The movie is about two girls who BLAH BLAH BLAH....Human Centipede. The first twenty or so minutes of this movie are kind of boring. Nothing you haven't seen before happens until HC is formed. Then things get good. This mad German doctor takes two girls and some Japanese guy and sews them together ATM sharing one digestive track. You know what that means. Somebody is going to get doo-doo in their mouth. What surprised me about this movie is that it didn't revel in these moments. In fact there is only one scene that deals with the whole process of feeding the other two parts of the centipede. Most directors would indulge in the sick factor of a movie like this and kill all entertainment value. They would show every excrement that comes from a human being and show them wallowing in it to be more hardcore or extreme because that to them is horror. HUMAN CENTIPEDE is far more tasteful (I am not sure if that is the right word to use but whatever. I am not a thesaurus) than one would expect. Unfortunately there is going to be a sequel and you can imagine (if you want) what that one is going to do. More of the same but more.
The highlight of the film is the mad doctor. His name is Dr. Something Something played by some guy. I don't remember (look it up yourselves, folks) but he is great. He is way over the top and you can't take your eyes off of him. Thankfully there is a behind the scenes feature that lets you see that he is just a really nice actor and not crazy perv. He is in constant conflict with his messed up creation. The Japanese guy is the front of the Human Centipede and he is a great actor too. He is strong willed and gives the audience somebody to root for. He is going to be big someday. You know? When everyone forgets that this movie ever existed. He has a great screen presence. When he dies at the end (Whoops. Spoiler alert!) you can feel the film deflate a little because of his absence.
The conflict between the doctor trying to control his pet and the Human Centipede trying to get away is what separates this film from other "torture" porn titles. While there are a lot of scenes where people are tied up and saying things like "Why are you doing this?" and "No, please stop! Why are you doing this?" the movie doesn't make it about that. The movie is about escape and not people being tied up and cut up for two hours. The conflict keeps the movie interesting. Most horror movies are about watching teens die in horrible ways and that's it.
Lets talk "shenanigans". HC is methodically shot. You can tell there is time taken to frame scenes right for the best emotional effect. Unfortunately there wasn't that much time taken to fill up some of the holes in this movie. When you think about it there are quite a few holes in this movie. Most of them really aren't that important but a couple are there because of lack of imagination in the script. For instance the girls have been tied up for awhile on their hospital beds. The doctor has his own surgery lab down in the basement. When it comes time to knock everyone out for the procedure one of the girls simply bites off her wrist straps and runs for it. Why didn't she do that earlier when the doctor wasn't around? And of course she gets caught because instead of escaping to get help when she had the chance she goes back to try and pull her drugged up friend out of the house. Stupid. Also two cops show up at the end and are offered roofied water. One takes a sip but the smart cop doesn't. The doctor did the same thing to the girls at the beginning and you see when one girl takes just a sip that it effects her right away. But these cops leave to get a warrant and when they return suddenly the drug takes effect causing him to get killed. Dumb. I think the Human Centipede has magical teleportation powers too. HC can appear on top of tables or down in the basement with no explanation but later when it comes time to escape they have a hard time going up stairs without bleeding all over the place. They almost detach for crying out loud. Gross.
I got to admit it took me a few months just to watch the trailer for this sucker. I thought this movie was going to be way too disturbing or sick for sick's sake. Yet I felt compelled to watch it. It was calling to me over and over again. I had to watch. I can't believe I liked it. The beginning of the film is really slow but that is where all the tension is. You don't really know how you are going to feel when you finally see the Human Centipede. But when you see it in all it's glory its no big deal. Its not a gory film but it is a little uncomfortable to watch at first. The ending was pretty good too but it could have been more original but I don't want to spoil that. See it for yourself, folks. See the amazing HUMAN CENTIPEDE! You know, if you are sick in the head......but in a good way.
Jason
No comments:
Post a Comment