The Human Centipede (First Sequence): Critic Reviews

Much of the film's ''entertainment value'' rests on the sadistically outlandish performance of Dieter Laser, who's like Boris Karloff starring in a movie by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

A must-see for coprophiliacs and spanking enthusiasts, The Human Centipede (First Sequence) may be the year's first mainstream fetish movie.

It scales the heights of yuckiness. It places a flag on a hitherto undreamt-of Everest-peak of offensiveness.

It would be nice to report that Six ... has an eye for horrific imagery and a head full of fresh ideas - or, barring all that, that he's simply a hard-working hack. But this is lazy moviemaking based on the thinnest of concepts.

It's definitive psychological horror, positioning the viewer to identify with the victim's suffering and lack of free will, even after harshly judging what they did with that free will when they had it.

The director forces into our mouths what he forces into the mouths of his female characters. The movie stinks to heaven.

The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine.

This nasty stuff plays like a cross between Saw, Naked Lunch, and Bride of the Monster.

The Human Centipede, by skillful Dutch director Tom Six, might be compared to Hollywood schlock like Hostel. But it has a style and sense of humor sorely lacking in the American movies.

This horror show from Dutch director Tom Six will be heaven for devotees of four-star torture porn and zero-star hell for everyone else.

There are terrible movies and there are loathsome movies. And then there's that rare breed so idiotic, exploitative and sickening one wishes they could be scrubbed from memory.

Deep down it's just more torture porn with an artistic gloss...

The evocative title, the lack of motive and the absence of genre tropes are completely intentional -- Six is giving us what we want, reminding us all the while that getting exactly what we want is usually the last thing we should ever really have.

The Human Centipede won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're willing to sit through the film's gory moments, and delve deeper into the narrative, there's something genuinely enthralling about this shocker.

The film deserves some points for being sickening and over the top.

Yet despite the disturbing subject matter, Six directs the film with surprising restraint. You won?t find any handheld shakycam, excessive gore, or fast-cutting here.

There is a tradition among mad scientists who exhibit creativity with their victims that comes down to three little words: some assembly required.

A well-staged but exceedingly conventional payoff highlights the fact that the film, despite being based on a perversely scatological and quite horrific premise, is actually rather palatable in its execution.

The problem is that this slick piece of schlock is dull, risible and, ultimately, boring.

It's an undeniably revolting concept, but most of the actual gore would be matched by your average pre-watershed medical shock doc.

[The sequel] is already in the can. Which is where many of us will be, seeking relief for emetically affected stomachs.