Notable only for the sheer oddity behind its concept, The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is not a horror movie that wants to scare you. Instead, it wants to leave you with a sense of revulsion.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 18, 2023

Psychologically indelible nastiness.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 19, 2021

The simple truth is that the selling point, beyond the obvious novelty of the entire situation, is the freakish yet disturbing performance of Dieter Laser.

| Original Score: 2.0/4.0 | Sep 11, 2020

Not nearly as shocking as it thinks it is.

| Original Score: C- | Jul 14, 2020

Never as graphic as one would expect or as inventive as one would hope, there's very little here worth recommending, even to the morbidly curious.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 5, 2019

With cult movies, execution is everything. And The Human Centipede delivers.

| May 23, 2018

A horror import that actually has the confidence and audacity to deliver something disturbingly different.

| Aug 26, 2015

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.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 22, 2013

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 4, 2011

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

| Oct 30, 2010

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 21, 2010

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.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 14, 2010

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

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 13, 2010

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.

| Oct 11, 2010

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.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 9, 2010

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

| Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 28, 2010

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

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 8, 2010

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.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 8, 2010

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 | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 1, 2010

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

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 26, 2010