Things That Were Not Meant To Be

[naomi_jay]

Guys, I'm really worried about The Human Centipede.

See, I saw this article on the BBC news website today and was all "really? People want to kill him? No way!" So I went and read the synopsis for the film and now I can't stop thinking about it. Mostly I can't stop thinking about how that sounds like a pretty flimsy premise for a film. It's like, he does his crazy experiment, it fails, everyone dies, the end. I can't see that taking more than half an hour, frankly.

But generally I am just too freaked out by the concept. It's quite nauseatingly gross and I can't imagine any enjoyment, even visceral, being derived from watching it. A good number of horror films rely on people being willing to watch horrible things happen to horrible people, but this kind of pushes it in my opinion.

I had a bit of a rant on Twitter earlier about how, for me, horror stories work best when they're also morality tales (bear with me here; my favourite horror films are the Friday 13th series, so...). Way back when, fairy tales were dark and twisted and served to impart a moral, social lessons. The original version of Red Riding Hood was a warning against predatory men in French court, for example, which can still be seen in the more well-known versions today. Even the crudest of slashy horror flicks, at their heart, generally have a cultural message to impart, even if that message is "don't smoke pot or Jason will gut you with his machete." Same with urban legends, which I see as updated fairy tales - they fall apart on close inspection, but they impart the same moral messages: "Don't go parking with your boyfriend and have premartial sex because escaped maniacs with hooks for hands* will kill him." (God, if anyone wants to hear the full version of my horror/morality/urban legend/fairy tale theory, let me know and I'll arrange a seminar, okay?)

I hate torture porn films like Saw and Hostel because they skip the morality tale and plunge straight into violence-as-sex: they're titilating, gratuituous, and sadistic, and rarely even have decent character development to make up for the lack of plot. I'm quite happy to watch Michael Myers chase his sister around and her try to escape, because I believe that (consciously or not) the filmmakers are (or are trying to) explore psychological themes in their slasher flicks, like the effect of fear on the human mind, family ties, nature v nurture, etc (please, nobody mention Cube to me**). And yes, the classic slasher flicks get progressively more ludicrous and move further and further way from that initial exploration, but we all want to pretend Jason X never happened anyway, right?

In contrast, the Saw films and films like them strike me as a nihilistic kick in the teeth, an attempt to sicken the audience and somehow make the audience complicit in the torture simply by keeping them watching. It's a way of making the audience say not "what would I do in this situation?" but "I enjoy watching these situations."***

The Human Centipede appears to fall into that last category. It's not a commentary on anything, it's not even a good old-fashioned splatter-fest that gives you a few cheap thrills before you forget it entirely. It's just ... nasty stuff for the sake of nasty stuff, and personally I don't see what enjoyment could be derived from that kind of film. And yes, I was ranting just the other day about how I disliked the AVP films because there was too much human interest, and I just wanted to see Predators kill things. I reserve the right to shout but that's different! loudly and frequently. Even Predators was an exploration of human psychology and invasion paranoia, and ultimately, it was fun. The Human Centipede just sounds like something filmed entirely to revolt and provoke reaction for the sake of being revolting and provocative. Maybe there's merit in that; I don't know. All I know is I now can't help thinking of the toilet as some kind of mouth, and it's very disturbing.

*Seriously? He's killer locked up in a mental home but they let him keep his hook? I call foul.
**Cube is a stupid film and it should feel stupid. Don't even get me started. I cannot express in polite language what I think of that film, and my dad will be upset if I use impolite language.
***I'm not saying people who enjoy torture-porn are serial killer sadists in the making, but I do believe there is a deliberate attempt to put the audience in the mind of the killer with these films, and make them cheer the killer on. I've no idea what that's supposed to prove, except that underneath the veil of civilisation we are all just brutal animals, and you can explore that far more entertainingly and thoughtfully with a good werewolf film. *ahem* Or book.

Comments

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Out of all the squick factors that make up Human Centipede, the one that keeps turning my stomach into knots is the "100% medically accurate!" one. Like, seriously, dudes, you have put far too much thought into this. The idea behind the movie is a punchline, not a movie in itself.

The flipside is that this movie could well become an urban legend in its own right, but worse because it's really real and Ebert refused to give it a rating on principle.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Apparently they did consult a surgeon to find the most effective method of sewing three people together, which I guess is why they can slap the "100% medically accurate!!!" tagline on it. Really though, you could sew the people together hand to hand and it would still be 100% medically accurate, so it doesn't mean a whole lot...

Body horror, man. It's all just faeces and gurning.

ETA: And what are the odds of three random people being compatible anyway? Surely organ transplants go wrong all the time because of the body rejecting the new organ, so this... Why am I even thinking about it?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

This is what I mean by they've thought about it too much! They actually went to a surgeon and got him to figure out how it might be possible for people to survive that way! He sat there and actually pondered on the possibility before coming up with a method! This is a horror movie, I'm okay with a whole lot of handwavey science when it comes to these things, like flesh-eating plants that can mimic humans, mutatey parasites, and how someone can still be conscious after sawing off their own foot.

RE: organ transplants are a different thing because it's internal and you have to deal with the body's immune response kicking in to reject the foreign tissues.

What you have to remember is that basically, the human body is a giant tube, so the theory behind the 'pede is that you're just joining the outside pieces together, so technically, the immune response would be kept to a minimum. They're not sharing blood, they're not sharing organs, the only thing they share is a digestive tract.

But then my brain backpedals and flails wildly because surely there'd be a massive risk of infection given the joining process -- from what I remember and I am not going to go and double check -- involves removal of teeth, and well, the digestive tract. This is how I'm rationalising out the end section's subsequent sepsis and death.

...this probably isn't making any of this better. I should shut up now.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Lol, this is the kind of film you can't help but think about, as much as you want to stop.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I think, after reading your conversation, that I'm starting to see why the film maker became so fascinated by the concept to begin with. The only difference is, you're fascinated *and* horrified.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a massive why would you even want to do that? for me. Even the dude that was sewing half a dog onto an actual dog wound up advancing medical science in some way, so he wasn't entirely a nutbag. But I do want to poke a hole in Doctor Evil Crazy McScience's premise of creating a whole new organism with the 'pede, as he's not really doing that. The three people in the first section are still individuals. So this is more like...forced commenalism, where they have to cooperate in order to assure mutal survival.

I said this to Nome on Twitter, this movie is basically the very definition of WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Not having seen the film (yet? Or will I?), I've no idea if any motivation is given for the mad scientist's centipedey experiment, but reviews lead me to believe there isn't any. He just does it because it's required of him by the script. I can forgive a lot in schlocky horror films, but poor characterisation in a film that surely must rely on good characterisation to create any suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience is unforgiveable.

Or maybe the director really is just trying to gross out as many people as possible, so the "why" doesn't matter as much as the "what." Argh! I am so going to end up watching this film so I can have a proper opinion on it, I just feel it.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't go there, but I was thinking the same thing -- he'd have to somehow remove two brains and connect the nervous systems in order to come close to having one organism, and then you'd start running into compatibility issues.

Which gets back to what I've also been thinking, about how there's a train wreck kind of fascination with this concept, disgusting as the resulting movie might be.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I just have to add that some of the reviews for this on IMDb are priceless. One reviews says their six-year-old son is going through the exact same thing and loved the film because it showed him he wasn't alone.

Another seems to think it's a metaphor for America's junk food culture. If nothing else, this film has succeeded in bringing hilarity to my afternoon.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I think it's just nastiness for the sake of nastiness, and the fact that people think it's cool or edgy or funny is good evidence for the doctrine of original sin. Namely that something is seriously wrong with the entire human race.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Word! I'm all for the "it's just a film" mentality in some cases, but this just sounds like some sick person's private joke, and it should have stayed that way.

[blythe025.livejournal.com]

I am not a fan of the Saw or Hostel films either. I watched the first one in each series and they made me squirm in a very uncomfortable way. (The only part of Hostel I actually liked was when he finally made his escape and he's hiding and trying not to get caught again. That I could understand and get with.) Most of the time, even if a horror film terrifies me, I can walk out of if with a smile on my face. With Hostel and Saw that didn't happen. They were just awful.

I could argue though, that some people also go to slasher films just so that they can see the dumb teenagers get filleted.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Lol, yeah, like I said - a lot of horror rests on the premise that the audience will watch horrible things happen to (sometimes) horrible people. But films like Saw just leave me cold. At the very least, slasher flicks tend to have one final survivor and a glimpse of hope. Saw and the like are just bleak, hopeless films, and I don't want to watch that.

[blythe025.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. And that glimmer of hope is why I tend to watch horror films, because it allows me to believe that if I do things right, follow the rules, and keep my head on, there's a chance that I just might be a survivor if the shit hit the fan.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Yes! Me too! I think that's why I end up yelling at horror films. I'm the one who sits there screaming "don't go into the woods alone!!!" because I want them to survive. I want to be rooting for the potential victims, not the crazy knife-wielding killer.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

After your tweets about it I started Googling. Pushing the envelope? I'll say.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Ick, did you see that they want to make a sequel? Apparently the first film was just to get audiences used to the idea of a human centipede before they blast us with a tweleve-person one. I'm scared.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw that ... and although it isn't stated, they have to be thinking that if the first movie makes enough money they can have better special effects for part two.

"Saw" has no message?

[andrewpchapman.livejournal.com]

The Saw movies are all about social commentary, surely? They are about recognising what's truly important in life.

In Saw II, had detective Matthews simply sat down and let Kramer talk, his son would have been returned to him, safe and well, and he would have walked away unscathed. Instead, he allowed his temper and impatience to overrule his intellect and paid the price.

Saw V is an excellent metaphor for life in modern civilisation. Had the five captives cooperated instead of competed, all five would have made it out with only small sacrifice. Instead, convinced that there must be a "winner", they ended up killing three of their number and almost killing the last two. This is a very old story, akin to the Asian legend about heaven and hell and the extremely long chopsticks. Just with blood and sharp objects.

Some of the movies were better than others, but there ois definitely a moral to the tale, both for each movie individually and the series as a whole.

Hostel sucked on an amazing level, though.

Andy.

Saw has no message?

[andrewpchapman.livejournal.com]

The Saw movies are all about social commentary, surely? They are about recognising what's truly important in life.

In Saw II, had detective Matthews simply sat down and let Kramer talk, his son would have been returned to him, safe and well, and he would have walked away unscathed. Instead, he allowed his temper and impatience to overrule his intellect and paid the price.

Saw V is an excellent metaphor for life in modern civilisation. Had the five captives cooperated instead of competed, all five would have made it out with only small sacrifice. Instead, convinced that there must be a "winner", they ended up killing three of their number and almost killing the last two. This is a very old story, akin to the Asian legend about heaven and hell and the extremely long chopsticks. Just with blood and sharp objects.

Some of the movies were better than others, but there ois definitely a moral to the tale, both for each movie individually and the series as a whole.

Hostel sucked on an amazing level, though.

Andy.

Re: Saw has no message?

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll have to concede that point to you, because I've only seen the first one, and the impression I came away with was "everyone sucks, especially you, therefore we'll all die." Which, admittedly, is a message of sorts, but not one I can get behind.

Hostel is an awful film. Not quite as bas as Cabin Fever for sheer awfulness, but pretty close.