.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Two young women (Lindsey and Jenny) with car problems walk through the dense forest looking for help. "Leaving the car was the stupidest idea" , one of them comments. If only they knew.

Lindsey and Jenny are stranded in the middle of nowhere when they begin to talk through the dense forest looking for help. "Leaving the car was the stupidest idea", one of them comments.

If only they knew.

Out of nowhere, a house appears and the two ladies, wet and bothered, are greeted by a weird and freaky looking man who asks them if they are alone. As they enter the house, everything seems somewhat normal. A warm fire is burning in the den, and outside of the strange art hanging on the wall, there is nothing that would lead the two girls to believe that terrors and horrors beyond their imagination were a drink of water away.

This describes the opening scene of The Human Centipede (First Sequence) a film brought to us from the Netherlands is might just be the most shocking film out of Europe since …., well, maybe ever.

As the girls succumb to the date rape drug put in their drink, we watch as Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser) reacts with calm and patience. The women soon wake bound to hospital beds alongside another man who is bound and gagged. The doctor informs the man that he 'does not match' and then injects the man with something that causes him to flat line in front of the already hysterical women.

Sound like a terrifying ordeal? We ain't even started yet. It's at the 26-minute mark when Dr. Heiter (who looks like a cross between Armand Assante and Willem DaFoe) brings another male patient, errrr, victim, into the room that things really start to spiral. The doctor then dons his white jacket, introduces himself and, thanks to an overhead projector, he illustrates and explains the horrific medial experiment that the three captives are about to endure.

He will attach the three individuals in a surgical procedure from ass to mouth creating a human centipede. Connected by graphs from A to B from B to C. A Siamese Triplet. The description alone is sickening. The eventuality of the procedure is cringe inducing terror.

The Human Centipede is one of those films that you can talk about in select circles and can easily be introduced with a 'you haven't seen anything like this'. It is a sick and twisted film that Roger Ebert recently refused to give a rating to due to the nature and execution of the plot. It pushes the envelope (although not as much as you would think) and relentlessly creates a world that might make Hannibal Lecter comment, "That's fucked!"

Subject matter aside, the question remains, "Is the film any good?". Well, and this may come as a surprise, yes, the film is very entertaining in a sick and vile way.

It's not without its faults. The two women actors (Ashley Williams and Ashlynn Yennie) will not be accepting awards for their acting anytime soon. Add too, that the two women would consistently do things that we parody now in horror films. They walk when they should run. They go back for their friends when they should go for help. Not finishing off their assailant when they have the chance. You know the drill.

But by the 48-minute mark, when Dr. Heiter is admiring his human centipede, you can't help but be wrapped up in the disgusting process of it all and cringe as Heiter takes a mirror to show his creation their new reality. He tries to train his new creation like a common house pet and slowly, he shows that he can slip even further down the abyss into insanity.

The final chapters of The Human Centipede do not lose any of the momentum complied in the first hour. And a spiral staircase will look and feel like Mt. Everest to anyone watching from the comfort and safety of their home.

To make a comment like 'The Human Centipede is not for everyone' would be the understatement of the decade. This is truly not a Mother's Day gift that goes with breakfast in bed. When the head of the centipede chain reveals that he was to shit, I felt a depravity not experienced since Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom. Critics would be right to use words like vile, exploitive, morally devoid and unnerving. It's all that and more.

A sequel titled The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is due out in 2011 and continues the vision of writer/director Tom Six. It is a film that I doubt can take things further, but I can guarantee I will be thrilled to see.