Some movie fans might not want the clarity and color Blu-ray provides when it comes to “The Human Centipede.”
Then again, those familiar with the stomach-roiling plot are already “all in” and can handle the most disturbing film of the year in HD.
“The Human Centipede,” out Oct. 5 on Blu-ray and DVD, follows a deranged surgeon who wants to link three humans together via their digestive tracts. The not so good Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser) gets lucky when two very wet and very lost young women (Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie) appear on his door step one stormy night.
A few knockout pills later, and the woman are ready for Dr. Heiter’s maddest experiment. The women hardly seem worthy of our pity at first. Reality show villains are more endearing than these two blockheads. Yet even the most unlikable characters become worth saving once the doctor gets his hands on them.
“The Human Centipede” doesn’t deliver the kind of scares the great horror movies do. It’s far more interested in showing the depravity of the human mind.
The film is unsettling from the opening moment – Dr. Heiter caressing a photograph of two Rottweilers linked together. Later, when he tells the women, “I don’t like human beings,” you get the sense he’s capable of any atrocity.
Watching “Centipede” anew makes you appreciate Laser’s uncanny performance. In a world where Oscar votes weren’t aghast by hardcore horror content a Best Supporting Actor nomination would be in the offing. Has there been as complete a portrait of evil since Dr. Hannibal Lecter smacked his lips at the thought of a nice … Chianti?
Every gesture Laser makes is part of the bigger piece, every twitch of his angular face a nod to utter soullessness. It’s both restrained and over the top – just watch him doing the math in his head when those two poor women first enter his immaculate home.
While “The Human Centipede” is completely unnerving, its narrative suffers due to the less than mobile nature of the Centipede itself. It’s here where the film falters, with the gnawing horror replaced by the quiet roiling in your stomach.
The film finds a way to rally near the conclusion, although we’re left with a speech that comes out of nowhere, a desperate grab at something more meaningful than the film can support.
The Blu-ray extras include a deleted scene featuring Dr. Heiter doing a Christopher Walken-esque dance as he delights in his handiwork. It’s over the top, no doubt, but not in a way that flatters his performance or enhances the finished product. We also see a Foley artist – the talent who create the additional sounds that heighten the experience – digging his hands into raw chicken meat to replicate the squishy sounds of the surgical sequences. Yuck.
Writer/director Tom Six shares how he came up with the idea for the human centipede concept and even offers his casting thoughts on a Hollywood remake – Tom Cruise as the head of the centipede, followed by Jennifer Lopez and Paris Hilton in the – gasp -end. But he thinks it’s too disturbing a context to be gobbled up by Hollywood. Who could argue with him?
Other extras include snippets of the lead actress’s audition tapes, some behind the scenes footage and a few alternate posters considered for the final project.
“The Human Centipede” is gross and shrewdly conceived, revolting and expertly crafted, a horror film unlike any other and meant for only a select subset of the genre’s biggest fans.
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