I'll admit it. I have a problem. For some reason, I've become obsessed with The Human Centipede film series. Yes, the "100% Medically Accurate" horror series about stitching people into a singular digestive tract. I don't know when it happened, but it's now a regular part of my film watching life.
There's a certain absurdity and recklessness that appeals to my inner anarchist. Writer/director Tom Six came up with the idea as a joke, then morphed it into a disgusting cultural phenomenon you couldn't escape. They turned one of the most visually disturbing horror concepts into an episode of South Park and played it for laughs, while others ran with it for haunted houses and Halloween performances and made people pass out. That's a concept.
The first film is magic. The opening sequence with the doctor on the side of the road waiting to ambush whoever stops behind him is incredibly tense. Then we meet the two female victims who spend fifteen minutes making every wrong horror film decision to laughable extremes. Then the remaining hour and ten minutes is suspenseful and terrifying in the best way possible.
The second film I hate and still have a strange fascination with. It is beautifully shot. The quality of filmmaking and even artistry on display is extraordinary. It's a testament to Six's skill as a film director. That part is a response to critics who zeroed in on shock value over all other cinematic attributes in The First Sequence.
Unfortunately, The Full Sequence also features some of the most perverted violence I've ever encountered in a modern horror film. The mentally disturbed wannabe-doctor at the center of the film smashes his victims heads' in with a crowbar, then tapes up the wounds with duct tape and leaves them naked in a warehouse. Men and women, old and young, even a pregnant woman are not immune to his attacks. Six is clearly responding to critics who felt the bizarre The Human Centipede concept was far too gory and unsettling to even be filmed.
Then comes The Final Sequence. Tom Six crafts a third entry in the series with a completely different aesthetic and tone. This all comes back to the original joke about punishing prisoners with the surgery. The two mad doctors of the first film act as warden and accountant for a struggling prison, eventually settling on The Human Centipede surgery as a way to reduce their operating expenditures and prove their worth to the government.
The Final Sequence is just shy of a slapstick comedy inspired by characters who are aware of The Human Centipede series as a metatext. In canon, The First Sequence is a film that exists in the world of The Full Sequence, and The Full Sequence exists as its own film containing a film in The Final Sequence. The characters even have the debate about whether or not the surgery is medically accurate with Tom Six playing himself as a Hollywood consultant to the prison.
I think what hooks me in is the clear level of thought and planning that went into the series. Tom Six is no fool. He had the long plan in place very early on and used every tool available to promote the first film and justify the trilogy. That promotional campaign allowed him to comment on the reductive nature of horror series in his own film. Then he got to comment on his commentary while still producing a disturbing horror film.
Like them or hate them, at least The Human Centipede series gets people talking about horror. That alone is enough to earn my respect. The surprising amount of skill and artistry that went into making such a silly concept come to life on film is what keeps pulling me back.
The Human Centipede: First Sequence is currently streaming on Netflix. The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence is also streaming on Netflix. The Human Centipede III: Final Sequence is available as a digital rental on all major platforms.