THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE – Tom Six's series has plenty of detractors both within the fan community and without, but I've always been an admirer, up to and including the much maligned 'Third Sequence' with its sub-Ilsa shenanigans. The film that kicked it all off back in 2009 is the 'straightest' of the three in some ways, although that's probably not the right way to characterise a movie about a guy whose fave hobby is to fuse human beings mouth-to-anus in an attempt to create an organism with a communal digestive system. 'The Human Centipede' nods at the 'body horror' of Cronenberg, and perhaps ultimately also taps into the work of William Burroughs – you could imagine Dieter Laser's character, and his creation, springing from the pages of 'Naked Lunch'. Despite these 'hi-concept' trimmings, 'The Human Centipede' pretty much rolls like a standard horror B-movie at first. We get a lost-in-the-woods scenario, chance encounter with a bad man in a sinister house, capture and escape attempts etc etc. Were it not for the film's defining peculiarities, 'The Human Centipede' would play like your average 'torture porn' flick. Six lets it all unfold in an unfussy manner, keeping the stylistic excess on hold until the baroque wastelands of the sequels, although the clinical detachment of the film's look gives it a vaguely 'arthouse' quality and brings to mind the anti-septic interiors of early eighties Argento (there's a nice bit where one of the 'victims' runs around smearing bloody handprints on white walls that seem to stretch on endlessly). Although it may cleave to convention in overall shape, 'The Human Centipede' is still pretty potent stuff. Laser's performance, the bonkers central idea, cold 'medical fetish' imagery and atmosphere of doomed entrapment all raise it above the usual genre schtick, and pave the way for the more nightmarish instalments ahead. Still highly capable of leaving a nasty aftertaste, and recommended to sickos eveywhere.
 |