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The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2010)

The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
  • All Critics
  •  | 
  • Top Critics

TOMATOMETER

49%
Average Rating: 5.2/10
Reviews Counted: 91
Fresh: 45
Rotten: 46

Critics Consensus: Grotesque, visceral and hard to (ahem) swallow, this surgical horror doesn't quite earn its stripes because the gross-outs overwhelm and devalue everything else.

36%
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Reviews Counted: 14
Fresh: 5
Rotten: 9

Critics Consensus: Grotesque, visceral and hard to (ahem) swallow, this surgical horror doesn't quite earn its stripes because the gross-outs overwhelm and devalue everything else.

AUDIENCE SCORE

26%
liked it
Average Rating: 2.4/5
User Ratings: 16,624

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Movie Info

Two American girls find themselves trapped in a terrifying makeshift hospital by a retired surgeon,Dr. Heiter. The doctor explains that he is retired surgeon who had specialized in separating Siamese twins. However the girls are not about to be separated, but joined together in a horrific operation. He plans to be the first to connect people, one to the next, via their gastric system, and in doing so bring to life his sick lifetime fantasy: the human centipede.

Rating:
R (for disturbing sadistic horror violence, nudity and language)
Genre:
Horror
Directed By:
Tom Six
Written By:
Tom Six
In Theaters:
Apr 28, 2010 Wide
On DVD:
Oct 5, 2010
Runtime:
1 hr. 30 min.
IFC Films - Official Site

WATCH IT NOW

Buy $12.99 Rent $2.99

Cast

  • Peter Blankenstein
    Peter Blankenstein
  • Dieter Laser
    Dieter Laser
    as Dr. Heiter
  • Ashley C. Williams
    Ashley C. Williams
    as Lindsay
  • Ashlynn Yennie
    Ashlynn Yennie
    as Jenny
  • Akihiro Kitamura
    Akihiro Kitamura
    as Katsuro
  • Andreas Leupold
    Andreas Leupold
    as Detective Kranz

Related News & Features

  • Human Centipede 3 Inspires Lawsuit
    – AV Club
  • Human Centipede III Details Surface
    – Film School Rejects

View All The Human Centipede (First Sequence) News


The Human Centipede (First Sequence) Videos

FEATURED

The Human Centipede: You're A Sick Man

2 minutes 30 seconds

FEATURED

The Human Centipede: Something To Drink

2 minutes 9 seconds

View All Videos (3)

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Critic Reviews for The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

All Critics (92) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (46) | DVD (8)

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

Full Review… | September 8, 2010
Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald

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.

Full Review… | May 14, 2010
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

A film that, in bare description, sounds like the greatest outrage ever put to screen, but ends up being fairly tedious when watched.

Full Review… | May 13, 2010
Keith Phipps
AV Club

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.

Full Review… | May 6, 2010
Michael Ordoña
Los Angeles Times

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.

Full Review… | May 6, 2010
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe

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.

Full Review… | May 6, 2010
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times

Six seems, at some point, to have said to himself, It might be theoretically possible to sew a mouth to an anus and sustain life. Someone should dramatize that, and then he did.

Full Review… | June 22, 2013
Will Leitch
Deadspin

I's at times heart-racingly tense, less gory than you'd expect, hilarious, horrible, and not like anything else you've ever seen.

Full Review… | April 4, 2011
Dave White
Movies.com

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

Full Review… | October 30, 2010
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

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.

Full Review… | October 21, 2010
Simon Miraudo
Quickflix

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.

Full Review… | October 14, 2010
R. L. Shaffer
IGN DVD

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

Full Review… | October 13, 2010
Lucius Gore
ESplatter

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.

Full Review… | October 11, 2010
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

These folks -- both in front of and behind the camera -- really threw themselves into their work, and, provided you have an open mind, it shows.

Full Review… | October 9, 2010
Ross Ruediger
Bullz-Eye.com

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

Full Review… | September 28, 2010
Kevin A. Ranson
MovieCrypt.com

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.

Full Review… | September 8, 2010
Simon Foster
sbs.com.au

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is one of those movies that's much more entertaining to talk about than it is to actually experience.

Full Review… | September 1, 2010
Norman Wilner
NOW Toronto

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

Full Review… | August 26, 2010
Quentin Clarke
Film4

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

Full Review… | August 26, 2010
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times

David Cronenberg this ain't.

Full Review… | August 23, 2010
Alistair Harkness
Scotsman

I expected the film to be [R rated] B grade horror litter, but its conceit rises above the expectations, as does its technically polished execution and the dramatic seriousness of purpose

Full Review… | August 22, 2010
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

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

Full Review… | August 20, 2010
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian

It's no shock classic, yet it lingers in the mind, prompting weird thoughts like, "Would I go in the front, middle or back?"

Full Review… | August 20, 2010
Andrew Osmond
SFX Magazine

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to take three human beings and sew them all together via their digestive tracts? Wonder no longer!

Full Review… | August 20, 2010
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph

With dark humour from time to time, underneath an extremely repulsive concept, this is a relatively conventional horror movie.

Full Review… | August 19, 2010
Kim Newman
Empire Magazine
View All Critic Reviews (92)

Audience Reviews for The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

½

The mere idea is grotesque but the execution is not as repulsive as the hype leads us to think, and though Dieter Laser is efficiently menacing as the mad doctor, the other actors are mostly terrible and the movie offers a lot more involuntary humor than actual horror.

More
blacksheepboy
Carlos Magalhães

Super Reviewer

Tom SIx derives an unexpected and grotesque feel to the horror/gore cinematic genre. Human Centipede is overshadowed by its devious creation of an 'actual' human centipede as well as its diabolical creator. Not for all audience, the film's execution doesn't hit well but does leave a sour mark on the not-so-strong-stomach-filled audience. 3/5

More
Eugene Bernabe
Eugene Bernabe

Super Reviewer

I admit, it's pretty disturbing, but nothing is really shown in graphic detail. The acting is bad but the film does manage to squeeze in some sort of story, I guess. I did not like "The Human Centipede", but it succeeds in grossing you out.

More
Market Man
Eric Shankle

Super Reviewer

2 stars

More
YodaMasterJedi
MisterYoda ?

Super Reviewer

View All Audience Reviews

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) Quotes


Katsuro:
Shit. I have to take a shit! Sorry!
More
– Submitted by Christopher P (2 years ago)
Jenny:
What is this? What are you doing to us?
More
– Submitted by T.j. S (3 years ago)
Katsuro:
[in Japanese] The Japanese have tremendous strength when backed in a corner.
More
– Submitted by T.j. S (3 years ago)
Dr. Heiter:
Swallow it, bitch!
More
– Submitted by Patricia S (3 years ago)

View All Quotes (10)

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