"The Human Centipede" and post-modern Japanese-style horror porn....(Updated)
OK....so I'd been hearing a bunch of hoo-ha about "The Human Centipede," a pretentious bit of post-modern muck making the independent film festival circuit as well as the On Demand tv circuit...and it's taken me over a week to get back to this post. Sometimes that happens. Good thing I took notes before I forgot what I wanted to say...Please be advised that this post is full of SPOILERS, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, read at your own risk. Here's how THC becomes both post-modern as well as an echo of far superior Japanese horror-porn....
Before we get to the latter part of my observation, let's discuss a bit about what makes THC "post-modern": it has to do with the motive, or lack thereof, of the central evil character. We know something's up with Dr. Heiter. We know he's going to be a sadistic weirdo. Which makes the line "I hate human beings" redundant. Yet what is most disturbing is that other than being a sadist (if I said narscisitic or egomanical, I might be redundant) and wanting to do something just because he can, there doesn't seem to be much of a motive for what he does.
Dieter Lasser does have an impressive resume when it comes to playing weird characters. So, other than Udo Keir, Lasser was indeed the perfect choice for the part
Honestly--what makes a satisfying weirdo sadistic psychopath is his or her motivation. Be it bad parenting or some other kind of strange circumstance, we get why the charachter does what he/she does. Sometimes the more complex, and the slow revelation of what makes the psyco tick, creates an additional layer of suspense leading to stronger emotional engagement with the film....
Even if that emotion is disgust, it's a good thing. With Dr. Heiter, I didn't feel much of anything. And I understoon why Katsuro calls him a Nazi--what else would you call a sadist with a German accent?? But unless the guy was in his 80's, he couldn't be a Nazi. In fact, the whole Nazi Doctor thing totally falls apart because Dr. Heiter isn't old enough to be a Nazi. Nazi influenced, maybe--but I'm really not buying the whole Nazi angle. If that was the case, then it would have made sense for him to have trappings of Nazi influence. Yeah, maybe if there were it would have made the film too campy...but hey it was *campy* even without the Nazi paraphernalia. So why not push it over that edge?
Oh, what am I thinking? Director Tom Six may be going for auteur with this film...
Perhaps Six was influenced a bit by Paul Verhoeven. (see this I wrote years ago on Verhoeven, one of my favorite filmmakers, who knows a bit about *campy* as well as creepy as well as soft-core porn...) who knows how to give some depth to even the shallowest of characters.
So, in the post-modern world of the European Evil character we don't get the Nazi trappings, nor do we get a clear motivation for his evil. He's just evil. Which is post-modernist thinking on the nature of evil....(no following orders for this Eichmann...)
As for the Japanese style horror-porn, I'd suggest viewing Takeshi Miike's "Audition"
as well as Tetuso: the Iron Man
Which has to be seen to be believed....and both are far weirder than The Human Centipede....but THC does have elements of these two...
Overall, THC is a fine bit of kitsch, but needed to be taken further if it was going to accomplish a true gross-out that comes in Japanese horror-porn. Heck, even the shit-eating was quite tame. If you're looking for serious corprophagia, try Pasolini's Salo
