Why So Blu?

The Human Centipede – The Complete Sequence (Blu-ray Review)

The notorious Human Centipede films will be available as a complete set for the first time with the release of The Human Centipede: The Complete Sequence on October 27^th, 2015.  Upon its release, The Human Centipede became a cultural sensation. On October 27^th, 2015, get ready to experience the “complete sequence” of the infamous Human Centipede series with the release of The Human Centipede: The Complete Sequence on Blu-ray from Scream Factory, in partnership with IFC Midnight. Directed by Tom Six and starring Eric Roberts, Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Laurence R Harvey, and Maddi Black.  This set not only includes the new film and ports over everything from the previous editions, but it also includes new special features like a 44 minute interview with the leading ladies from the first film, deleted scenes and a colorized version of the second movie.  If you’re a fan of these movies, this set pretty much has all you can handle.

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) 

A mad scientist kidnaps and mutilates a trio of tourists in order to reassemble them into a human centipede, created by stitching their mouths to each others’ rectums.

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I honestly think the first Human Centipede is an effective, solidly acted and decently directed horror film.  Its gross, but most of it is in done in the most tasteful manners possible.  Yes, its disturbing and wicked, but that’s what horror is SUPPOSED to do.  This is just a twisted take on the “Mad Scientist” sub-genre.  If anything, the idea put forth in this movie and your brain thinking about it is much worse than anything you see onscreen or experience with the film.  And for those of you who haven’t seen it, its nowhere near as bad as you’re imagining and you really shouldn’t scoff at something you’ve never seen before.  Your opinion is one that doesn’t exist because you’ve only “heard” or made up think in your mind and you haven’t exactly seen it to begin with.

One of the charms of the film comes in the form of its mad scientist.  Dieter Laser is the name of the man playing him, and he’s always going to be remembered and tied to this movie.  Why?  Because he’s absolutely outstanding in the movie.  This guy comes across and entirely committed and so real.  You believe that this man feels he is doing something right.  His insanity and performance is really reason alone to recommend this to a fellow horror fan (I don’t know that casual tourists are going to “get” or see past events to appreciate it).  The girls in the film aren’t bad either (Where they are “bad” they are supposed to be bad), but its Laser that really lights this film up.

Tom Six, with this film, shows that he’s a man with a wicked idea, but that he’s also got some solid talent to back it up.  There is a healthy sense of restrain in the film and he keeps the centipede stuff as tasteful and watchable as he can.  With this one film and not knowing where he would go with these sequels, I honestly would have had him down as someone to keep an eye on in the horror world.  This film has a lot of potential.  There are some scenes and chases of absolutely the best nail biting suspense.  And its pretty obviously he has us all wincing at many moments in the movie.  The guy also has a film that won’t leave your head and makes you pretty sick to think about it when he doesn’t go near as far as he could have with it.

Horror fans, if you’ve been avoiding Human Centipede you really should rethink that.  This film IS disturbing yes, but your mind has been and probably will make this worse than it ever turns out to be.  Its a daunting bit of modern 1970s style horror with a classic mad scientist villain.  Said villain, Dieter Laser, lights up the screen with his maniacal and demented performance that owns this movie.  I’ve only seen this movie twice now, and really am not planning a third in the near future, but wouldn’t be opposed to it in order to show someone.  I guess what I’m saying…its not that bad.  And it REALLY isn’t if you’ve seen what comes next.

The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) 

Inspired by the fictional Dr. Heiter, disturbed loner Martin dreams of creating a 12-person centipede and sets out to realize his sick fantasy.

Tom Six’s sequel is exactly the film every wrongfully assumed the first one to be.  Its an aimless, overly gorey, incredibly offense, totally forced piece of crap that proves to be an unentertaining and overall pointless affair with very little positives to look on it for.  I don’t know if Tom Six was given too much control on the reigns of this film or he was negatively reacting to what people thought of his first movie (“You think that of my film?  Fine! I’ll show you that!”).  Either way its almost if the “super edgy”, dark kid in middle school wrote this film.  It plays very much that way.

Where I will give the film some credit is that it does have some style.  Tom Six does show that there is still some skill in the tank.  The film basically wants to look and feel like David Lynch’s Eraserhead.  The cinematography and score both evoke that and its quite obvious from the first moment we are in the apartment.  Its also appreciated that Six went off the rails a little with the set up for this movie in going meta and showing how important the first movie was in having a surgeon doing the proceedings.

However, any of that praise shortly wears off.  The film is just nasty to be nasty overall.  There is no weight to anything here.  And its just crude to be crude.  All in all, you’re pretty much watching a disgusting nothing that makes you really wish you hadn’t wasted your time with any of it.  Because watching a guy jerk off with sandpaper for no real reason is so edgy and extreme.  There are shocks in here, but they’re utterly garbage in the end and enough to piss you off to stop watching the movie.  I’ve had the “joy” of sitting through this one twice now and I honestly feel a lesser person for it.  But, sadly…this movie is not the worst.  No…cuz I got to watch the third one for the first time…

The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) 

Taking inspiration from The Human Centipede films, the warden of a notorious and troubled prison looks to create a 500-person human centipede as a solution to his problems.

This third movie is an otherworldly shitty movie.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  There is nothing, NOTHING worthwhile in the entire movie.  Tom Six, who I thought (even though I hated the second film) had some talent, shows absolutely nothing here.  This movie looks so generic.  Its not scary, gross or funny.  Its just offensive, dumb and really tests ones patience.  I’ve also never heard the world “RAPE” used so much in a movie.  And most of it for what they think passes as humor.

Here’s all this movie is; its Dieter Laser just shouting and cursing and berating everyone.  For as good as he was in the first movie, he’s the polar opposite end and completely abysmal here.  Six must think its funny to just sit and watch him go.  Porn Star Bree Olsen appears in this film and I honestly felt bad for her being here and having to sit through all the abuse they put her through.  I’m sure she’s dealt with worse on adult films, but this just felt demeaning.

The whole movie also pretty much just takes place in one office.  There must not have been much money to throw around here for the third sequence.  There is gore and all that, but really, the one environment setting pretty much was the hint.  The film is pretty much just “talking” scenes that are worth jack and shit.  I wanted to turn this movie off so many times but due to having to review it, I protruded on.  Its not gory or offensive in the way the previous film was, its just that you can tell no one here gives a crap.  NOTHING really happens in this movie.  Its one of the most empty movies I’ve ever seen.  And also, add it to being one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen too.  Not a “so bad its good” worst, one that is just awful and excruciating to sit through.

Video

Human Centipede 

Human Centipede 2 

Human Centipede 3 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1, 2.35:1 (Human Centipede 3 only)

Clarity/Detail:   Being modern, digitally shot films, these three contain a crisp and sharp image flowing with plenty of detail.  Even the gruesome stitchings show every grisly detail.  Bandaging shows a lot of texture as well.  Surfaces look lifelike and as you know you could feel it.  

Depth:  All three films have some solid dimensional work, with the second one proving the most impressive.  Movements are more smooth and lifelike.  Background images are clear and discernible when the camera’s focus allows.

Black Levels:  Blacks are quite rich in the second film.  The others they appear quite nice and accurate.  Minimal detail is hidden with no crushing.  You can still make out textures and patterns on clothing and the like in darker scenes and with darker objects.

Color Reproduction:  Colors in the first and third films are pretty bold and able to carry a nice palette.  The first film has some really strong blues.  Whites also look great in that film.  The final film in the series has a nice take on browns/tans and oranges are quite vivid and pop.

Flesh Tones:  The first film’s skin tones carry a slight blue filter on them, the second is black and white and the third is a bit warmer yellow’ish.  All three’s facial features come through outstandingly with all wrinkles, make-up, lip texture, stubble, pores and the like coming through like looking through a window.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio

Human Centipede 

Human Centipede 2 

Human Centipede 3 

Audio Format(s): English 7.1 DTS-HD MA (Human Centipede 3 only), English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (Human Centipede 1&2 only), English 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics:  All three tracks carry similar sounding tracks.  The score, vocals and sound effects are all balanced quite well in this loose free, spaced sounding mix.  There is a good crispness to each film, with every scene giving a terrific sense of environment.  The second film also is able to craft the Eraserhead feel with its track with much ease.  Effects like threading through skins, flesh cutting up and…well…all the gross shit sounds rather well rounded in this mix.

Low Frequency Extension:  Things crashing, splashing in a pool, mechanics running, car crashes, heads getting smashed with a tire iron and gunshots all thump quite well from your subwoofer.

Surround Sound Presentation:  Front speakers keep a good record of volume placements and on-screen action movement accuracy.  The rear speakers (and in the case of the 3rd movie, the side ones) pretty much are relegated to ambiance and score.  There are some moments with some effects in the rear, but their primary job is environment.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is crisp, clean and plenty loud for each film.  Every breath, every quiver is accounted for.

Extras 

Disc 1 – The Human Centipede

Audio Commentary

• With Director Tom Six

The Ladies Of The Human Centipede (HD, 47:44) – A rather lengthy double interview with the female stars of the first film as the tell their side of the story in making the film.  They have some fun/silly/creepy anecdotes regarding Tom Six and Dieter Laser.

Behind-The-Scenes (HD, 9:03) – On-set footage and on-set interview with Dieter Laser discussing his character.

Deleted Scenes (HD, 1:31) 

Interview With Tom Six (HD, 5:17) – Tom Six talks about his motivations and such for coming up with this and making the movie.

Casting Tapes (HD, 2:04) 

Foley Session (HD, 4:53) – Shows us the foley artists at work making the sound effects for the film

Alternate Poster Gallery (HD, 1:26) 

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:23) 

Disc 2 – The Human Centipede 2

Audio Commentary

• With Tom Six and Laurence R. Harvey

New Alternate Color Version of the Film (HD, 1:27:23)

Interview with Tom Six (HD, 12:34) – Tom Six talks about his direction for the sequel and answers questions about casting and such.

Tour of the Warehouse Set (HD, 9:15) – Basically an on-set video that wanders around the area catching Tom Six directing and make-up and effects being done.

Laurence Harvey’s Audition Tape (HD, 5:56) 

Foley Session (HD, 3:06) – Wonderful…shows the foley recording session of the rape scene in the film.  Thanks for that.

Deleted Scene (HD, :23) 

Making-of-the-Poster (HD, 2:17) – Video of the photo shoot for the poster design and art.

Poster Gallery (HD, 2:15) 

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:08) 

Teaser (HD, :52) 

Promo (HD, 2:08) 

Disc 3 – The Human Centipede 3

Audio Commentary

• With Director Tom Six

The Making Of Featurette (HD, 26:05) – A compilation of on-set videos with interviews and such from cast and crew as the camera wanders around.

Alternate Ending (HD, 4:01) 

Deleted Scenes (HD, 1:45) 

Still Gallery (HD, 5:27) – Promotional Stills

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:05) 

Teaser (HD, 1:14) 

Summary 

For people who are fans of the sequels to The Human Centipede, this box set should very much satisfy you.  The packaging on it is very good and all previous bonus materials are ported over.  There are new features as well, the highlight being the interview with the two actresses from the first movie.  The films look and sound terrific.  If you have not seen the follow up films to the first movie, I would suggest seeing them before making an expensive purchase on this set.  For those who enjoy them, more power to you, go and pre-order it as soon as you can.  For me, though, I’ll just stick with the fist film and forget the other two ever happened.