The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

It's your killer host. My name is Parker, your resident horror fanatic. I'm Caroline, Scaredy Scream Queen. I'm Ian, Scary Movie Skeptic. And welcome to my favorite scary movie. What's your favorite scary movie is a horror film podcast where we're on a journey to find our favorite scary movie one at a time. Whether you hate them or love them, join us and discover yours. Spoilers ahead, so plan your movie screening every weekend before the episode release. Hey you guys. Hi. Guess what the movie we watched this week did? A whole lot. It fed me. I was starving for just some good old horror. And boy oh boy, eating it up. Did it just digest your desires? Gross.

Uh well, if you're wondering what we are watching as the first film in our pride, well, like I said last week, the two films we've watched previously this month, pretty gay. But as my intentional Pride Month programming, first episode, the Human Centipede. And don't worry, I will explain later. The Human Centipede. I've been like excited, but also like not to cover this on the podcast. I'm so excited now that we're here, now that it's over. The Human Centipede was released in 2009, and boy did it take the world by storm. It was written, directed, and produced by Tom Six, who also wrote the Human Centipede 2 full sequence from 2011 and the Human Centipede III final sequence from 2015.

He was also a director of the original Dutch series Big Brother and claims major inspiration from watching the crazy things people do when they're alone and think they aren't being watched. Wow. I know what uh a connection I would have never guessed. We have Dieter Laser as Dr. Heiter. Dr. Haider. Heater. He returns in the third film and is known for the ogre in 1996 and Get Out of My Swamp! And um also the TV show Lex with two exes. He sadly died this past February, actually. Um, and the cause of death was not disclosed. He is a spooky man. I have to say, I'm gonna go ahead and spoil it right now. This movie is Dieter Laser.

Like, this movie is nothing without that man. Big R.I.P., I miss you because I think that his contribution to this movie, which then contributed to horror, big. I mean, those two women actors weren't bringing anything. He made up for a lot of lack of talent, I'll say that. Damn. Overacting. Hashtag overact. Also, I just kept thinking during the movie, I want to see this man on stage, like in a live theater setting. Because I feel like he would have been pretty phenomenal. Yeah, the way it's gonna be. In like a Jekyll and Hyde type thing. Yeah. I saw a show in New York that was like immersive. You sat at tables that the actors kind of performed around.

Can you imagine? Rich. Well the Josh Groben one? No, it was Sweeney Todd. Sweeney Todd. Um we also have Ashley C. Williams, Lindsley. Previously was in Julia in 2014 and an episode of a web series called Hell's Kitty. Sign me up. That sounds like porn. Ashlyn Yenny as Jenny. I can't. Um. So Ashlyn comes back in the sequel and was also in Fear Inc. in 2016. Akihiro Kitamura. Oh man. Slaughtering these. Akihiro Kitamura Mura. He slaughtered himself. Uh, true. Um plays the role of Katsuro, which I don't think we actually hear that name. No, I don't think so. Yeah. Um, he returns in the third film and is in the TV series Tokyo Vampire Hotel from 2017.

How does someone that kill themselves in a in a first movie come back in the third? I guess we'll have to watch them and find out, because that seems like a plot twist to me. The IMDB summary reads, 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 other's rectums. Never say that word ever again. Rectums. Rectums. Stop. Do you ever say a word so many times it just loses its meaning? Rectums, rectums, rectums, rectums. That one hurts a little harder every time. The Rotten Tomatoes critic score is a 50%. And the audience score comes in at half of that.

25%. Wow, I am surprised by that. I am as well. Just because I mean this came out when I was in high school and everyone was like you gotta see human centipede. Yeah. Probably because it had naked people in it. Yeah, it was also like a weird, like you guys remember the two girls one cup thing? Oh, hell yeah. But how is that related? I just I associate those two things together because it was around the same time. Yeah, it's like a dare. Like, oh my god, you I dare you to watch Two Girls One Cup. Exactly. I did not watch it actually. Really? Is that still available? You don't want to watch it. Ian, did you watch any of it?

Did they take it off of YouTube? I mean, I think I watched at least some. I'm gonna look it up. I want to see if it's still on there. It's no, it's no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no you're not gonna make sure you're on your own account. I just want to see it's not gonna be on YouTube. It's not on YouTube. It's you have to search it on the internet. It's not. Yeah, it's YouTube. It's not gonna be on YouTube. Well, I don't think it was ever on YouTube because it's you can't put you can't put porn on YouTube. It was probably on like daily motion or like some random off-brand video.

But I think I watched like a highlights reel of it or something. That was like 30 seconds, and I think it only lasted like half of it. I was like, oh. Did y'all ever watch now this is getting a little deeper. Did y'all ever watch One Guy One Jar? No, that sounds not fun. It's a guy who literally sits on a glass jar and it breaks inside of him, and you see like bloody glass chips dripping out of him. Ew. Do you get aroused by that? Uh, not me personally, but I don't want to yuck any yums. If that's anybody's like kink, then like live it, dream it. The uh critics' consensus is quote grotesque, visceral, and hard to uh swallow.

This surgical horror doesn't quite earn its stripes because the gross outs overwhelm and devalue everything else. Related to that, I not related to that, but kind of related to our two girls one cup. I Caroline, you touched on it, and I wanted to quickly hit we've discussed this in our Texas Chainsaw episode, we discussed it in our martyrs episode, how it's kind of like it became a dare. Like, you have to watch human centipede, you're not strong, you can't do it, you won't. And you said you'd heard of it before. Do you have any comments, thoughts to say about like what you had heard about this movie before actually watching it? You hadn't seen it before, right?

No, I don't know. It was like a group of guys in high school that were talking about it and like tried to explain it to me. It was similar for me that I was literally at a um church lock-in. Oh my god, scandalous. I know. And s a group of I was in junior high when this came out, and a group of high schoolers sat us little junior high dweebs in a circle and told us like the story, air quotes, the plot of the human centipede, and like freaked us out, like literally like a campfire story. And it's crazy to me that this movie like came out so recently and immediately was that kind of like legend that people would tell each other.

It's insane. Ian, had you heard of this? Oh yeah. I had never watched it, but it was always the talk of the lunch table, which is a great lunch table conversation. Yeah, I didn't watch this for years. I thought honestly, after seeing it now, I thought it was gonna be a lot more grotesque. I thought it was gonna be more people. I knew the premise of the butts and the Well Okay, I thought it was gonna be much more graphic though. Like I thought I don't know. It just I think the idea of it is a lot more alarming, like the concept of it, but like how they actually showed it, it wasn't terribly gruesome. Yeah, it's kind of like we discussed with our parents telling us about Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or how everybody says that Saw is the most disgusting movie ever.

But when we watched it, it's more about like you just said, like the idea of what's happening or what the movie is suggesting is happening. Ian said during it he was like, I'm gonna think of this every time I poop now. Totally. But there are, I think, diff differentiating it from those other two movies I just mentioned it, there are some truly grotesque scenes. Specifically, I haven't seen this in years, and I watched it today for the podcast, obviously. And like when she jumps out of the bed to escape and the IV rips out of her arm, that was truly disgusting. Yeah. But it's not the things that you think it will be, you know. Yeah.

Ian got real squirmy during this one. Let's move on. I really don't want to talk about that. Now, I will I watched The Human Cinepede 2, uh, what's it called? Full The Human Cinepede 2 full sequence in preparation for this as well. And unlike this movie, it was I I do not kid when I say it is the most grotesque and despicable thing I have ever watched in my life. There are two movies I have ever watched that I refused to actually look at what was happening. The Lars von Trier movie Antichrist. If you know, you know. And the other was the Human Centipede 2 full sequence. It was disgusting. This movie, there this episode, we're not spoiling the Human Centipede 2 full sequence, but I will a little bit right now.

There is violence against pregnant women that was disgusting. There is like a guy masturbating with sandpaper. Again, we're discussing the first movie, but I just want to tell y'all because I was I'm gonna take this earbud out if you keep talking about it. You guys know that I love a fart joke, I love a poop joke, I think it's funny. I think poop is funny. Yeah. The guy who is constructing the human centipede in the second film is not a surgeon like in this movie. So he gets frustrated and he just staples people's mouths to other people's butts, and then there's again a poop scene, and you see literal poop spewing around people's faces. You see it squirting against the walls.

It is disgusting. So I actually recommend you might be surprised to hear it, the human centipede one, but I do not recommend the second movie. I thought it was too far, and the third movie I didn't even try. So, on that note, what was your first impression of the human centipede? Oh again, you hear so much, what was it in actuality? I mean, okay, first of all, I have a couple questions. Sure. Like, how does farting work? I'm just and I'm can you swallow a fart? I don't know. And what if what if you burp? So you go back in, or is there ventilation in there? Or like well the whole conceit is you're connected through the gastrointestinal system.

So maybe the first guy farts, it travels through the other two and goes out the last girl's butt. Maybe the last girl burps, it travels through and goes out Katsura's mouth. That's just intriguing. Um, also, poor dogs. Just gonna throw that out there. I can't imagine what that was like. Yeah. I was like poor, they didn't know what was going on. Um I was curious the same creator as cat dog. An interesting comparison you draw there. I'm not mad at that. My question is if you think about the anatomy of our mouths and the anatomy of a dog's mouth, how does that work? I know, I think they went in. Leave it. I don't like that.

Wait, how do they breathe then? I don't want it. Go away. They cut the butt a little bit. No, because their nose is on there. Their snout, yeah. I don't want to talk about it. Ian, what was your first reaction to the movie? Well, my very first uh reaction was kind of annoyed. Oh, my first reaction was this guy's bringing toilet paper to go pee. Oh, he was clearly pooping. Yeah, he took a squat, man. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. You learn that once he's squatting, but that's my very first reaction. You wanted first reaction. I thought the photo of the dogs, they were just sniffing each other's butt. So I didn't really know what was going on there.

But then I got the idea. Was he getting off to those photos in the car? No. I think he was just admiring. Yeah, I think that maybe the dogs what I thought, I mean, obviously we we know this is not true because he has the gravestone in his yard. I thought initially that he had just buried the dogs out there and then he shot the trucker because the trucker was pooping on their grave. That's clearly not true. So I don't actually looking back know what was happening there. But yeah, like Caroline, I think he was just like, uh my beautiful creation, I must make another. Well, my first reaction, besides my gay theory that I have coming up, because a pretty gay movie.

But I again, it's not as despicable as you think it is when you hear about the concept. But I think this movie is actually like pretty good. There were certain moments where I thought the suspense was built really well, like when at the end Dr. Hyder is like crawling up the stairs after them. Like I was feeling a little heart racing. I thought some of the like cinematography was actually kind of beautiful. And I don't want to be like one of those like bros that's like, yeah, like kill people, boobies, eh. But like when the centipede was in the yard and he was like, feed her, I was like, Woo! Like, yeah, feed her. I like I got a little excited at parts of this movie that as I told Caroline and Ian before this episode, I ordered some pad thai.

It should have been delivered a long time ago, and I thought it was gonna be there sooner, so I'd started drinking wine, and so I've just been drinking wine starving for hours. But so that might have something to do with it. But I was just like, hell yeah, give us the centipede. I I there were a lot of I texted Parker during this movie. It's a quick 90-minute movie, and I texted Parker and said this movie cannot end quick enough. And funny you bring that up because I actually looked. There is a point where uh the two ladies, Jenny and Lindsay and Katsuro, are all in their hospital beds and Dr. Haider is like, This is what I'm gonna do with you.

At that point, so much has happened, and there is one hour left in the movie. And I looked at it and I was kind of like, Are you kidding me? I there's another hour. Also, when you think about it, isn't it kind of interesting that I mean it kind of g is on theme with the other things that we witness in the movie leading up to that. But do you think a normal killer would just like, hey, this is I'm gonna do a little presentation for you. He's not a killer. He's a surgeon, he is a doctor. This is his art, a masterpiece. That wasn't the right wording, but No, I agree with Caroline completely. I think it's so not only is this his masterpiece.

They mentioned so many times, you think you're God, and he he like gets so excited when he when they stand up and he's like, I did it, I did it. Not only is it that, but they're also his pet. And it's so like I know it's not real. I know it's not real, but it's so fascinating that he is also like in love with them and so like empathetic, and the way he's tr like they're clearly three humans, like the same as him, but he's so I I don't even know how to describe it, but he loves them in a way where he has the power. He's gonna beat them with his his um what do you call it, crop and train them like an animal.

It is so I don't even know what to say. It's so crazy. This uh whoof I love it. I can't like I can't even eat some food. It's so no, I it's so good. I I might go buy it afterwards because I think that like I think this is a really good horror movie. I can't imagine watching this again. Never it's not necessarily about me watching it again, but every single time that like I have a new friend and they're like, Oh, you like horror? Like, I've never really gotten into it. It's like, oh my god, let's turn on the human centipede. You know? No, I would never start with this. If you would have started with this at the beginning of this podcast, I'd be out.

I would have done one episode and be like, that was fun, but I'm never doing this again. You think it's that bad? No, I don't think it's bad, it's just alarming. Like this is a very difficult movie to watch. Yeah, it's difficult to watch, but for different reasons than Babaduca is. Yeah. The Conjuring was the second movie we watched, and I, a person who's watched a lot of horror movies, I still find that movie really frightening. Would you qualify this as body horror? Oh, absolutely. I just you don't see a lot of it. Looking at this in context of like the horror timeline, so Saw came out in 2004. We've reviewed Saw. And Saw and Hostel, which we've also reviewed, uh, which came out a year later, they kind of spawned the torture porn movement.

Which torture porn is not always a favorable term. We sometimes we don't like torture porn. That's not necessarily what it is. Body horror. Like you just said, You've learned so well. My pets, my cinepede. Um Goodbye. But there was a huge body horror movement in the mid-2000s. And 2009 was when it was kind of petering out and getting into found footage. We have not watched Paranormal Activity, but Paranormal Activity was a big piece of the found footage movement and also a big piece of the supernatural horror movement, which led into the conjuring and insidious movies that we have watched. And so this movie comes at a time when that's going away, but it's kind of like this big triumphant.

Nobody has dared do this with the current horror, I don't want to say movement again, but the current horror trend or obsession. And if we're gonna go out, we're gonna go out with a bang. And so I think looking at this in the timeline of because you know, horror comes in waves of trends. Everybody puts out a slasher in the 80s. What trend are we on right now? Well, right now I think we're on the trend of this like thoughtful, cerebral uh intellectual horror. Like we've seen The Lodge, we've seen Midsummer, we've seen Hereditary, Us, even, which we know that I don't like us, but it's in the same vein of like, we're gonna put out this horror move these horror movies that are high budget and they look slick and expensive and they mean something.

We have a really like intense intellectual concept for this movie. That's what we're in right now. Uh, which might change right now, coronavirus. I have a feeling that we're about to enter a new wave of horror because there's a lot of new horrors happening in real life, and so horror always kind of responds to that. Uh, but yeah, this was kind of the end of the torture porn. And actually, I thought that you guys might relate to this a little bit because you know what this movie is about? Please tell me. Nomads, a couple of ladies heading out on a trip, cross country. They're from New York City, and they're like, hey, let's hit up a big European trip.

And Germany is just one of their stops. They've been to uh Denmark, they've they're headed to Italy. You guys, it's like this must have been like looking in a mirror. Everyone's afraid of the unknown, but don't let that keep you from traveling, friends, unless you're in a pandemic. The difference is I know how to change a tire. It's true. Okay, I do want to hit on the very first section of this movie where the girls are lost. I once, so I'm a Pilates instructor, if people have forgotten. And thank you, thank you. Getting your Pilates certification is a lot of hours, it's a lot of workshops, it's a lot of like anatomy and instruct whatever. So I had to go to a lot of uh in-person workshops and training seminars.

And I was driving from Fort Worth where I went to college to Dallas, where I trained for Pilates, and my car went like bumps. I look in my rearview mirror, my tire is literally rolling away on the highway. And I like started screaming in my car. I didn't know what to do. So I pulled off to the side of the highway, a very small shoulder on this highway, and I know how to change a car tire, but like I I also was just p I called like everyone in my family. Nobody was answering because I've never I've changed a tire, but not by myself. And so I pulled a little further off to a place where there was a larger shoulder, and I went, I drove a Prius, and so there was like a little compartment in the back of the car that had like the uh what do you call the thing that like pumps the car up?

Jack. Yeah, there was the jack, there was my spare tire, and I got it out, and I was like from the get-go, I do not know where to put the jack. Like, is there a certain part of the car I'd put it under? So I knew how to change the tire, but I didn't know like the other like details. And so I was just on the side of the road on this like grassy shoulder of the highway, all these cars speeding past, like, what the hell do I do? And you know what happened? Oh god. Someone helped. A trucker pulled over and he said, You know what? I saw you over here, and I thought, I have a daughter, and if she was on the side of the road, I hope someone would help her.

So he helped me and he put the tire on my car. And it turns out underneath the Prius, there are arrows literally on the car that show you where to put the jack. And I was just like, What do I do? So I really empathized with the first of this movie, except that this guy was just like, look at these little porn girls. You want a little weenie? Exactly when I think of straight people, that tongue movement is the only thing I think of. Oh no. I've caught myself doing that a time or two, but then I realized I was just looking in the mirror. Well, I just went through a journey. Um what I think is interesting about this first section is one, that interaction with the guy, fascinating that he's speaking German.

We know what he's saying because there are subtitles, but they don't know what he's saying. Hilarious. That's a real moment of like slapstick comedy. Why don't they just use Google Translate? I don't know how 2009 worked. They had flip phones in this movie. I think that this sets the tone of like there's so many horror movies that me as a gay man I watch, and certain things happen, and I get really scared that this is going to go in some sort of like sexually violent, like antagonistic, straight preying on women, rape revenge direction. And this movie it starts in a way that makes you really fear that that's gonna happen. I mean, it didn't cross my mind until now, but if that Dr.

Hyder put a lady on the end, I don't know. I don't know. Put a lady on the end. Yeah, I don't know what you're saying. He had a he had a clear choice for the order of the centipede. I have thoughts on that as well. Yeah. Well, one, the guy at the front that can speak doesn't speak English. Exactly. I think that's a big part of it is I mean, again, speaking about like I don't know, I'll get into my gay theory later. Don't worry. But my my thought of saying that order is if he wanted to do something with the ladies or the centipede. But it never went there. But it just crossed my mind.

I didn't even think about that. That's totally true. I think you're totally on the money. He put uh Katsuro at the front because if that's his pet and it was yelling out like help me, that would totally be a turnoff. And so I think it's very intentional that he put someone that doesn't speak English or German, the languages he speaks, at the front. But I like your thought about why he put her at the back. Obviously, we see explicitly in the movie why he puts Lindsay in the middle because you get what's coming, Lindsay. Who would be the middle? Oh, I've thought about this a lot. Obviously, I'd be the front because I talk the most.

And then Caroline would be the back because she farts a lot. And then just Ian by default is in the middle. That means you would have to receive Parker's farts, which is way worse than mine. Oh, yeah. And so Ian, yeah, double the suffering is what uh Dr. Hyder says. So Ian's in the middle. There's really no benefits to being in the back, though. I mean, at that point you might as well be in the middle. I think the only benefit to being in the back is so jumping the gun a little bit, the very last scene of this movie, Lindsay's the only one who survives, and she is straight up fucked because there's nothing she could do.

If you're in the front, yeah, I'm not saying it would be easy, but there is a world where I could imagine somebody getting to a place of desperation where they find a way, he has that piece of glass to saw themselves off of the centipede. If you're in the back, again, even worse, I think, than the butt, because he removes, he cuts a circle around your mouth, he moves removes the entire like lips and mouth off of them. So I'm not saying it's easy, but there's a world where I think you could saw your face off of the centipede. If you're in the middle, there's no way that I can imagine a world. Are they the the issue is, and I hate thinking about this, so I don't want to talk about it for too long, but he sews, I'm assuming, intestines together through the through the I don't know.

Mouths. I don't think the intestines are involved. I think it's just the valves. Because they're like their tongue is still in there, they're making noises. Yeah, I don't think I don't know of a way. I mean, I'm no doctor, but I don't know of a way that you could sew people's intestines together. But then also he has this whole contraption of skin grafting the like smile onto the butt cheek so that they're connected in more ways than just the mouth and the butt. Like there's a whole section of skin connecting them as well. Oh now, I texted Caroline when y'all started watching this, and I said, Oh, by the way, the tagline of this movie is 100% medically accurate.

Tell Ian. Did you tell him? I didn't, but I well, I got distracted because no, listen, because I'm done. I'm walking out. You said the tagline is 100% medically accurate, and I was like, Well, what's the tagline? Oh, that's the tagline? That is the tagline 100% no, but I thought it was like there was a tagline, and you were telling me that it was accurate. So I had to Google it, and then I realized who's on first. All of the posters say 100% medically accurate. And I think that's really fascinating because we've watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, we've watched The Strangers, movies that begin with something that say based on true events. And we've talked about multiple times how that's not true.

Those movies are not based, they are based on true events, but they're not based on like a true event that happened. They're based on like the best parts of like 20 different murders, or the I shouldn't say the best parts, the most exciting parts. And so I think that 100% medically accurate is a really interesting tagline for this movie to use as a selling point as a horror movie because it's something we've seen a billion times before, but in a completely new way. Now, you guys are probably wondering, is it 100% medically accurate? Well, when Tom Six, the director, wrote this movie and was developing the concept of the human centipede, he consulted with a Dutch surgeon and he said, If I wanted to create a sequence of humans that could function as one unit, a human centipede, if you will, how would I do it?

And the doctor said, hypothetically, if you were going to make it happen, you would need to attach them this way. You would need to give them these vitamins, give them these assistance, such as laxatives, because when you have that kind of trauma to like your butthole or your mouth, like your digestive system naturally adjusts and it tries to protect yourself from those things. That's kind of a reaction that your body has, like anywhere that you have an injury. So you would have to give them laxatives so that they would poop. In the interview I was reading, actually, he mentions that the doctor said that he would have to find a way to stop the person consuming the poop from vomiting, and that's never addressed in the movie.

I don't know what would happen if Lindsay had consumed the poop and then vomited. I don't know what would have happened there. See, that's why I was kind of asking about like the farts and stuff. Like, would it spew out or go back in? Well, like I said to intake farts. That's why I think he had to do this big skin graft is to really like enclose the space. Cause he said he cuts a hole around the anus, he cuts a hole around the mouth and uses the skin graft to connect them. I think that's part of the reason or part of the method of completely connecting their intestines. Cause like we said, I don't know if he could actually connect their intestines.

Cause what do you call this? Esophagus, your throat, is connected to your mouth, and there's no way to connect your mouth directly to a circular opening. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I don't I'm let's move on. Yeah, okay. I'm over it. So I still want to say the first of this movie, I read an interview with Tom Six on Vulture, where they have an article that's the Oral History of the Human Centipede trilogy. Oral. Am I right? And so they have quotes from all the producers, actors, directors, etc. Six says specifically that at the beginning of the movie he wanted to play on horror cliches and play on expectations that, you know, there are these classic horror, like ditzy stupid girls, they're trapped in the woods, they don't have cell service, their car breaks down, they don't know how to change a tire.

In order for us to think that we're in for a familiar experience, that we know what's gonna happen. We're in for like a typical horror movie, and then we he can really shock us by giving us something different. Then, along with some of the larger thoughts he has about the themes of the movie, I think it's curious that this movie is so like reviled and like, oh, that's trash. And actually, it seems like the movie was put together with a lot of thought and a lot of like competency. Like I said, the sh down to the technique of filming, it seems really beautiful to me. And I mean, again, I'll get to my gay theory later.

Super gay. So yeah, I think that the movie is actually really smart, but Tom Six came into this with a really intentional idea. He said that he was inspired by fascism in World War II, uh, because he's from the Netherlands, which was invaded by Nazis in World War II. His father was German and was a soldier in the German army during World War II, and he said that had a huge influence on his uh outlook on this movie. And so he created Dr. Haider, which Haider means cheerful in German, and modeled him after infamous Nazi war criminals and doctors, and also says that his American and Japanese victims were very intentional acts of prejudice based on World War II.

That combined with what I said about the first of the movie, playing on horror cliches, um, I think it's just so this movie is just seen as such trash that I always think that it's so cool when actually there's a lot that the director, the creator is trying to say, and people have so much fun with the human centipede, and there's a message under all of that. So I think I mentioned this in a previous episode, but those German doctors during World War II, there was one that was like super well known that was had a fascination with twins. Didn't have I told you this before? I don't know. Keep going. Let me see. I was just looking it up.

Um yeah, experiments on twin children in concentration camps were created to show the similarities and differences in genetics and to see how the human body could be unnaturally manipulated. His name was Joseph Mengel. I think I talked about this. That's probably one of the doctors that Tom Six was playing on because isn't Dr. Hyder's first name Joseph? I don't know. Uh they had experiments on 1,500 sets of imprisoned twins at Auschwitz. Okay, that's really fascinating because Dr. Hyder, as we've said, is a apparently a leading medical professional in the separation of Siamese twins. And when he's making the human centipede, he says that he finally he wants to join people together instead of separating them. Which wait no, listen.

Sweet. Which okay. The experiments range from injection of different dyes into the eyes of twins to see whether it would change their color to sewing twins together in attempts to create conjoined twins. Wow. Where is this what is the source here? Uh Wikipedia, very trusted source. Uh it's under Nazi human experimentation, if you're interested. Gotcha. But I remember learning about this in high school, and I think I mentioned it on a different episode, but that is a hundred percent. And I was thinking during this movie, like obviously this guy is German. So, yeah. Yeah, I think you're probably exactly right. And oh my god, that's incredible insight. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. So smart.

Thanks, Wikipedia. I think what I want to know right now, now that we've kind of dug into the themes, we've gotten into the info, as we discussed, this movie's not as gruesome as its reputation would lead you to believe. But what is the moment that really turned your stomach? Absolutely has to be the IV. That was pretty much. For the record, I have also ripped out my IV before. Ew, how? Why? What is the context? I had my tonsils taken out, and when I came to after after I got done in the recovery room, I looked down on my arm, saw my I was still kind of looped and ripped it out. They had to put a new one in me.

I literally just went boom. Yeah. For some reason that does not surprise me at all. It doesn't surprise me, but also if I wasn't drugged, I I would have passed out. What happened? Did it just like have a tiny like was it just like a little needle hole or did it rip? I didn't want it. Did you bleed? I don't remember because they put me back in and I went back to sleep. I see, it's funny you say that because I had a surgery once and I remember they put the IV in my arm, and I I would not, I refuse to even move my arm an inch. And the nurse said to me, She's like, Oh, you can move it now that it's in, and I was like, No, I can't.

Because I was so like terrified. I get queasy just thinking about it. Last time I got an IV, I got I passed out too almost. Yeah. Every time it's just a gimme. Um and that was such a sudden moment, too. I had no like I did not even have time to flinch that that was coming. Yeah. I don't there was a whole sequence where like I was just so squirmy from everything. I don't even know what I missed. Um, but when he's like yanking out the teeth and actually like doing all of the surgery. Yeah, I basically like didn't watch that. And it's so interesting because that's something that like we see that kind of stuff on like medical dramas on like not even horror movies.

Like on Grey's Anatomy, they have like surgery imagery. Uh I used to watch Fringe when I was younger, that supernatural FBI show, and they had images of like surgery, and for some reason it feels okay when you're watching it there, but watching it in this movie, I was like, Whaaaaa. Context. Yeah, I think for me the most disgusting turn stomach-turning moment was when the centipede was crawling up the stairs, and they're trying to escape Dr. Hyder, and you see like their like mouths and butts kind of starting to tear away, and there's the blood dripping onto the stairs. It is so gross. To me, that's like the most visceral, like you know what it feels like when like a scab gets pulled the wrong way, or something like that.

And then to see them like having these staples up their face, and like they're crawling up, and you know that the way that their weight is shifting and how they're having to work together, along with what Caroline said about Katsuro not speaking English, like there's no way for them to succeed and get up those stairs without causing some sort of physical harm. I think this movie is deep down about teamwork. Hell yeah. Should be shown at all C suite executive leadership. Yep, retreats. The movie ends on a very somber note where Katsuro has cut his own throat. Because he has this beautiful monologue about being a bad person, and he guesses that this is what he deserves, but ultimately he's he says, I'm I'm a human too, and I don't deserve to suffer like this.

And so he decides to kill himself. And then, as Dr. Heider says, the Jinny Tail, I love that he has little nicknames, the Jinnytail, she gets an infection, whether that's from poop passing through multiple people to her, or just like her wounds being exposed. I don't know what it is. Uh pink eye of the mouth, that's what she had. Exactly. And the trucker at the beginning, he was killed because his tissue didn't match with the others for the centipede. So there are multiple things. I'm no doctor, I don't know why she got an infection, but she got an infection. The Jenny Tail dies, and Lindsay is left in the middle, probably the worst person, like I said earlier, to be left.

And she the movie ends with her, like weeping. We can't hear her very well because obviously her mouth is attached to someone else's asshole, but she is weeping, and it is absolutely horrifying to think about what she probably has to go through after everyone there to help her is dead and she has no way of even moving. And even if she were to rip herself off of the other cinepede members, like the Dr. Hyder specifically cuts her patellar tendon so that she cannot stand and she'll never stand again because that can't be repaired naturally. And so, like, even if she were to rip herself off, like how far could she logistically get with her not being able to walk, her mouth, knees, and butthole bleeding?

It is such like a hopeless, terrible situation that she's left in. Truth. So I have a thought. Speaking of the what is the guy's name? The front? Katsuro. Okay. On Katsuro's monologue. Kind of sounds like cuts your throat. Cuts your throat. Alright. His monologue brought up remnants of a little tale called Metamorphosis. Oh. You know, he's just talking about how he's isolated and a bad person and like this horrible thing happened to him. Have you guys did you read that in high school? No. It's Franz Kafka, the guy, the traveling salesman that wakes up and he's a beetle or a bug or you know what I'm talking about? No. Yeah. I do. I know what you're talking about.

Uneducated people. I never really understood it, but all right. Thanks for sharing. No, I was just saying that's what it reminded me of a little bit. So if anyone out there has read it, maybe they I've been on Reddit before. Shut up. I'm moving on. But no, wait, wait, wait, wait. Tell us the comparison, expand. I want to do that. No, I was saying so he's talking about how he's isolated and this terrible thing happens to him. And you know, maybe we've seen the movie. Tell us about tell us about Metamorphosis. Oh, Metamorphosis. It's a a traveling salesman who has a family, but like they aren't in the best position, and he doesn't spend time with his kids and kind of not a great life, and then all of a sudden he wakes up one morning and he's a big giant bug, and the then he's like isolated even more and like just totally like alienated from his former life.

It's kind of like a sad and depressing Yeah, it sounds terrible. Yeah, but it reminded me of his little monologue. Wow. Caroline has a a college degree everyone. And and you know, bugs, centipedes, roaches. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Roaches. Well, I have a few fun facts for you. Do you want to hear 'em? Yeah. One is that Tom Six, obviously, as any independent filmmaker has to do, had to audition this movie to investors to try and get them to give him some money to make his movie. He specifically had to leave out the portion about Malves being attached to anuses because he was too scared that nobody would invest. So he told everyone it was just about a crazy doctor who sewed people together because he had had too many experiences with people just walking out on his mouth to anus situation.

Well, clearly. And speaking of, he had Ashlyn Yennie is a New York City actress that auditioned for this film. He had a lot of young actresses from, you know, acting hubs like New York or LA come and audition for him. And as soon as he told them the premise for the movie, apparently all of them walked out. And so eventually it just became of an like the idea of like, well, I guess I have to the people who stay are the ones who get cast. And on top of that, Ashlyn Yinny, and there's a film, uh actually a series of films, documentaries coming out right now that are called Time Warp, and they're about cult movies.

The first one is about midnight movies, the second one, where they talk about human centipede, is about horror and sci-fi movies. And Yenny said when she got the script, it was a very small booklet with short paragraphs decided describing every scene of the film, and she claims that the rest of it was improv. I mean, that would make sense. There's not a lot of back and forth. I would assume that like the big chunks of dialogue, like we were just talking about Katsura's speech, that has to be written. But yeah, I could see the beginning where they're like, uh, my the line, like I told Caroline, there is one line of this movie that just echoes in my mind, and it is them hitting the pothole at the beginning, and Jenny saying, What was that?

And I just hear that in my brain every once in a while, and I have to imagine that was improvised. Well, I don't know. I I think the lack of dialogue in this movie really kind of saved it because the parts where there were dialogue were just not making the cut for me. Uh, and then the other thing is that obviously, as you can imagine, being in a human centipede might be a little bit physically taxing on your body. Every day, the members of the human centipede were given a massage after a shooting. Isn't that nice? That was very nice. Honestly, sign me up to be in a human centipede movie because it sounds lush, and then you get to be in a human centipede movie.

Okay, not to bring up farting again, but do you think any of the actors like farted when their co-actors were? I hope so. If I were in that centipede, I would totally be pranking people. Maybe they did it to get into character. Maybe they were not good actors. If the three of us were in a human centipede and Ian was attached mouth to my butthole, I would be farting constantly, and I would just be like And I'd say, How's it taste? Ew. And then he wouldn't be able to respond. He'd be like, Beeps do. Ew. My other thought is there's actually a lot of nudity in this movie, and as we discussed earlier, the movie sets itself up in the first act to be kind of sexual, but then isn't ultimately.

But it is a little bit because Dr. Hyder, especially in the beginning, he traps Lindsay in between his legs, and then he injects her with his anesthetic and has like a like afterwards. And there are multiple points throughout the movie where it seems like maybe the harm and violence he's doing on these people is a little bit gratifying to him sexually. That's not the point. That is just me saying, I don't think this movie is sexual, even if it is a little bit. Definitely clock my boner right now. I mean, I saw like a glimpse of side boob, but other than that, I like forgot that the women weren't wearing anything. Well, that's exactly my point.

Is this obviously a European movie? Tom Six, as I said, is from the Netherlands, and I love and adore the way that nudity is represented in this movie, that there can be nudity that doesn't have to be sexual. We're so used to these slashers that we watch sometime on this movie where it's like, show us the boobies, blah blah blah, like boob, sex, stab 'em. And it's exciting. That's supposed to be like a big draw for like a male straight audience to be like, we're gonna see boobs, we're gonna see them skewered. And this movie doesn't have that. Yes, there are boobs, but it's kind of by necessity that the boobs are there, and I love that they're shown in kind of a I was gonna say cold, not cold, but like a in a way that's not tied to any sort of statue.

We don't have to say for people to know what we're talking about. Right. And so then uh my last quote that has to uh relate to that is um Ashlyn Yinny said, We were all three in it together, Aki, Ashley, and I. The set was really professional, and Tom and Alona, who is a producer, Alona Six, who is Tom Six's sister, who made this movie with him, Tom and Alona made sure uh you felt comfortable. There was a wardrobe lady who had robes she'd throw she'd throw on us, and if Aki got his robe before I got my robe, he would give it to me so I wouldn't be standing there naked. And so it just sounds like a lovely experience.

Massages, people sticking up for each other. Apparently Dieter Laser wasn't the greatest because he is a method actor, apparently, and was in character the whole time, and so nobody really liked him. But understandable because who would like somebody pretending to be a Nazi scientist? But it worked, bravo. Oh my god, yeah. Like I said, I I adore him in this movie. He is so good and engrossing. And then my other thing about nudity is that originally Dr. Hyder was not supposed to be naked in the scene that he was swimming in, but he said the centipede is a creature between a huge insect and a pet. Dr. Hyder is not ashamed to be naked in front of it.

Who would blush in front of his cat? I really related to that. I actually really enjoyed that he was naked when he was swimming. It just like seemed to fit so well. Yeah. That's like not a bad butt. Yeah. And an infamous review from famed movie critic Roger Ebert says, I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time I refuse to do it. 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 do not shine. So, what would you guys say from the human centipede is the most memorable murder? We got two cops, we got a trucker, we got Aki, we've got uh Katsura, I should say.

I don't know him personally, so I I shouldn't say first on basis. And we've got uh Jenny at the back of the l uh of the cinepede. Who was your fave? I gotta go with Katsura, obviously. That esophagus pull just really made me jump. It took a long time to slit that throat. Yeah. Yeah, I would have to agree. I'm gonna say Jenny at the back because she deserves a little bit of recognition. That Jenny Tail, she suffered, and then she contributed to the devastation at the end. But I'm outvoted. Katsuro, you win the award. Congrats. In heaven, you're receiving it. You're welcome. On a scary scale, one to five. How would you rate the human centipede?

Just because it wasn't personally my taste, but I mean I think it deserves a little bit of a shout out. Yeah, I would probably have to go with a three as well. I was personally shocked. I'm gonna give it a four. But there were moments where the tension and the suspense was kind of like my skin was crawling a little bit. I was I was not scared, but like my heart was going. I think this movie's pretty scary. Would you give the human centipede a smash? Uh or a slash. I got I have to say a slash because I just don't want to watch it again. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I would not watch this again.

If I was at a party and someone suggested, hey, let's watch the human centipede, I would say, I'm going home. Have fun. Goodbye. Bye. I honestly expected to come into this episode and give this movie a slash. No, the human centipede rules. This movie gets a smash. It is a smash. I will be front, middle, or back. Smash it. You know, Parker got more and more adamant that he loved this movie the more wine he drank during this episode. So I just want to point that out. No shame. Oh my god, you guys. I totally forgot that it's Pride Month, and this is part of our pride programming. Happy Pride. Do you want to know what my gay theory is about this movie?

Yeah. There's a woman eating another woman's ass for like an hour. Oh, that was very simple. Human centipede. Honey, looks more like a Friday night to me. Alright, so what's your favorite scary movie? Stage Fright. The Lodge. And mine, it's gotta be Candyman. You guys, happy pride. For a month I've been planning that joke, and it went off with no hitches. So next time on What's Your Favorite Scary Movie, Caroline and Ian, they're off zone ass to mouth, and they will not be present. But Julianne is back because we have to get even gayer for Pride Month, and we are watching Jennifer's Body. Until then, head on over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a rating and a review.

Alright, today's review comes from Miss Morg. Ooh. She said top favorites, just when I thought I couldn't find any more horror-themed podcasts, I found this masterpiece. It's so nice to hear Caroline and Ian's thoughts as they are just now becoming familiar with the horror genre and Parker, my love. He makes me feel like I need to come to New York and crash a recording session. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. And she and they are a patron, right? Yeah, friends. More of you should be. I suspect so. That's awesome. Well, not the whole team is in New York anymore, but we send our love. Well, the rest of the review says definitely my fave podcast to listen to, whether at work or sitting on the porch having a drink.

Give it a listen, freaks and ghouls. You won't regret it. Oh my gosh. Oh, that's so cute. What a review. I love that. Oh my god. I hope everyone feels the same way and that we can all just like hug each other and be spooky together. Isn't that crazy? Like, she's just sitting on her porch and we're talking to her. We're talking to you. Hi. Miss Morg. Miss Morgue. Miss Morgue, consider me in the morgue because I am dead after hearing that reveal. Ooh! And that's the tea. My name, Parker Heron. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, the Slasher app, and Letterboxd at Parker Del Rey. My name is Caroline. You can find me on Instagram at Carol Manifesto.

My name's Ian. You can find me on YouTube at Life Nomading. All right, you guys. Feed her. I'm about to go eat dinner. Ew. Bye.