Still with us? Well, don't say we didn't warn you.In 2010's The Human Centipede: First Sequence (directed by Tom Six), two young American tourists, Lindsay and Jenny, find themselves traveling through Germany when they get a flat tire. They stop for help at the house of Dr. JosefHeiter (Dieter Laser), a surgeon who specializes in separating conjoined twins — and a man with a vision. We'll let you get a cold drink and a comfy seat before we share his vision with you. If you like to drink alcohol, make your drink a stiff one.Ready? Okay, here we go.Heiter seems to have read Franken Fran a lot — especially the second chapter. He dreams of taking separate individuals and stitching them together to create a "human centipede" that shares a single digestive tract. (Take a minute to let that sink in if you need to.) For the sanity of our readers, we will not describe how he plans to accomplish his goal here, but to bottom line it: Lindsay, Jenny, and a Japanese Tourist named Katsuro have just become his first test subjects.Billed as "100% medically accurate," The Human Centipede gained plenty of early attention from horror fans and sites due to its depraved premise. (Riding on a wave of graphic European horror films helped the film, too.) The film often receives a mixed reaction from horror fans who can stomach watching it: some believe it went to amazing lengths with its premise, while others feel it relied too heavily on Body Horror at the expense of scaring viewers.The film found enough success at festivals around the world to warrant a sequel. 2011's The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), filmed and set in England — where the ratings board banned the uncut version until the filmmakers cut almost three minutes of footage — centers around a Psychopathic Manchild named Martin who becomes obsessed enough with the first film to try and imitate it. Tom Six says the sequel makes the original film look like My Little Pony; judging by people's reactions to the finished product, the sentiment comes off as legit. While the filmmakers billed the first film as "100% medically accurate", Six described the sequel as "100% medicallyinaccurate".Six allegedly has plans for a third movie, but given reports of a falling out between Six and actor Dieter Laser, it may not get off the ground.The films somehow spawned a light-hearted porn parody, The Human Sexipede, and inspired the Season 15 premiere of South Park ("HUMANCENTiPAD"). Someone also got the bright idea to make a Screen-to-Stage Adaptation in Human Centipede The Musical.
Provides Examples Of:
All Animals Are Dogs: Heiter attempts to invoke this with the centipede by trying to get it to fetch the newspaper.
All Just a Dream: The ending of the sequel seems to imply that Martin simply daydreamed it all.
And I Must Scream: Well, you can scream... it's just that you can only scream up someone's ass. This is also Lindsay's ultimate fate, with Heiter and the other two members of the "centipede" dead, leaving her stuck between two dead bodies with nobody to help her.
As Herself: Ashlynn Yennie appears as "Miss Yennie" in the sequel.
Ass Shove: Martin ends up on the receiving end of this when Yennie finally snaps.
Asshole Victim: A good portion of Martin's victims in the sequel are people who have wronged him somehow: his mother, his psychiatrist, the rude couple at the beginning, the skinhead upstairs neighbor, etc.
Katsuro, right before he kills himself, accuses himself of being this
Body Horror: Good lord. They even go into graphic detail on what the procedure involves. The cheeks (of the mouth) are cut and grafted onto the cheeks (the other kind) of the person in front of them in such a way that the mouth is enclosed around it and that the person can't even breath through it, and can't move their jaw without ripping the flesh. Some teeth are also removed. Probably the only horror film where you don't even need to see it to be horrified.
Broke The Rating Scale: Roger Ebertrefused to give this film a rating. To be fair, he has done so in the past, for films such as this an Pink Flamingos, where rating a movie would be pointless, as a director or prospective viewers couldn't possibly care about it.
On the other hand, he gave the sequel zero stars, because it was "reprehensible, dismaying, ugly, artless and an affront to any notion, however remote, of human decency."
Played straight with Martin's pet centipede in the sequel.
Dangerous Key Fumble: Lindsay deliberately drops the keys (for some reason) after locking herself in the doctor's bedroom. She then realizes what a dumb idea this was, when the doctor then appears at the window with a tranquilizer rifle.
Daylight Horror: Once the operation is complete, the film gets very bright and sunny visually.
Deliberately Monochrome: The second film, because the director felt it was scarier in monochrome.
Plus, if it was in color, it most likely would have been edited down more than it already was in monochrome.
Developing Doomed Characters: The decoy protagonists that the film opens with are not only horribly written characters, but also horribly acted. Not that you wish the horrors they later endure on them, but they're very annoying and unsympathetic.
The Dog Bites Back: Martin, especially in the scene with the rude boyfriend at the beginning and later on with his mother and their skinhead neighbor.
Then there's Yennie, who, in a fit of adrenaline-induced rage, grabs the funnel Martin used to force-feed her earlier, shoves it into his ass, before grabbing his pet centipede and inserting it into the funnel.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Before there was a human centipede, Heiter performed the surgery on three rottweilers. He was very fond of them.
Even Evil Has Standards: A twisted version in Full Sequence. Despite his obvious insanity and cruelty, Martin doesn't actually intend to kill his victims. When he does do it, or thinks he does, he becomes very upset, tries desperately to revive them, and actually cries when he fails (or thinks he did, in the case of the pregnant woman). Whether this is because, in his own twisted way, he feels bad for killing them, or is just upset they can't be used in his "centipede" is open to interpretation.
Fan Disservice: Lindsay has some lovely breasts, but the first time you get to see them is also the first time she feeds after the operation. Did I mention she's the middle segment? In general, you've never had less fun watching topless women on all fours.
Faux Affably Evil: Heiter has his moments. Especially when the power cuts out and he apologizes.
Final Girl: Yennie is implied to have survived the second film.
Idiot Ball: Passed around many times, by both good and evil characters. Some examples:
Linsday, after freeing herself, dragging Jenny out of the house at a snail's pace instead of running to get help.
Katsuro not killing Heiter when he was down and had the chance.
Heiter flipping out about the police's accusations, taunting them about not having a search warrant, then jokes about having a torture den in his basement. The writer clearly left no room for guessing as to what was going to happen next.
Jack the Ripoff: In Full Sequence, the first film inspires Martin to create his own Human Centipede.
Left Hanging: Considering that there should have been some police backup the very same day (since two cops didn't report back from Creepy Guy's home), it's odd that there's no mention of Lindsay's fate.
In the first film, Heiter is strongly implied to be getting off when Lindsay, as the "middle" part of the centipede, is "fed" by Katsuro.
Martin, the villain of Full Sequence, became sexually obsessed with the original film (which is a Film Within a Film in the sequel's universe), and resolved to create a Human Centipede of his own.
This Australian trailer for the film depicts several people's reactions to the film. Most of them are rightfully shocked... but one is shown to be masturbating.
The Other Darrin: At the moment, Dieter Laser appears to be having a falling out and won't appear in the third film to reprise his role. As such, the role is being recast, with none other than Udo Kier himself in talks.
Although if you're reading this article at work, you're probably screwed anyway.
). Though the director claims that it will be more slapstick than scat.
The script (available at the linked site) is actually quite funny, mostly due to the parody element.
Plot Hole: How did Heiter get the centipede out of the basement/OR if all he has is a spiral staircase? This becomes quite an issue when the centipede attempts to escape.
Serial Escalation: The first movie has three people sewn together ass to mouth and the sequel has TWELVE PEOPLE. The third one is slated to have FIVE HUNDRED PEOPLE!!!!.
Shown Their Work: The director brought in a surgeon to consult him on how a "human centipede" would function in real life (hence the "100% medically accurate" disclaimer), including suggesting that it would be able to survive for years with an IV drip to provide fluids and nutrients. This trope may also explain why the centipede doesn't last long — almost immediately, Jenny starts dying from blood poisoning.
Silence Is Golden: Martin, the second film's protagonist, never speaks any actual words and in the second half of the film dialogue is replaced by the cries and moans of the victims.
Silent Protagonist: Martin never says a word onscreen in the sequel. He is intimated to have talked and makes phone calls offscreen (we only see him checking his messages on his phone), so he can speak, but aside from some grunts, he otherwise is completely silent.
Stock Parody: It's well on its way to this (see the trope heading for details).
Take That, Critics!: At least one reviewer sees the sequel as a Take That towards the critics of the first film and those who took it too seriously.
Tears of Joy: Heiter, once... oh dear god... once it's complete.
Too Dumb to Live: Jenny & Lindsay, rather than staying on the road like any rational human being, decide to walk into the woods (at night) in the middle of nowhere Germany.
In his review, The Cinema Snob points out that given how Obviously Evil Heiter was, it was incredibly stupid of the women to accept drinks from an open container from him.
Or just driving on the flat tire since the car still ran. If they were smart, they would have paid for the insurance; so they could total it if they had to.
Trailers Always Spoil: Complete inversion for the sequel. The trailer shows absolutely NO footage of the movie, or even say what it will be like. What's the point?
There's probably not enough showable movie. Let that sink in for a minute...
Actually, there was a second trailer released that did show clips from the film for two minutes.
Martin may never speak in Full Sequence, but he makes some... interesting noises.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: To some extent, Martin is this in Full Sequence. He was sexually abused by his father, who went to prison because of it. And his equally horrible mother actually blames Martin for her husband's arrest and treats him like garbage. His psychiatrist Dr. Sebring pretends to be his friend but actually wants to sexually take advantage of him. And most people's first reaction to him, even when he hasn't done anything, is to insult and belittle him. While there is no excuse for the actions Martin takes, it's nonetheless easy to see how all of this can combine to finally make Martin snap and lose himself in grotesque fantasy, and want to enact that fantasy on the people who've wronged him. By the time he actually sets to work, he's so deeply involved in his mania he also targets innocents.
between Six and actor Dieter Laser, it may not get off the ground.The films somehow spawned a light-hearted porn parody, The Human Sexipede, and inspired the Season 15 premiere of South Park ("HUMANCENTiPAD"). Someone also got the bright idea to make a Screen-to-Stage Adaptation in Human Centipede The Musical.
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