I have given it the night to get over my initial shock and disgust of this piece of cinematic horror. The level of possible symbolism in this is potentially pretty high, I considered that I'm reading too much in to this, but even a sick and twisted director must have SOME point to this.
A quick run down first though. two girls get lost while on holidays in Germany. When their car gets a flat tyre, the run through the rain to the nearest house they can find which juuust haaaappens to be the home of a rather insane surgeon who likes to drug people and make weird pets out of them. He intends to make the two girls and one very unfortunate Japanese man into his version of a Siamese triplet, the human centipede that gives this movie its name. A foul creature made of people sewn together to create one long digestive track... but, for fuck sake, WHY!?
You can quite literally see the whole movie in about 30 seconds on youtube, there is nothing else to it. Sick doctor does crazy, fucked up things to younger and more attractive people. it's your classic formula. With a few obvious differences. No one really needs to see this movie.
I've come up with two possible thought options.
One, this movie represents everything wrong with our society.
Three people are sewn together, mouth to ass, and forced to live like that because.. well, they don't really have a choice. they can't get up because their knees have been cut to prevent it. Forced to live on their knees, eh? Perhaps it's all symbolic of our societies complete lack of control over how they look, act, and behave. They are forced to eat each others crap too.. while this is just plain fucking disgusting, don't you think it might say something about how pretty stupid the masses are? Forced to swallow everything, not matter how disgusting, brutal, or wrong it is.
The other option is that this is just the product of a fucked up imagination of a very rich man able to produce a high quality movie, and I do mean quality in terms of how clear the picture is, this is NOT a fun film. You may have guessed that. So this movie just exists for pure shock value, purely to disgust.
People actually sat in a screening room and watched this movie, then decided that it was fit for general viewing. Gives the movie a pretty damn creepy undertone, if it EVER needed one.
the characters and pretty stupid too, but really, the girls performances are probably pretty accurate of how some people might react, try and escape, and fail. All out of stupidity because we have already had our instincts bread out to prevent us being able to use those oh so important survival skills.
I think that we probably wouldn't be quite so retarded as the character in this movie who does manage to escape. She spends most of the sequence running around the house and not ONCE actually tries going out the front door and running away, I know her friend was still down in the basement, but she wasn't hurt yet, and if the surgeon wanted a human centipede then would need more than two people.. So really, the best thing she could have done for her friend was leave and go get help..That would have at the very least bought them all some time..
But, alas, she tried to be valiant and try and drag her drugged and unconscious friend up the stairs and through the house, into the yard. This whole scene is pointless, we know that she's going to get caught so her effort is just painful to watch. and after all of it she gets shot by a tranquilizer gun and aaall that effort was in vain. There was so much she could have done, calling the police would have been the hardest thing to do since it was set in Germany and I'm pretty sure those girls didn't learn how to contact the emergency services before they went on their road trip. She still could have just ran away! The more I think about it, the more frustrated I get about it. If her time spent running around in the house was a scary ordeal with her constantly dodging the surgeon to get out, then that MIGHT have helped and added some tension. But she's only in the same room as him once, then afterwards is given so much time to escape, but decides to waste the entire opportunity. Siiigh. the only thing we get out of this is the surgeon now knows who gets to be the in the middle of the centipede. Hoo-rah
There is no point trying to come up with why the surgeon wanted to perform this in the first place, there IS no conceivable reason or outcome that makes it worth it. It's just pure filth designed to make you feel sick.
It's times like this we remember Cannibal Holocaust. Now that was a movie about the tribes in the Amazon that raped, emasculated, and ate the bodies of their enemies. This movie contained a lot of gore and horrific imagery, but it still has more to go on than Human Centipede, being a movie about a bunch of cocky documentary makers who think they can handle the amazon but can't. It's done as a mockumentary aswell.
The idea of a crazy surgeon, who rather ironically needs some damn medication, wanting to create a Siamese triplet, or, "Human centipede" out of three people sewn together mouth to anus.. what is the point? Does he really just want a weird pet? That seems to be how he likes to treat them, making them eat from a dog bowl and just hanging around like a trophy-cat where ever the surgeon goes.
I would love to know how this idea came about, it's the logo for a profoundly sick world and the minds that make the decisions that let us view it. Will probably never find out.
If you haven't seen this movie, don't. Just go and watch the trailer and you will know what its about. There isn't even a conclusion to this, the three of them are left in a room. The Japanese guy, at the front, is dead due to a nasty case of cut throat, so the two girls are just left there to sit and be disgusting.. (hahaha.. symbolism makes me giggle,) then the movie just fades in to credits. Whether they survive or not is irrelevant, This is the first movie where i haven't speculated over the fate of the characters. I don't really care, the movie gives me no reason to care about them. Sign of quality movie right there, when your main characters are in peril and the audience doesn't care because you have given them no sympathetic qualities.. heh.
So those are my thoughts on this stupid concept, I have probably left some things out but I've stressed the main issues I have.
If everything I have said is wrong, I would love to know just what the dealio is. so by all means, correct me. I would LOVE to know the reason for this.
Here is one final piece of thought: this movie is fucking disgusting. It is the ultimate in shock factor with no point other than we are a fucked up enough society that it can be accepted as just "gross". The Texas Chainsaw Massacre used to be almost taboo-like, reputation wise. And what about The Exorcist? Considered incredible freaky and you wouldnt dare watch it, let alone allow your children/younger siblings to watch. Hell, I remember only a few years ago, my brother didn't want me to watch the Devils Rejects. Still haven't seen it, but I bet it adds to my point. Anyway, this movie pretty much displays how fucked up our world has become, that THIS filth made it on to a screen in High Def is a proof that whatever evil is controlling our world has most certain won, on the general and broad spectrum.
