The Human Centipede [First Sequence]

I can't remember the last time a horror film arrived on DVD or Blu-ray with quite as much hype (and, in some cases, uproar) as The Human Centipede. Amongst all of the debate and discussion which concentrated largely on 'can a horror movie go too far?', was a debate on the BBC Radio 4 show Front Row and various Internet forums about whether this was just a step too far, depicting something that really shouldn't be shown in cinemas. I managed to stay well away from all of the debates as I heard that this was a film that you are better off seeing without any preconceptions so I avoided any trailers, radio debates and haven't even read the synopsis on the press release yet!

The Human Centipede begins in the rather unusual setting of a motorway layby where a thin, bespectacled man is sitting in his Mercedes staring at photographs of three Rottweilers which appear to be taking the traditional dog greeting of sniffing another canine's backside a little too far. When a truck pulls up behind his car, the man follows the driver, who is going behind some bushes for a 'number two', with a rifle and, the next thing you know, he shoots him.

The film then cuts to a couple of American tourists, Lindsay and Jenny, who are travelling across Europe, one chatting on her cell phone to a friend back home and did the one trying to get directions to a club. Several hours later and the two are completely lost in the forest and the only card that pulls up is driven by a pervert with a sex toy dangling from the rearview mirror! With a flat tyre and absolutely no knowledge of how to replace the wheel and no signal on their phone, they decide not to wait it out in the car but try and find a house nearby with someone who can phone for the breakdown service from a landline.

After walking around for a great deal of time in the pouring rain, they spot a light in the distance and find a large, single-storey house and, after ringing the bell and knocking on the door, are greeted and let into the house by the same mysterious looking man who we saw earlier in the layby where he shot the trucker. The girls think he looks friendly enough and accept his offer of a drink, each choosing a glass of water. Whilst he is getting their drinks, he pretends to phone the breakdown service and spikes their water with Rohypnol. Safe in the knowledge that the car will soon be fixed and they can be on their way, one of the girls drinks the entire glass whilst the other drops hers after imbibing less than half of the liquid. Because the Rohypnol didn't do its job, the doctor gets a syringe and anaesthetises the still conscious girl.


The next thing I know is when they wake up in what appears to be a small surgical ward in the basement which has three beds with the third taken up by the gagged truck driver. This is only the beginning of their nightmare as, because he has a different blood type to the two girls, the truck driver is killed with a lethal injection and his place taken by a Japanese tourist who speaks no English or German so is unable to communicate with the two girls or the maniacal surgeon, dressed like a Nazi doctor from a concentration camp. As he explains to the three of them (although only the two girls are listening), they are to be transformed in a surgical procedure that will link the three of them together, anus to mouth, to create 'a human centipede' with one gastric system.

Although I knew virtually nothing about this film, I went into it with a degree of expectation based purely on the amount of hype that I had done extremely well to avoid. Expecting something strange, inventive and out of the ordinary, I was a little puzzled when the film began with a number of horror film clichés such as the two American tourists getting lost in the German countryside, that the two American tourists were attractive young women and that they suffered a flat tyre so had to go exploring in the woods. It seems as if director Tom Six was getting his clichés out of the way early and lulling the viewer into a false sense of security so that you expect a traditional, run-of-the-mill horror film only to be plunged into a truly nightmarish situation.


The casting is one of the keys to the film's success with the two girls, played by Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie, as thoroughly believable characters who manage to try and do their best to survive and escape from an utterly ghastly place and from the fantastic Dr. Josef Heiter who is brilliantly essayed by Dieter Laser. Although Tom Six says he resembles a thin Christopher Walken, I think that Laser is actually closer in physiognomy to a young Boris Karloff and the moment when he opens the door to Lindsay and Jenny is almost like something from a 1930s Gothic horror!

This film is subtitled [First Sequence] and Tom Six is working on a sequel which will be called [Final Sequence] and, as he freely admits in the commentary and interviews, this film is all about preparing the audience for an insane amount of body horror that outdoes anything that David Cronenberg did in his early career in films like Shivers, Rabid and The Brood and the sequel will fully unleash the depths of Six's imagination. I don't think the film is as narratively strong as it perhaps should be but this is a film that concentrates more on imagery than narrative coherency and Six fully admits that there are continuity errors and moments that just don't quite add up.


The Human Centipede [First Sequence] (which claims to be 100% medically accurate)is all about making the creature and the utterly nightmarish situation in which Lindsay, Jenny and Katsuro find themselves, with Lindsay punished for trying to escape by being put into the middle of the centipede, surgically connected to Katsuro's anus and Jenny's mouth. The premise is absolutely brilliant and I was amazed just how well it works with barely a dull moment and some imagery that will live with you long after the final credits rolled. I don't think it is a classic horror movie but it is one that is rightfully notorious and one that any horror film fan should see.

The Disc

Extra Features
The commentary with Tom Six is well delivered and fairly interesting and revealing as his English is very good, basically fluent, although this is almost be expected from a Dutch adult. He talks about locations, casting and the logistics of creating the centipede, even revealing that a surgeon told him how it would work and that his original plan to just stitch the mouth to the anus would be far from secure.

The fairly brief behind-the-scenes featurette is just what the title says and is a series of B-roll footage showing how they filmed various scenes.

As if there wasn't enough information from Six in this commentary, there are two a lengthy interviews in which he expands on where the idea for the film came from, how the casting went and what he thinks about the film's reception from both critics and audiences.

There is a deleted scene that was quite rightly omitted showing Dr. Heiter dancing at length in front of his creation.


Shot by Tom Six, the Foley session shows Maurice d'Orey preparing a variety of different props such as a chicken, some leathery pork and even part of a cow's leg to create the numerous weird sounds for the film and then Six returns to the studio after the session to just see a mangled pile of meat.

The casting session shows Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie going through some lines, pretending to talk to the doctor whilst drinking water, reacting to being strapped to a bed whilst sitting in a chair and then 'getting into position'.

There is footage of a Q&A session following a screening in London which runs for 22 minutes with questions from a moderator and members of the audience covering various different topics and aspects of the film and its sequel.

You also have the theatrical trailer.

All of these extra features are in 1080p high definition which is just as it should be.

The Picture
The 1080p picture is wonderfully clear with terrific colours from the lush greenery outside the house to the various colours inside and, when you have the service of the swimming pool reflected on the paintings on the wall, it really does look like something very special.

When it comes to the SFX make-up and surgery scenes, these are just extraordinarily well done and utterly believable which is why the titular creation carries such an immense amount of horror as it is such a plausible surgical conception and you can imagine some barmy scientist trying to make such a thing.

The Sound
The only audio option is the original stereo, presented in a terrific DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which did a splendid job of delivering the dialogue clearly and presenting the extremely good score very well.

As the languages flick between German, English and Japanese, the non-English parts are subtitled and, although these are error free and well written, you do have a slight issue with white subtitles getting slightly lost against a white background and it takes your eyes a few moments to adjust when the subtitles move to in front of a lab coat, wall or some other white background.

Final Thoughts
The Human Centipede [First Sequence] is a truly ambitious project and apparently Tom Six wasn't quite forthcoming with the backers who only realised what they had invested their money and when they saw the finished film and realise that is involved a lot of 'ass to mouth action'! Although it isn't the finest horror film I've seen this year, it is certainly the most memorable and Six's influences of David Cronenberg's body horror films and recent Japanese horror are clear to see. Whatever its merits (or otherwise), this is a film that you really need to see to believe and it does come with an extremely good AV package and set of extra features which will add to its longevity. I do think it is a film that will stand up to repeat viewings thanks to the black humour, terrific performance by Dieter Laser and amazing designs.