Poor facebook friend Gorey Laurie Brains.

All she said was this,

"Favorite torture porn horror flick?

I can't choose between Hostel and The human Centipede. Great great films!"

After I read various response, some belittling my dear Human Centipede films, I started to write. And then I kept going...


My response read as follows:

In advance, sorry for my little essay ;) Please bypass this if you aren't up for reading something LONG lol. I promise I didn't start out with this intention, but I do stand by what I wrote.

The Human Centipede: First Sequence. I am personally obsessed with this movie and villain. Why? Most people consider this simply depraved, even ridiculous, and slow-moving, with (aside from the main "punchline") a very basic, even classically styled, story using a combination of mad scientist/abduction plot.

And yet I must say, whether this helps define me as wholly crazy or not, I see this movie as a piece of art. This film was, truly, a personal investment from most, if not all, involved, and noticeably so from my point of view. The delivery from the whole production team was excellent - much more artistic in my opinion than most other horror. I can feel it just as I can feel it in looking at a brilliant painting.

Before you laugh at my "art" comments, just set aside the plot and look at the lighting, colors in each frame, the angles of the shots, even the timing between shots hold much tension and set the pacing. I know that is typically the goal in movies, but this is done so well! Leaps and bounds beyond most! Whether all of these wonderful components are mindfully created or not, all shots have deep psychological value. And that's just the backdrop.

The feelings of the characters are presented with precision through body language, vocals, and the eyes - oh! the attention to detail in capturing eyes and using the unspoken communication that is conveyed through them, so many fine nuances! The expressions of each actor/actress and the manner in which they are captured - the use of close-ups and long shots, all of the angles on each moment, all highlight the character's state of mind in every shot. And that the focus of the film vacillates between Dr.Heiter's perspective and Lindsay's is so interesting, both are set as sympathetic characters so we can get inside the mind of each at specific times in the story and sort of imagine why they do what they do and how they plan and feel what they are going through, and it is done well! I can not remember many other films where I genuinely enjoyed both protagonist and villain as much as in this film.

To add, I feel in spite of using familiar archetypes, they are done cleverly, more effectively, and with more psychological accuracy than has been done with other films in the genre. Most others seem to miss the mark on delivering said archetypes in a way that should make the character a caricature while still being believable. The characters in HC1 are not existing only to push along a plot, they are not merely fodder for the delivery of non-stop gore. They are believable, even the cop is done well! *And, even though there is no "non-stop gore", the subject matter is disturbing enough to make the audience squirm, even for many who can stomach the gore.

As I am sure you can tell if you have bothered to read this far, I absolutely love this movie. I am an artist myself and have a degree in psychology - specifically art therapy, with concentration on working with trauma patients who often are violent and/or exceptionally disturbed persons. So perhaps I am viewing all of this with a bias towards being attentive to these various little details and being thoroughly fascinated by them. But bias or no, I believe all of the various elements in this film come together in a beautiful, terrible conjunction. I can not help but see it as a truly artistic work. Again, I do not know whether Tom Six et al. knew exactly what they were doing, or whether they were more strongly influenced by instinct. Whatever it is they did, I consider it genius.

There is a time and place for mindless Hollywood-style sensory assault that is purely indulgent and really does little more than show off bodies, effects, and use cheap stereotypes, rehashing old themes in new yet unclever ways. Fortunately, this is a retreat from all of that for me. I may even watch it again tonight. Love it.