The Human Centipede (Tom Six, 2010) *

 

Dir. Tom Six
Starring Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura

The Human Centipede contains one of the most disgustingly twisted premises there has ever been for a horror film. And the director doesn't shy away from actually going forward with the worst of what you'd expect. Yet what's surprising about the film is that it's completely boring for most of the running time. A bizarre idea does not make up for what turns out to be some really pedestrian direction and a repetitive plot.

Two young American tourists (portrayed as incredibly stupid and snotty women) in Germany are stuck when their car blows a tire. In the middle of the night, they make their way through to a remote house in the woods. They meet a mysterious man (Dieter Laser) and ask him for help, which obviously isn't going to happen. He actually happens to be a doctor who is an expert on separating Siamese twins. He also happens to be completely demented and is for some reason fascinated with the idea of joining humans together and the girls have unwittingly become his new test subjects.

This is first (and almost certainly last) experience with the horror genre called torture porn. It's a style that ignores the idea of scaring the audience and instead focuses on shocking or disgusting them. I'm told that this is actually one of the tamer examples of the genre and the filmmaker has admitted that he held back so he could be even more disgusting in the sequel. But the real problem with the idea here isn't that it's disgusting, but that we are treated to almost 90 minutes of listening to characters moan or scream over and over again. This certainly gets annoying very quickly.

The only real attempt at being scary is a generic escape scene early in the film. It happens to be one of the worst examples of the "she has a chance to escape, but does something stupid" sequences that pop up in most horror films. I guess the twist here is that the villain is equally stupid in the same scene, allowing the director to prolong one of his few suspense set pieces. You'd think the same person that was able to come up with the twisted idea for the film could create something more original.

The rest of the film is littered with similarly inept direction. Whenever the director gets stuck, he finds the cheapest way to complete the scene. For example, there's a moment where a police officer runs into a room and does not notice someone else is there. However, the scene is staged and edited so poorly that the angles clearly show that the officer would have seen the person. Another ridiculous moment comes when Six uses subtitles to translate a sign in the doctor's yard, apparently thinking horror fans are too stupid to remember something that had already been translated 30 minutes earlier.

Late in the film, there is an attempt at some psychological exploration of the characters, but it is not convincing at all. There is absolutely no build up to this and in the end it seems more like a convenient path to the ending the director wanted. The Human Centipede is getting alot of attention right now and the initial idea will certainly continue to pique interest, but those viewers who make the unfortunate decision (like yours truly) to see this will find it is an incredibly lame horror film. Tom Six has taken an absolutely insane horror premise and found the most generic possible way to make a movie about it.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010) ***1/2

Much time has been spent debating whether the events documented in Exit Through the Gift Shop are authentic or an elaborate hoax perpetrated by the filmmaker. In fact, there has even been debate about whether this film really qualifies as a documentary. The answer to the first questiom is who cares? The film is so much fun that it works either way. The answer to the second question is of course it's a documentary and a fantastic one at that.

Thierry Guetta doesn't go anywhere without his video camera and is obsessed with filming everything he can. He eventually gains the respect of underground street artists and films them as they risk arest to create their works of art. Guetta eventually gets access to Banksy (whose face is never seen), perhaps the most well known artist in his genre. In one of the more fascinating segments of the film, Guetta films Banksy's Guantanamo Bay project, wherein he places a inflatable dummy prisoner within the confines of Disneyland's Thunder Mountain Railroad ride.

The film really takes off when Banksy persuades Guetta to make a film from all the footage he has captured, but is eventually disappointed by the finished product, a hilarious overly pretentious mess. Then the roles get reversed, as Banksy takes over to fix the film and Guetta decides to try his hand at art under the name Mr. Brainwash. The film is filled with wonderful surprises from here on out. Banksy begins to explore how mass marketing can influence critical thinking and make just about anyone a wild success.

Of course, there's the possibility that this section of the film is built around a hoax perpetrated by Banksy, who may be using Guetta as a front to make a large satirical argument. It would certainly fit his MO to make a point in such a manner. If he has done this, then I say bravo to him. As presented in the film, Guetta is an engaging person who definitely has the mad inspiration to have done this all on his own. It's a fantastic development in the film and that doesn't change no matter what Banksy is up to.

The debate over whether or not this is a docmentary is rather silly. Stuff like this pops up every now and then, especially when Michael Moore makes a movie that is not completely based in fact and conservatives like to quip that makes them not documentaries. This kind of criticism comes from an outdated view of what a documentary can and should be, suggesting that the academic Ken Burns style is the only valid format. But the best documentaries take real footage from real events and use that to fashion compelling narratives, and that's what Banksy has done here.