Customer Reviews

The Human Centipede

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(100)

 

 

Most of us loony horror fans have sat around and had that conversation where we come up with some of the most deranged and gruesome ideas we can just for the fun of doing it. Well, Todd Six has had this conversation, and then he went ahead and made a movie out of it.
So, here we have Human Centipede, a movie generating a cult film buzz based solely on it's gimmicky and oddball premise.......and what a premise it is! I do have to give it full points for originality. However, the gimmick is where all originality ceases. The gimmick is really all it has going for it. Otherwise this movie plays out pretty much like any other recent torture porn flick. Remove the Cronenbergism from the film and you could easily have this wacko doctor running a basement torture chamber where he hacks off victims' limbs to create artwork or forces people to listen to Nickelback, or whatever the hell they like to do in torture porn films anymore. Basically it's on par with the standard straight-to-video type horror, but with a bit of an edge. That's really all I can say about it.
I really do have to give kudos to the three principal actors who make up the "centipede". They're really not required to do much heavy acting per se, but they have to spend the bulk of the film dirt smeared,(mostly)naked, crying, and in an all around degrading position. They're definitely troopers.
All in all, I wouldn't let the hype get your hopes up. It's got a bit of entertainment value, but it's not nearly as disturbing, frightening , violent or gory as you're lead to believe. To the average Iron Man 2 goer, maybe. But aside from the "centipede", there's nothing here that horror fans haven't seen done before.....and better.

This is not a horror movie. It is a movie about human torture. Plain and simple.

The hype about this movie is the confusion that this is art, or even falls within the realm of the horror (or psychological drama) genre. It doesn't. At first I thought this was going to be a very dark-humor "it's so bad, it's good" type movie. No.

It's not scary, it's not humorous, it's not entertaining, and it is very poorly made on a number of levels.

It's not the gross-out factor that bothers me so much. It's that the movie is really about nothing other than a close-up look of human torture with no point or meaning. Mean-spirited is an understatement. Seriously.

If you like horror movies, skip this.

If you like watching people suffer, being mutilated, and being tortured, then you will enjoy this movie.

Here's a film to bring people together--literally. Director Tom Six came up with the concept of this sick story from a joke made with friends. This joke was aimed at child molesters, suggesting as punishment they should have their mouths surgically sewn "to the (rear end) of fat truck drivers". When Mr. Six pitched this idea to potential investors, he omitted this central aspect of the plot. The rest is underground horror history.

The Human Centipede starts off irritatingly derivative. A couple of beautiful ladies from New York are touring through Europe. Sheesh, didn't you two gals watch HOSTEL or TAKEN? This is obviously a bad idea. They get invited to a party, have a tire blowout in the middle of bfe, and of course have no cell phone reception. I know, that setup has been beaten to death. But new levels of inconceivable evil are about to be woven in.

For me, the most unnerving part of this film was the main scoundrel himself, the wicked Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser). He just looks superbly creepy as all hell. Plus his detatched, cold persona will send shivers down your spine.

This acclaimed doctor had received recognition from his brilliant skill in seperating conjoined twins. Now his next effed up surgical plan is quite the opposite. He dreams of making new creatures that share a single digestive system. Sick! The portions of one meal go through three different people. I can't think of a more humiliating, degrading, just flat out awful predicament.

This film does surprisingly show some restraint in unleashing this atrocity upon the viewer. It contains relatively little blood or nudity. We're left to witness the extreme awkwardness of the victims as they cope with the hopelessness of their situation. Plus we are subjected to the whims of a deranged madman, as he does the unthinkable.

Overall, this is a film I would mildly recommend to fans of hardcore horror only. It is well made and acted for the most part. It's definitely not something you see everyday, thank goodness. Proceed with caution.

Sharing isn't always caring.

I had been hearing about this movie for a while. A friend recommended it to me because I liked the first Saw and Hostel movies (though I hated the sequels) and thought this was on par with those. The reason why I hate the sequels to those movies is because they are less plot driven and instead focus more on just the torture aspects to drive the plot. Hence why they are often called torture porn movies. They don't have any real substance outside of the gory torture scenes. Well, after watching the episode of South Park where they made fun of this (along with Apple and the iPad), I decided I had to watch this movie. I was extremely disappointed in it all. The plot to get the young girls to the doctor's house felt extremely forced. After that, the whole movie was built around (what was essentially) torturing these people along with the whole disgusting factor. There wasn't any moment in the movie where I felt like I was going to be sick. I can handle a lot so the disgusting part didn't bother but I also felt like that was all this movie had going for it.

Yeah, let's watch a vein get ripped out of an arm. Oooh, aahhh. How about watching a guy poo in another character's mouth. Are you scared yet? The plot just seemed rushed, contrived, and there wasn't much to it. I feel that the gross out aspect is the only thing that this movie has going for it and it wasn't really that impressive. If you are going to try to get me to throw up, the least you can do is get me a little nauseous. So I don't really understand all of the buzz around this movie. It had a forced plot, some gore, some gross out moments, and that was it. The movie wasn't scary and I put it on par with any of the recently made Saw movies. I actually received a lot more entertainment from the 22 minute South Park episode than I did this movie (which felt way too long).

All the hype had piqued my curiosity about The Human Centipede and the way audiences were so divided over it. I suspected I would fall into the negative camp so was glad to see it among the free offerings for Amazon Prime members.

In short -- this is fetish porn masquerading as a horror movie. If torture, coprophagy and Nazi imagery are your thing, look no further.

I watched this the other night and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. There isn't much to it, just a psycho doctor who has a sick fetish. The doctor was a strange German guy, and he was a pretty great actor. The other actors were pretty good to at crawling around with their faces in each others butts. A+

That being said, they should have used this concept for those crappy Twilight movies which would have made the world a better place. Allow me to explain.

Using this concept for Twilight would have solved two key problems. One, the whole "Team Jacob, Team Edward" crap would be eliminated. Simply put Bella, or whatever the hell her name was, in the middle of the Human Centipede chain so she wouldn't have to worry about choosing between a vampire or a werewolf. She would have both. Case closed. You would have a "Team Edward, Bella, Jacob" and you could call it a day.

Second, since the lady would be in the middle of the anus-to-mouth (ATM) train, you would never have to hear her speak. Problem solved.

Had they made those horrible movies in this fashion, I might have actually liked them. They would have gained a fan! Of course they would probably lose a ton of fans in the process, but that's fine because that's a couple million people less you have to hear talk about those movies.

I hope I'm not too late with this. I believe the last of those ditsy movies comes out this summer which means they've probably already finished filming that trash (I really feel sorry for the cameramen) but if you're reading this Stephanie Meyer, keep this in mind the next time you decide to write a book. Hopefully that never happens though.

The most detestable, disgusting movie I have ever seen. If Amazon's rating permitted me to, I would have given a -5 rating to this awful movie. Even after the movie I found myself almost throwing up from remembering such repulsive scenes.

I could not decide if this one deserves 5 stars or 1. At first this movie seems like the ultimate low budget, cheesy horror movie cliche. Lost, flat tire, no phone reception, wander to crazy guy house. This is going to suck. Then the wacko doctor explains in detail exactly what he is going to do. WHAT!!!! It is sick and twisted beyond imagination. It is like slowing down to get a good look as you drive past a bad car crash. Then you soon realize that it is nothing like. This is nothing as nice and clean as a horrific crash. It is something that would make Dr Mengele squirm. It takes a little while for it to settle in just how terrible it really is.

The current horror films seem to have a goal of being as gruesome and in your face as possible. The blood and gore in this one is at the PG level. It is obvious that it is intentionally restrained. The SAW movies are as gruesome as they can possibly be, but you forget the story as soon as it is over. Human Centipede has pretty much no graphic images at all. The most disturbing images in the movie are poorly made line drawings.

So does this one get 1 star or 5. It gets 1 star because there is nothing even remotely entertaining about. When it is over you will wish you had not seen it. It gets 5 stars because it is one of the rare truly original movies. You cannot compare it to anything. I have never seen a movie that is anything even remotely like it. The most horrific images in the movie are crude line drawings. And they are more disturbing than any scene in a big budget gore flick. Overall it was fairly well done. A good movie is one that you remember, a bad one is one that you will forget. This is one that you will wish you could get out of your head. Not going to happen! This one is stuck in your head for good. I will average it out and give it a 3.

Do not make the decision to watch this movie lightly. This is not SAW or CHAINSAW MASSACRE. It is on an entirely different level. You have NOT seen anything like this before. Before you sit down to watch it, be sure to make an appointment with a good therapist in the morning. It really is that bad. Be warned!

What kind of sick bastard thought up of this? This movie pushes the edge when it comes to sadistic. I highly recommend watching this if only to watch the South Park Episode "The Human CENTiPad" afterwards. The South Park episode makes more sense than the actual movie.

"Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical(view of existence) value-judgments. Man's profound need of art lies in the fact that his cognitive faculty is conceptual, i.e., that he acquires knowledge by means of abstractions, and needs the power to bring his widest metaphysical abstractions into his immediate, perceptual awareness. Art fulfills this need: by means of a selective re-creation, it concretizes man's fundamental view of himself and of existence. It tells man, in effect, which aspects of his experience are to be regarded as essential, significant, important. In this sense, art teaches man how to use his consciousness. It conditions or stylizes man's consciousness by conveying to him a certain way of looking at existence."

The emotion involved in art is not an emotion in the ordinary meaning of the term. It is experienced more as a "sense" or a "feel," but it has two characteristics pertaining to emotions: it is automatically immediate and it has an intense, profoundly personal (yet undefined) value-meaning to the individual experiencing it. The value involved is life, and the words naming the emotion are: "This is what life means to me."

- Ayn Rand

The above quotes compose a quite brilliant definition of art. And when I first read them at 17, they stayed with me. Essentially, the art you make...the art you love...is the art you are. That is, any representation of your vision of life that you have concretized in some tangible form is ART. This film is ART. But what makes good art? That which shows why life is worth living. Bad art...horrific art...is that which shows why life is not worth living.

There have been many horror films made over the years. Films like The Wicker Man were effective because they showed two sides of evil, and stay with you as a warning. Some are fun, some are ridiculous, some are frightening (The Shining) and others are kind of brilliant (The Stand). Part of the allure of horror is that you can enter the chamber where your fear exists, battle it out, experiencing all those emotions...and WIN. You can beat the fear, destroy and vanquish that evil whether they be Daleks or zombies.

But lately, entertainment from Oprah to Jersey Shore...has been about exposing people, humiliating them and watching them destroyed in front of you...emotionally...spiritually...physically...sexually. I mention Oprah and her associates (Sally, Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, etc.) because they opened the doors making it acceptable to laugh, snicker and sneer at the most horrendous failing of human beings way back in the 80's...at all levels. Then their child was born...Reality TV and it's conjoined twin of "mind-porn"...videogames where the goal is to murder and rob people...this is the new culture that SOME of us live in. Too many in fact.

This film...is the culmination. From Aristotle to Erasmus...to John Locke...to Jefferson...to the end of our civilization and the beginning of something...new...and quite horrible.

You think I'm being melodramatic right? Not really I'm afraid. The first thing that occurred to me when I heard about this film...was that someone would go and try this after seeing it. I don't believe in censorship so that's not the issue. But what sort of depraved, disgusting human being would want to see this made real as ART? Even as a punishment for a child molester? Shall we destroy evil by adopting and practicing it? And in this film, these are not child molesters, are they? They are victims. So it was quite interesting to see that the Director is now making a sequel that will beat the actual psychopath to the punch, and showcase a "fan-boy" copying the actions of this lovely doctor.

Really...saying this film and the director is "sick" is simply underwhelming. He is in fact what we have been waiting for...begging for...he is a mark on our culture of how far we have fallen and proof positive that this civilization...western civilization no longer has confidence in its ideas...its convictions. It no longer loves the beautiful and hates evil. It stands for next to nothing except for hedonistic enjoyment of destruction...or mindless authoritarianism...

Lighten up right? No. Not this time.

Amazon should be condemned for selling this atrocity. Censorship is only possible with the Government. But any private company can make a choice on what they sell and stand by it. As to the Director, he is what he made here. This is his artistic vision. I hope that he stands for it, and by it, as I believe he does. Or perhaps, we should say, it's what's inside that counts (pun intended)...and this lovely Director is the only thing actually connected to this film ...that is literally full of it...