The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
Three people on their hands and knees are seen from below, through green-tinted frosted glass. They kneel in a line, with the heads of the second and third individuals obscured by the buttocks of the person directly in front. The first person in the line has an agonised look upon his face. Black, uppercase text at the top of the image reads "Their flesh is his fantasy." At the bottom of the image, white uppercase text displays the names of the leading actors, the film title and production credits.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTom Six
Written byTom Six
Produced by
  • Ilona Six
  • Tom Six
Starring
CinematographyGoof de Koning
Edited byTom Six
Music by
Production
company
Six Entertainment Company
Distributed byIFC Films
Release dates
  • 30 August 2009 (2009-08-30) (FrightFest)[1]
  • 30 April 2010 (2010-04-30)
Running time
92 minutes[2]
CountryNetherlands
Languages
  • English
  • German
  • Japanese
Budget$1.6 million
Box office$352,161[3]

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is a 2009 Dutch independent body horror film written, directed and co-produced by Tom Six. The film concerns a deranged German surgeon who kidnaps three tourists and conjoins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming the eponymous "human centipede". It stars Dieter Laser as Josef Heiter, the creator of the centipede; and Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, and Akihiro Kitamura as Heiter's victims.

According to Six, the concept arose from a joke he had made with friends about punishing a child molester by stitching his mouth to the anus of a "fat truck driver". Other sources of inspiration were Nazi medical experiments performed during World War II, such as those performed by Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp. When approaching investors to fund the project, Six did not mention the premise of the film for fear of putting off potential backers; financiers did not discover the full nature of the film until completion.

The film held its premiere at the London FrightFest Film Festival on 30 August 2009. It received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 30 April 2010. Despite a mixed critical reception, the film won several accolades at international film festivals. Two sequels that were also written and directed by Six—Full Sequence and Final Sequence—were released in 2011 and 2015, respectively. The entire trilogy was combined into a single film in 2016, titled Complete Sequence, which Six described as a "movie centipede" due to each Sequence leading into its successor while simultaneously working as a separate standalone film.

  1. ^ Brendon Connelly (3 July 2009). "2009 Frightfest Films Unveiled, New Images and Details". Slashfilm. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  2. ^ "THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE) (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 2 July 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  3. ^ "The Human Centipede — Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 26 October 2024.