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Changing the Face of Horror
The Human Centipede hits NYC
In a genre that thrives on gory special effects and expertly cut suspense sequences rather than story, The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is a film that accomplishes all the horror one desires in the mere telling of the plot. So terrifying was the plot description on the press alone that I questioned the value of even going to experience the film first hand, when I could just imagine the plot and shiver in disgust—and I mean that in a good way. Fortunately for Tom Six, director of The Human Centipede, horror films appeal to our curiosity as much as they do our eyes and ears. I am curious to know if I could stomach 90 minutes of this sort of bio-medical scourging.
The premise is in the name. There is a doctor who is obsessed with the idea of having a multiple-limbed human. The mad doctor, whose specialty is separating conjoined twins, develops the technology to join people together forming one long mutilated human. The victims share the same gastric tract. All are fed through the mouth of the victim lucky enough to act as the head, whereas the rear victims function as an elongated digestive system.
This release comes in a series of IFC distributed horror films that attempt to bring some of the more imaginative features of the genre to a wider audience, the most well-know being last year’s Antichrist from fellow Dutch director Lars Von Tier. The Human Centipede has fared well at horror festivals, but has received little attention elsewhere as of yet. IFC’s distribution could prove to be the missing link between tortured bio-medical tragedy and the desired end result of mainstream success.
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) opens in IFC theaters on April 30, 2010.