Movie Review: The Human Centipede 2 [Full Sequence] (2011)

So like I said on my previous post that included this movie, I tried to tell myself beforehand that I just had to see it, as I am a card-carrying horror movie fan and this horror movie (and its predecessor) had been relatively big news upon its release. But who am I kidding? I couldn't wait to see The Human Centipede 2! When the first movie was pretty lame and didn't give us near the graphic-ness that was promised, how could I pass up a movie that was claiming to be so much more gross and disgusting?

I really am an idiot sometimes.

Martin is a rotund little person who has an obsession with the movie The Human Centipede. Probably quite mentally ill from suffering sexual abuse as a child and constant haranguing by his mother as an adult, Martin's fantasy is to create his own 12-person human centipede. He sets out retrieving victims from the parking garage he works at, and his fantasy soon becomes a frightening reality.

I can't say with full conviction that I actually liked this movie, because I don't want to have liked this movie. Everything about THC2 makes you feel dirty, uncomfortable, and guilty about even watching the damn thing. But at the same time, I've always said that I like, or at least admire, those films and filmmakers that have the balls to go as far as they can with whatever subject matter they choose. Tom Six may have chosen a topic that no one wants to hear about or see on film ever in their lives, but I still give him props for having the courage to make these movies. No matter what he makes after the hype from the movies has blown over (and maybe it sort of already has), he will forever be known as the guy who created The Human Centipede. Time will tell whether that will be a good or bad thing for his career.

I never have a problem with a movie shot in black and white because I think it looks absolutely beautiful, and this movie is no exception. It looks even better with the digital technology of film nowadays. The edges and shadows are crisper, more defined and the shades of gray are varying and interesting. The choice of using black and white for THC2 is fairly understandable - it might just have been unbearable to watch, even for me, with all the pretty colors that come out of the human body splashed across the screen. And yet, there is still the famous climax scene of the movie where a certain brown substance is literally splattered on the camera lens. It's the only color in the movie, obviously done by Tom Six to either further traumatize the audience in this scene, or just to fulfill his promise of showing absolutely everything in this sequel that he restrained from showing in the first movie. Uh, thanks Tom. Really wasn't necessary, though.

The most disgusting thing about THC2 to me was Martin himself. They found the perfect actor for this role - a short, overweight man with ears that stick out and balding hair that seems to be permanently plastered to his head with sweat. However, I found myself sympathizing with Martin a lot during the first part of the film, much the same as I would sympathize with anyone who obviously never had a chance at a normal life. He was sexually abused by his father as a young child and still lives with his mother whom he gets no love from because she's a whackjob and says she misses her husband and that it is Martin's fault he's in jail. He's extremely introverted and never speaks a word through the whole film. Martin is also an interesting character in that at the same time you may feel sympathy for him and his shitty life, you are also disgusted by him physically and as a person.

I don't really feel the need to focus on the graphic ways that Martin goes about making his own human centipede or the two instances of serious sexual dysfunction that he displays, because I'd merely be repeating what everyone else has already said. There are a couple of things about this movie that I found interesting that almost no one has mentioned. First of all, bodies that have been mutilated beyond recognition really, really gross me out, so the scene where Martin bashes his mother's head in with a crowbar and then sits her body up at the kitchen table was truly traumatizing for me. The sight of her mushy skull seriously made me want to throw up more than the pooping scene. Go figure. Excellent work on the makeup effects there, because I had to look away from the screen.

Another thing that really bothered me was a silly plot point that was insanely overlooked by the filmmakers. Martin gets his candidates for the centipede by kidnapping them from the underground garage where he works as a security guard. He hits them on the head with a crowbar (some people get hit several times, amazingly without any serious effects), ties their wrists and ankles with duct tape, and then just throws them in his empty warehouse while he goes to get more victims. At one point, there are several people left in the warehouse alone together, and yet they don't seem to make any attempt to escape! You're telling me that nine adults can't manage to free at least one person from freaking DUCT TAPE? And what makes this even more ridiculous is that the pregnant woman's hands aren't even tied. Shenanigans.

I also thought it was interesting that I heard nothing about the horrific scene where the above-mentioned idiotic pregnant woman finally does escape the warehouse. She runs out with an obscene amount of blood gushing from between her legs, gets into a car, can't start it (because this is a horror movie), gives birth to her baby in the front seat, then gets the car to start, and slams on the gas pedal - squishing her newborn's head underneath it. OH MY GOSH. That is horrible. I can't believe there hasn't been more backlash about that little tidbit, because it sure bothered the hell out of me.

So in conclusion, all I can say is that Tom Six made good on his promise to go even further than was thought possible with The Human Centipede 2. He gave us a disgusting villain who in turn gives us an hour and a half of some of the most repulsive acts ever put on screen, which amazingly seem almost comical at times because they are so over-the-top. THC2 will certainly not be forgotten by those who see it, that's for dang sure!

Movie Review: The Human Centipede: First Sequence (2009)

I haven't heard of a bigger hype movie than The Human Centipede since Blair Witch. Blair Witch was nowhere near as good as so many have said (and still continue to say) just as The Human Centipede was nowhere near as disgusting as I've read. In fact, I found it rather tame - only horrendous in its gimmick.

The middle section and the tail, respectively. 

The already well-known plot: Two American girls vacationing in Germany get a flat tire one rainy night and while they are looking for help, they come upon the house of Dr. Josef Heiter. Once a renowned surgeon in separating conjoined twins, Dr. Heiter has the most diabolical plan in mind. Using the two girls and a Japanese man (the first man he had kidnapped was killed because he didn't "match"), the doctor wishes to create what he calls a "Siamese triplet," created by surgically connecting the three individuals mouth to anus.

The circumstances of the girl's coming to the doctor's house are perhaps a little too cliche, even for the horror genre. Car trouble and cell phones with no signal. Gee, I've NEVER seen that happen before. But I suppose it's a means to an end. As for the girls themselves, they couldn't possibly be more annoying or worse at acting. I don't how many hundreds of girls clamored to have their mouths attached to a man's ass for a few weeks, but it couldn't have been very many. Thankfully, they don't have much to do acting-wise after the surgery, what with them having no lips or teeth anymore.

She could probably use a neck massage right now.

Dieter Laser as Dr. Heiter was much more enjoyable to watch, and much credit must be given to him for being one of the film's few successes. Laser is an actor with an incredible face and a gift for acting to the extreme. He fully committed to this role, making the character a believably demented person who could actually do something like this. His actions and expressions were spot-on in all the scenes and he made the film very fun to watch.

Tom Six's writing abilities certainly leaves something to be desired. A concept for a film that comes about from joking about what punishment child molesters deserve is not enough to make a movie that is both disturbing and good. The dialogue is less than mediocre and characters are not developed at all. The ones that we do meet, though, we don't necessarily like enough to care about what we're seeing happen to them. The girls are ditzy (as described in the IMDb synopsis, written by the producer of the film) and the Japanese man in the lead of the centipede just did a lot of angry yelling and shouting. However, there were a few moments during the girls' ordeal where they would reach out and grab each other's hand, which I thought gave the grotesqueness of the situation a more tender and human emotion to it.

Of course I was disturbed by the description of the surgery and the idea of the creation of an actual human centipede. It is one of the most disgusting things I can think of, and frankly I'm glad that the film was not as graphic about the centipede as it could have been. Tom Six has said that the second film will make the first one look like "My Little Pony," so at least we have something to look forward to. If you're the kind of sick person who looks forward to that kind of stuff, I mean. So yes, I am excited about the sequel.

I kind of like the painting on the wall behind them.

Most of my problems with the film were the actions of the main characters. Many horror movies have those stupid characters that we scoff at for doing all the wrong things, but this movie just takes the cake. When Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) first escapes from her hospital bed, instead of running out the front door - she knew the way, for pity's sake - she just locks herself in the doctor's bedroom and cowers in a corner without trying to get out. Later, she retardedly tries to go back for her friend Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie). She spends about five minutes dragging her friend's drugged ass up the stairs and through the house, when we all know that there is no way in hell that she's going to get away. So what was the point of the scene in the first place? Just to piss me off, apparently. Don't even get me started on the perpetuating of the stereotype of the incompetent policemen. I admit, I know fuck-all about  police procedure but those two bumblers royally fucked up the search on Dr. Heiter's house. It wasn't suspenseful, it was just another way to piss me off.

All that being said, however, I must give Tom Six credit for what he's done. He's opened himself up to a lot of criticism and ridicule by concocting possibly the most unusual, grotesque, yet unique film in many, many years. You knew people were going to be making fun of the concept and spitting on the "100% medically accurate" claim. He knew that the film would possibly never be taken seriously, and while that may have been part of his intention - to make a film that would only serve to get a reaction out of people - it was a huge risk to even make the movie. And while The Human Centipede was not carried out to its full potential, it was a good attempt and hopefully the sequel will improve on the first one's faults.