The Human Centipede
05/03/2023
Warning: description of disturbing scenes and themes, and spoilers for the Entire movie.
I watched this movie a few days back, and oh my lord. Oh word. That was a very... Interesting experience.This is one of those movies you'll maybe enjoy, and never ever want to watch for a second time. The scenes with the human centipede had me squirming and grinding my teeth and pausing, even though I don't even care that much about horror and I think of myself as having a pretty high tolerance for it..
Despite it being so so disturbing and unnerving and making me feel so sick to my stomach, I still sort of loved it and I absolutely love the concept of the human centipede. What can I say, I'm an absolute sucker for unethical surgeries/experiments on humans, it is definitely one of my favorite tropes, if not THE favorite.
So, what happens in the movie? Why was it so terrifying?
The movie starts with a German surgeon(?) named Heiter. And right off the bat in the first scene, he's already established to be a killer. He parks next to the woods as he waits for a trucker to go out there to use the bathroom, and he grabs a gun and shoots him like a deer in hunting season then shoves him in his car. We then cut to 2 girls, who are visiting Germany. They get invited to a party, but on the way there they get lost in the woods and their tire flattens so now they're stuck there.
After much freaking out and an extremely creepy and uncomfortable encounter with a stranger who then drives away, they wander around trying to find someone or a house that could help them. They end up at the door of Heiter's home, drenched in rain like lost kittens. And luckily, he speaks English! He lets them in, and they sit down.
Of course, this isn't going to go well.
He gives them water, and it is drugged. One of the girls passes out shortly after, and the other one tries to crawl away but is unable to escape.
Well shit mate ! They wake up tied to hospital beds, alongside another man, the one who Heiter previously shot who had also been kidnapped along with them. Heiter ends up accidentally killing the man, so he gets a replacement, and shortly after he shows them what is basically a powerpoint presentation showing them what he will do to them.
He'll stitch them together, mouth to anus, remove their teeth and break their knees so they'll only be able to crawl and become a Human Centipede, stuck in this helpless and inhuman form of 3 people stuck together in one single abomination.
Of course they don't really enjoy the idea ! Doesn't sound very fun to me !
There's a few escape attempts by the girls, but it's honestly not very fun watching. Was dragged out quite a bit. So let's skip to the good part! After a while, it's time for the surgery. And he does it. He stitches them.
He drags the abomination to his living room, and marvels at it, feeling so proud of himself he makes out with a mirror. He starts waking them up and forcing the centipede to stand up, and one by one they realize what just happened and they can barely scream- They wail and sob and groan from pain, and it's entirely muffled. They can't plead or beg to be let out. They're stuck crying into each other's mangled, butchered, disfigured, lacerated carcasses.
The only one who can still talk and scream, the man in the front of the centipede, cannot speak English nor German, so it's really not like he has a way of actually communicating with Heiter. And so they are stuck in that sick prison that is Heiter's home.
He treats the disgrace like a dog. He feeds it with a dog bowl, and tries to teach it "tricks" and to grab newspaper and come to him when ordered, and when his orders aren't followed, he hurts it.
He ends up killing the man in the front of the centipede, leaving the 2 girls stuck in a room stitched to him. That doesn't last for long. Two investigators end up going to his house, and Shit Happens ! Heiter kills one of them, and the second investigator ends up finding the centipede, reaching out and sobbing and "screaming" as best it could for him to help them, but he runs to Heiter instead. Heiter shoots him, and just before the investigator dies, he shoots Heiter right in the head.
And so they both drop dead.
But what about the two girls?
They're still in there. They're desperately crying and holding onto each other's hands as tight as they can, hoping and silently pleading that the investigator is going to come back to save them- But he never does. One of the girl's grasp starts to slip away, her hand softens and lets go of the other. She got an infection from the surgery, and silently and slowly died.
Now only the girl in the middle of the centipede is left alive, in that empty and quiet house. The camera pans out, and the movie ends.
And I just thought: damn. What the actual fuck did I just watch
It was a good movie, I think. But god fucking damn. What the fuck.