The Human Centipede [First Sequence]

By now I'm sure most of you have heard about The Human Centipede. The first attempt from writer/director Tom Six to make you puke all over yourself. Before I saw this, I heard that he had succeeded in this. Even the (falsely entitled) king of gore, Eli Roth, has a quote on the cover saying it made him sick. More on that schlub at a later date. I had high hopes going into this movie. However, because of all the hype behind this movie, I already had a pretty good idea of what was going to take place.

I'm glad that we meet our lead, Dr. Heiter, early because Dieter Laser is the best part of this film. I have a feeling this role wasn't too far from what he's like in real life. Then we meet our victims. By the time they get into trouble I wanted them to die. They were just annoying and fit right into the typical horror movie damsels in distress. Then one thing leads to another and we're listening to the doctor tell his patients in great detail about their upcoming surgical procedure. Which was arguably the most shocking part. It gets into it pretty quickly without much back story, but I found myself not really caring about that and just eager to see how this all was going down.

The surgery was surprisingly not too graphic and didn't last very long. And then we see our centipede. At first I felt the gross out feeling, nothing near getting sick, but I was grossed out... for about a minute. I found the initial shock wore off pretty quickly. The rest of the movie consists of Dr. Heiter trying to train them to move, sleep, and eat as a centipede. Which is bad news for the two ladies in the back, if you catch my drift. Then some other bad stuff happens and the movie ends. Vague, I know, but because this movie is still rather fresh I don't want to give away too much about the rest of it. Not that there is some amazing or shocking twist, I just want to be nice.

If it wasn't for the pure originality of the movie and the great performance by Dieter Laser, I don't really think this movie would be earning the Shock title. Tom Six really left more to the imagination than he showed. Which I've heard he's going to make up for with The Human Centipede 2 [Full Sequence] coming out sometime next year. He's been saying the first is just "My Little Pony" compared to the second and that he is trying to make the most shocking movie ever. I look forward to seeing if he holds up his end of the bargain. He also said that he actually sat down with a surgeon when he wrote this film as to make sure it is 100% medically accurate. So, I guess this is possible. Careful kids, don't get roofied in Germany.

Shock or Not? Shock

Film: 3/5
Shock: 3/5