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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: October 27th, 2015.
Director: Tom Six
Cast: Dieter Laser, Laurence Harvey, Eric Roberts, Tom Six
Year: 2009/2011/2015
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The Movies:
Shout! Factory unleashes the complete collection of Tom Six's controversial Human Centipede franchise in one boxed set for your collecting convenience! Although the first two films have been released on their own before and the third film is going to get a standalone release, this set does provide more extras for the first two movies than they had received previously. But before we get to that, let's talk about the movies…
The Human Centipede (First Sequence):
The subject of an inordinate amount of hype earlier this year, Dutch filmmaker Tom Six's The Human Centipede should make a star out of a German actor named Dieter Laser. An odd mix of Klaus Kinski and Udo Kier, the lead actor with the best name ever plays a mad doctor named Heiter whose bizarre specialty was working on separating conjoined twins. Now seemingly retired, he seems to have snapped for reasons never explained, and has gone in the opposite direction. When two stranded American tourists, Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie) wind up at his door hoping to use the phone, he drugs them before they know it, they're part of a bizarre experiment in which the two girls are sewn, mouth to ass, to the front part of a human centipede in the form of a Japanese guy named Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura).
Not so unrealistically touted as being '100% medically possible' this is one of those movies that will gross out all but the most cynical of viewers. There are certainly far gorier and more graphic films out there in terms of bloodshed and carnage and effects work but the very concept of Heiter's experiment, once its put into motion, is pretty disgusting, particularly when you realize that all three living humans involved are essentially sharing the same digestive track, whether they like it or not.
Shot on digital video, the film has a very cold, clinical look to it that periodically brings to mind David Cronenberg's body horror films, but whereas Cronenberg's pictures generally have a lot more going on than just surface shocks, Six's picture really doesn't. That's not to say it's bad, because it's actually ridiculously entertaining and seemingly completely aware of what it is in terms of artistic merit, but it's not a deep picture at all. Williams and Yennie aren't given a whole lot to do outside of acting dumb and playing to clichés, though Kitamura, whose character speaks only in Japanese (and some of the angriest sounding Japanese you've ever heard at that, though you can't really blame him for being grumpy, what with a woman's face sewn to his ass and all) is excellent in his part. With just the right amount of anger and inspired defiance, Kitamura's character turns out to be far more interesting than the two females that the film originally revolves around. That said, the real star of the show here is Dieter Laser. Not only is he instantly great based on his name alone, but he infuses his Doctor Heiter with such bizarre and manic screen presence that you can't help but love him. He goes just over the top enough to make the role really work for him, and it's hard to imagine the film being half as interesting without him as the antagonist and because of his efforts the film winds up with some really effective surreal humor running through its veins.
So while The Human Centipede may not wind up making you think about much more than the gross factor of what the three victims are subjected to, there's enough going on with the performances, the stylish cinematography and the very concept itself to make this one work. You know, so long as you're in the mood for this sort of thing.
The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence):
Tom Six promised that his follow up film would make the original 'look like My Little Pony.' Well, the proof is in the pudding as they say. When the film begins, we meet Martin (Laurence Harvey), a bug eyed mentally challenged man who lives at home with his mother (Vivian Bridson) and who works nights in a desolate parking garage. When he's not at work, his mother is trying to get him to connect with Dr. Sebring (Bill Hutchens), a lecherous psychiatrist with a giant beard, but Martin is more interested in feeding his pet centipede.
What neither mother nor doctor realize, however, is that Martin has a ridiculously unhealthy obsession with a film he watches over and over again - The Human Centipede. So obsessive is he that he diligently fills his scrapbook with pictures of the cast and notes one just how exactly Dr. Heiter went about connecting those three unfortunate souls so that he can outdo him and live his dream of connecting twelve people together, ass to mouth. Martin has a surprisingly easy time gathering together the victims he needs - be it the obnoxious tattooed man who lives upstairs and plays his music too loud, a pregnant woman very obviously close to her due date, or even one of the stars of the original movie he convinces to journey to London under the false pretenses of auditioning in the latest Quentin Tarantino movie. He does now, however, have the medical skills possessed by his idol - but he'll make do. What he lacks in medical training he'll more than make up for with determination and resourcefulness as the film's atrocity exhibition begins and Six more than lives up to his 'My Little Pony' claim.
Just as sick and twisted as its creator promised it would be, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) offers up pretty much every possibly horror you can imagine and it does so right in your face, leaving very little to the imagination (which is something that the first film did very well). Those of the belief that less is more in terms of the effectiveness of a horror film will no doubt write this one off pretty early on but Six stated he was setting out to push the envelope and that he was essentially going for the gross out here, and that's exactly what he does. While the film (which was shot in color) is shown in stark black and white, that does very little to dampen the impact of what has to be one of the goriest and nastiest movies to come around in quite some time. This film is a vicious little bastard of a movie and it's only too happy to rub your nose in it.
With that said, there's more to this than masturbation, rape, crowbar attacks, forced coprophilia, child abuse, murder, and horrifyingly amateur surgical procedures. As it was with the first film, the film has a very rich and very obvious sense of dark humor behind it. There are scenes that, if you pay attention, are actually quite funny - a scene in which Martin drives Ashlynn Yennie to her supposed interview. As she talks on incessantly about being a germophobe, something that she had to overcome with the first movie she was in, Martin continually coughs and sniffles away, completely ignoring her and entirely focused on the task at hand. There are little bits like this (some rather subtle and some completely lowbrow and obvious) scattered throughout the film that, coupled with the completely over the top nature of the film, which is very open about its complete lack of realism given that it's touted as '100% Medically Inaccurate,' that you can't help but get the joke.
The main attraction in this film, however, isn't the incessant gore or completely insane scenes of degradation but in fact the lead performance from Laurence Harvey. This isn't a role most would take lightly, just based on the fact that it involves some completely unflattering full front nudity and requires so much filthy and abhorrent behavior but Harvey completely throws himself into the character and turns in about as fearless a performance as you can imagine. He's so quirky and screwy looking here that, as horrible as he is, he's also a very sad creature and you can't help but feel sorry for him. On top of that, so many of his victims are set up as awful people before he gets to them that you almost find yourself rooting for him - until you realize what's going on, and then if you're reasonably close to sane, you rethink that stance. Regardless, Harvey is amazing in the part and we're given enough background information on him that we do at least feel for the guy a bit. The same can't be said of any of the victims, however - they're all jerks but not only that they're all also very shallow in terms of characterization (there isn't any). This is the movie's biggest and most obvious flaw as it's hard to get too worked up about characters we do not care about, even if we know they're going to suffer the horrors of the damned before it's all over and done with. There's also the rather massive logic gap that you start to wonder about by the half hour mark, and that's if these people are all going missing, isn't someone going to notice? Not once is there any interference by law enforcement officials of any kind - but then, as stated, the film isn't in the least bit concerned with realism here, that's already been made very clear. The film also could have gone more in-depth about the impact of extreme horror movies on fragile viewers, at you almost think it's going to during the first half hour or so, but no, the movie isn't concerned with that aspect of its concept.
The film's hour and a half running time goes at a good pace, the film rarely feels dragged down. It's also very well shot and the black and white picture is not only well composed in terms of set ups and camera angels but also quite atmospheric. Strong use of sound helps to heighten tension, whether it's Martin remembering the sexual assaults plied on him by his late father as he tries to go to sleep or the sound of his pet centipede attacking its dinner. The aural side of the film is quite well done, and yes, this includes the finale where it all gets incredibly gross.
A quick note about censorship: both the UK and Australian releases of this film on DVD and Blu-ray were cut, as was the American 'On-Demand' release (despite carrying an unrated tag). This Blu-ray appears to be the completely uncut version meaning (minor spoilers!!) the sandpaper is there, the impromptu dental work is there, the tongue removal is intact, there stapling and subsequent ripping of the staples is all there, the car death is uncensored, the barbed wire is there, and the sexual assault is there. The film clocks in at almost ninety one minutes from start to finish.
The Human Centipede III - (Final Sequence):
The third and final film takes things in a decidedly different direction. This time around we journey inside the George H.W. Bush Prison run by Warden William Boss (Dieter Laser) with help from his accountant Dwight Butler (Laurence Harvey). It's the worst prison in the country and Boss' penchant for torturing and brutalizing his inmates isn't helping things because the mounting medical expenses are starting to become more than a little cumbersome.
When Boss isn't roughing up the bad guys he keeps behind bars, he's swigging whiskey and forcing himself on his secretary, Daisy (Bree Olson) but when the state Governor Hughes (Eric Roberts) comes by and lets them know in no uncertain terms that they need to clean up their act, he gets flustered. How will he be able to pull this off when the prisoners don't respect him?
Dwight, a big fan of the Human Centipede movies, has an idea, and so he calls in Tom Six (playing himself) and the prison doctor (Clayton Rohner) to talk Boss into sewing all of the inmates together, ass to mouth. What better way to save on food and lodging costs, keep the prison population in line AND provide the perfect deterrent to those considering a life of crime?
The supporting performers are interesting here. Eric Roberts is great, if underused, as Governor Hughes. His long mane of silver hair makes him look like a bit more of a rock star than a politician but he's Eric Roberts and if he wants to do this, he can do this. It's also fun to see Robert LaSardo and Tiny Lister as two of the inmates who suffer at the hands of Boss' penchant for cruelty. Akihiro Kitamura and Peter Blankenstein, both actors from the first film, also play two of the prisoners.
Bree Olson, better known for the scores of adult movies she made between 2006 and 2012 than for the straight roles she's taken over the last few years, is well cast as the secretary. She's not asked to do a whole lot more than look intimidated and/or sexy but she pulls it off and suits the part really well. Bree's definitely still got her distinct appeal working in her favor! Tom Six plays himself about as well as he should - he is Tom Six after all, but he's smart enough to know he's not an actor so he leaves the heavy lifting to Harvey and Laser.
Yeah, Harvey and Laser.
This movie is all about these two. Harvey, complete with a quirky southern accent, is actually fairly sympathetic here at times. His character basically lives under Boss' boot heel and there's not a whole lot he can do about it. He uses his odd features perfectly, giving a performance that has the right mix of pathos, humor and just generally bizarre tone to work. That brings us to Dieter Laser, the lead in all three films. Here he appears to be on a mission to deliver the most crazed performance possible and to do so he chews through the scenery on a level that would make the late, great Klaus Kinski envious. Every line is yelled and peppered with profanity, racism and any other form of verbal abuse while his eyes look like they're about to pop out of their sockets at any moment. He thrashes his way through the movie and gives as much physically here as he does with any other aspect of his work. It's absolutely insane and frequently hilarious.
Which would seem to be the point of all of this. Six knows what he's doing, the man is no fool, and this third film takes the darkly comedic elements that were there in the first two movies and turns them up to eleven. Yes, the film still has plenty of grotesque moments, scatological humor and chaotic violence but you can't help but laugh at it all. It's so absurd, so over the top, that it is, if nothing else, riotously entertaining. Sure, you grimace when Boss sticks his gun into a man's stomach hole but once he starts yelling about dried clitorises and chastising Dwight for obsessing over a director working out his poop fetishes you've just got to laugh. The film even references the South Park Human Centi-iPad parody episode - we are not being asked to take any of this seriously, even when the film gets into nasty, bloody 'watch us cut this guy's nutsack open' or 'watch us sew a mouth to an asshole' territory. The whole thing is a very meta attack on the far right (complete with 'hot' waterboarding!), the film doesn't even try to mask that, but damn it, it's also frequently hilarious. With this third film, Six has delivered a truly insane film. He's jumped off the cinematic cliff - but before he lands he waves his middle finger in the air and laughs… asking every so politely with his quaint Dutch accent for us to laugh alongside him.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The AVC encoded 1.78.1 1080p high definition widescreen image looks pretty good here for a production shot with a fairly modest budget. Color reproduction is strong, giving those sickly pale color schemes used throughout the movie some welcome medical malaise, while skin tones look natural, even at their most macabre looking. Detail is good, a few soft shots notwithstanding, and the digital to digital transfer ensures that there are no problems with dirt, debris or damage. Black levels are strong and contrast is good but this picture doesn't quite have as much depth as other more recent productions. That said, it looks quite good - those who enjoy the film will appreciate the transfer.
The Human Centipede II arrives on Blu-ray in a good looking AVC encoded 1.78.1 widescreen 1080p high definition transfer. Aside from some noticeable aliasing throughout the film, things hold up fairly well here as contrast generally looks solid (important as the film is 99.9% black and white) and black levels stay deep. Detail varies from scene to scene with some shots looking drop dead perfect and others looking a little bit soft but overall, detail is definitely strong even in some scenes where you might not want it to be. There aren't any noticeable compression artifacts nor is there much edge enhancement to complain about and the image is generally crisp, clean and strong throughout.
The third film looks the best of the bunch, framed at 2.35.1 widescreen and again in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. This is the brightest and most colorful of the three films by far and those colors - mostly the bright orange of a prison jumpsuit, the bloody reds of the gore scenes or the hot desert tones of the outdoor scenes - are reproduced very nicely. There are some shots where the hot lights suck up some of the detail but you get the impression that's intentional as those scenes also have a noticeable high contrast look to them. Otherwise, detail is quite strong and texture impressive. Like the other movies this was shot digitally so there's no print damage while the transfer stays free of compression artifacts and aliasing issues. There's good depth and dimensionality to the image, it looks very good.
The first two films get DTS-HD Master Audio tracks in English as well as 2.0 versions in the same lossless format (the previous Blu-ray release of the original had an LPCM 2.0 track and the second film a DTS-HD 2.0 track only). The third film gets an English language DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio track as well as a DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo Master Audio track with optional subtitles provided in English SDH. Audio quality for all three films is quite good. There's nice use of directional effects evident throughout playback while the dialogue stays clean, clear and concise even when Laser is ranting like a madman. The use of music throughout the film definitely benefits from the lossless treatment while the effects all sound appropriately disgusting throughout. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion and generally all three films in the set quite impressive.
The Human Centipede - The First Sequence:
The best of the extras on the first disc is a commentary track with Tom Six, the enthusiastic writer and director of the film. Six spends a lot of time simply explaining what we're seeing on screen and telling us about it, which would normally be a bad thing, but he intersperses this with his thoughts on how effective it is or isn't and explains how it was done and, sometimes more importantly, why it was done. He also covers the cast, the effects, the location and story changes that occurred.
Aside from the commentary, there are a few interesting, if brief, featurettes to dig through. The first is a nine minute behind the scenes piece which shows us what it was like on set but which is more or less a basic fly-on-the-wall piece aside from some brief input from Dieter Laser which talks about his character briefly. A five minute interview with director Tom Six lets us in on the planned sequel in which he claims medical feasibility will be thrown out the window in favor of gross out tactics, while two minutes of foley sessions and four minutes of cast audition tapes lend some insight into how all of this was put together.
The disc also includes a trailer for the film, a single deleted scene, a poster gallery, animated menus and chapter stops.
New to this disc (all of the other extras are carried over from the previous Blu-ray release) is a featurette called The Ladies Of The Human Centipede. This forty-eight minute piece is made up of interviews with Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Maddi Black and Kandace Caine. This is a legitimately interesting piece in which the actresses talk about the auditioning process that they went through in order to get cast for the film, how chocolate can make a good substitute for excrement, what it was like working on the set, some of the grueling effects processes that they went through, their thoughts on working with Dieter Laser and Tom Six and a fair bit more.
The Human Centipede II:
The main extra on the disc is a commentary track with the man behind the madness, director Tom Six joined by Laurence Harvey. Anyone who seen any interviews with Six knows that he's a fairly chatty guy and has generally got a lot to say about his work, this track being no exception to that. Here he discusses how and why he wanted to push the envelope the way that he did, how he got Laurence Harvey, who joins in on the track, on board to play the lead, how some of the effects work was done and how he got that one returning cast member back to the second film. It's a fairly active and interesting talk, even if it does cover some of the same ground as the other supplements on the disc.
There are also a few featurettes on the disc worth checking out, the first of which is a thirteen minute interview with director Tom Six. Here Six discusses why he shot the film in black and white, the importance of the dark humor in the film, how he had no problem casting this film (which is in direct contrast to the original, which people did not want to be involved in), how he worked a 'tribute' to Schindler's List into the movie, and the very real possibility of the third and final film in the series. A ten minute tour of the set is included, in which we get to see the lighter side of this production, with Laurence Harvey out of character and goofing around with some of his co-stars. This segment also provides a look at how some of the effects work was done, including the use of soother's and prosthetic asses! A third three minute featurette demonstrates how some of the foley sound effects work was done for the film, much of it using some raw meat.
Also on hand is a single deleted scene (which is actually pretty funny), a promo spot for the feature, a trailer for the feature, a teaser for the feature, menus and chapter stops.
But wait - there's more! New to this Blu-ray (again, all of the other extras are carried over from the previous release) are the color version of the feature film and six minutes of footage shot during
Laurence R. Harvey's audition. While the black and white version of the movie definitely has an artsier vibe to it, the color version definitely makes a stronger impression when it comes to the way that the gore scenes translate on screen. Obviously it'll come down to personal preference as to which version you prefer but getting the option to choose (the past Blu-ray only had the black and white version) is definitely a good thing. As to the Harvey audition footage, it's interesting to see him here working out some of the quirks that would eventually work their way into the notorious character he plays in the finished version of the movie itself.
The Human Centipede III - The Final Sequence:
Once again, Tom Six provides an interesting commentary track. Here he talks about working with Laser, Harvey and Roberts as well as Bree Olson, Tiny Lister and a few of the other performers who appear in the film. He also talks about the different approach that he took to making this film, what it was like shooting on the prison sets, some of the effects work and of course, the logistics involved in creating the massive human centipede that is seen at the end of the movie (this isn't as spoiler as it's on the artwork and the disc menu).
The Making Of The Human Centipede III is a twenty-six featurette that, as you could probably have guessed, covers the making of the movie. Tom Six and quite a few of the cast members appear on camera here and offer up some thoughts on the making of the movie and share their experiences, while some behind the scenes footage shows off how some of the movie's specific set pieces were put together.
Rounding out the extras on the third disc are two minutes of deleted scenes (some of which involve more interaction between Eric Roberts and Laser), a four minute alternate ending that is actually pretty funny, a still gallery, a theatrical trailer for the feature and a teaser trailer for the feature. Animated menus and chapter selection are also included.
Each of the three discs in the set sits nicely inside a sturdy fold out sleeve that has a hard plastic tray for each disc. This sleeve then folds up and fits nicely inside a cardboard slipcover - the packaging is pretty nice. No insert booklet or anything but it is nicely designed and it holds the discs well.
The Final Word:
Shout! Factory's Blu-ray boxed set release of The Human Centipede (The Complete Sequence) is pretty much definitive. You get the unrated versions of all three movies, the black and white and color version of the second film, all of the extras from the previous releases and a few choice new ones as well - all offered up in great quality and in some slick packaging too. These movies aren't for all tastes but if you're a fan, this is the way to go.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
The Human Centipede:
The Human Centipede II:
The Human Centipede III:
The Human Centipede:
The Human Centipede II:
The Human Centipede III:
