Clip From The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
by Britt Hayes
From the moment I laid eyes on images from The Human Centipede (First Sequence), I was irrationally fearful. How is this possible? In my film food triangle, horror is the fruit and veggies, meaning that I watch it more than any other genre (hence why I write here for you lovely people). I can’t recall the last time I was this terrified about a movie, and I haven’t even seen this film yet.
I think the last time I was scared during a movie was during Alexandre Bustillo’s À l’intérieur (Inside). Before that it was Neil Marshall’s The Descent, and before that, I can’t remember. It takes a lot to scare me. I often tout a stomach of iron, and not much scares me or grosses me out. So why does The Human Centipede, a film I have yet to see, scare the living hell out of me? Why do I have this irrational fear? I think part of it is the images that have been released from the film, along with the plot summary, which puts those images into startling perspective:
“Two pretty American girls are on a road trip through Europe. In Germany they end up alone at night with a broken car in the woods. They search for help and find an isolated villa. The next day they awake to find themselves trapped in his terrifying makeshift basement hospital along with a Japanese man. An older German man identifies himself as a retired surgeon specialized in separating Siamese twins. However his three “patients” are not about to be separated, but joined together in a horrific operation. He plans to be the first person to connect people via their gastric system, in doing so bringing to life his sick lifetime fantasy ‘the human centipede.’”
From what I’ve read, the surgeon removes the kneecaps of the victims, and then surgically grafts the people together, ass to mouth. That alone causes me to shudder a bit, and brings to mind questions about how they survive – how do the ones with their mouths grafted to the ass of the person in front of them eat? Oh yeah, that’s right, I don’t want to think about that.
But I think what really causes this irrational fear I have over the film (a fear that makes me, after watching the new clip on Youtube, scared to be alone in my apartment) is that these people are thrown into a terrifying and helpless situation. It’s that feeling of helplessness that I find so frightening and effective in most horror films. On top of that, you know this film, and its sequel, will not have a happy ending, no matter what happens.
While talking to a friend of mine today, he mentioned that the odds of some crazy surgeon kidnapping me to make me part of his human centipede were about one in a trillion. How does that help me? That’s still an odd! That means it could still happen! After this movie comes out, my odds will probably increase because some sick fuck will undoubtedly think that this is the most brilliant idea ever.
Kayley gave some brief thoughts on The Human Centipede in her Fantastic Fest coverage, calling the film “brutal”, and noting that director Tom Six said he didn’t really “let himself go” in this first film, but will go even further in the second film when he creates his 12 person centipede. After the images I’ve seen, the things I’ve heard, and the clip below from Youtube, I’m wondering what the second film would be like. How could you get any crazier than the first?
