim to just disgust. When I saw that A Serbian Film was considered one of the grossest movie, I checked it out. ... It was bad. I mean, the gore wasn't even that bad - it was just trying to disturb and disgust people with the mix of violence, sexual themes taken waaay too far, and uncomfortableness. This is the desensitisation movies need to pass in order to stand out? Of course I sound all high and mighty, but then I sat down to watch Tom Six's The Human Centipede (First Sequence) with one of my siblings after wanting to see just how bad it was. Go me?

Two American girls (Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie) and a Japanese man (Kitamura Akihiro) are forced into a bizarre experiment by a top surgeon gone wrong (Dieter Laser).

The first installment in the series was not as bad as I thought it would be. And by bad, I mean gory and disgusting. Let me elaborate on that first. I mean, the IV scene was a bit gross, but once the operation is completed, you don't see anything. I wouldn't want to, but it would have made me really see the gore effects. Although I hated Poultrygeist (that review is from a while back, eh?), at least the gore was promising. But in this one... We see an infection, but honestly, it relies more on the idea of the operation than the gore. The idea is good, but I don't know man, I wanted some gore. And I didn't get that. So what do I get? Nothing.

Why don't I get anything? Because the film is also bad in plot, acting, characters... While I thought acting and characters would be lacking, I was hopeful in the plot. But I was pretty meh about the plot from right off the bat. I know horror movies deal with people that keep making obviously bad decisions, but our main characters, the two girls there, really are just beyond stupid. Personal safety and dealing with creepy guys making completely sexual passes... But whatever, fine, horror movie logic. But then the issue I refuse to let pass was that the doctor never explains why he obsesses with this ass-to-mouth business. I laughed with the first scene where he stares down at the picture of the dog creation he made, but then I never get an explanation. The guy is a top-notch surgeon, but that means nothing. The closest I get is when the Japanese guy ironically yells, "You German Nazi bastard!" But that's it. I mean, the doctor guy isn't even that old, so he can't be a Nazi. And that's just some guy yelling out of frustration, so that's no explanation either. It's never accepted nor disproven. Maybe if he was a closeted homosexual who was into rimming... (Gross, I know. Sorry) I would have accepted any excuse - not liked it necessarily, but accepted it - but offering none just didn't work for me. Yes, he's a sadist and messed up, but why the extended gastrointestinal tract? Why that in particular? And this goes beyond wanting to show his talent - this is a sexual thing. Spoiler alert, but when the doctor is climbing the stairs, he seductively licks the blood off of them. Even before that, you just get the sense he's turned on by the whole matter. But nothing is explained, and while that might not impede others, it definitely got me thinking about it the whole film. I mean, even if it was an explanation like Jerry Brudos, that would have been cool.

As you can tell from my nitpicking, I didn't really find the film all that great, so all I'm doing is getting hung up on details. It had a poor rating, but I was hoping I could get a good laugh out of this one. I didn't. While The Human Centipede has made quite a name for itself, I can't say it's anything special. It aims to make you uncomfortable and think you're watching shocking, but it's really not as bad as the idea implies. Skip it.

Oh, and this 100% medically accurate? Are they trying to pull a fast one? I don't even know.