The Human Centipede: The Complete Sequence
Blu-ray
Director: Tom Six
Screenwriter: Tom Six
Cast: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Laurence R. Harvey, Maddi Black, Eric Roberts, Bree Olson, Tommy “Tiny” Lister, Jay Tavare
Scream Factory | IFC Midnight
Not Rated | 92 / 91 / 103 Minutes
Release Date: October 27, 2015

Directed by Tom Six and starring Eric Roberts, Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Laurence R. Harvey, and Maddi Black, The Human Centipede: The Complete Sequence features the unrated director’s cuts of all three films and comes loaded with bonus features, including new featurettes, audio commentaries and interviews, and a new color version of The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence).

Written, directed, and co-produced by Six, 2009’s The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is without a doubt one of the most controversial horror films ever made. The film stars Dieter Laser as Dr. Josef Heiter, a German surgeon who kidnaps three tourists and joins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming a “human centipede.”

The black-and-white 2011 sequel, The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), stars Laurence R. Harvey as a mentally challenged man who becomes obsessed with Six’s original film and decides to create his own “centipede” consisting of twelve people, including actress Ashlynn Yennie, who starred in the first film.

Completing the trilogy is 2015’s The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence), which stars both Laser and Harvey. Laser plays Bill Boss, a psychotic prison warden who watches The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) with his accountant Dwight Butler (Harvey). Butler suggests they create a 500-person human centipede using prisoners – the ultimate deterrent for anyone considering a life of crime.

The Human Centipede trilogy is a bizarre, self-referential journey into the surgical horror subgenre that pushes the boundaries of – ahem – good taste. If you’re unfamiliar with Six’s series of films, they’re full of shit. No, seriously. The “allure” of The Human Centipede is watching people defecate into the mouths of others, who are then forced to swallow it and defecate into someone else’s mouth. Fascinating, I know.

Victims are brutalized before being hideously stitched and grafted to each other. During the “procedure,” the ligaments to their knees are severed so they cannot stand, forcing them to crawl – like a centipede – together. In the sequel, Six ramps up the “blood and shit” factor to make for an even more graphic and disturbing experience. The film contains little dialogue except for moans, screams, whimpers and the bizarre sounds that escape Harvey’s deranged asthmatic, Martin Lomax.

By the time we reach the third movie, the whole ass-to-mouth thing has become standardized like some kind of Six Sigma process. Six appears as himself in the film, giving Boss and Butler permission to use his trademarked Human Centipede idea, provided he can witness the “100% medically accurate” operation.

Six has said that The Human Centipede films are a reflection of fascism, drawing parallels to Nazi Germany and the “work” of Dr. Josef Mengele. In fact, “Dr. Josef Heiter” is an amalgam of Mengele and Hitler. Following this logic, Centipede 3 is Six’s Holocaust – the systematic, bureaucratic, and state-sponsored butchering of people.

That may sound interesting, but it isn’t. Six’s supposed condemnation of fascism is a celebration of sexual violence. The film is filled with rape, castration, and reprehensible content, like a jar of imported dried African clitorises, which Boss eats “for strength.” How anyone could find entertainment value in this is truly beyond me.

Still, The Human Centipede series has its fans. For aficionados of shit-flicks, Scream Factory and IFC Midnight’s The Human Centipede: The Complete Sequence Blu-ray box set delivers a big heaping helping of, well, shit. You’re going to need a strong stomach to swallow all the scheiße here, but I can’t imagine having that much of an appetite for shit-flavored sadism.

Check out the full list of bonus features, as well as trailers for each film, below. The Human Centipede: The Complete Sequence is now available on Blu-ray at Amazon.

Bonus Features

The Human Centipede Unrated Director’s Cut:

• NEW: The Ladies of The Human Centipede – interviews with Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Maddi Black, and Kandace Caine
• Audio Commentary with director Tom Six
• Behind-the-Scenes Footage
• Deleted Scene
• Interview with Tom Six
• Casting Tapes
• Foley Session
• Alternate Poster Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer

The Human Centipede 2 Unrated Director’s Cut:

• NEW: The Color Version of the film
• NEW: Laurence Harvey’s audition tape
• NEW: Alternate Poster Gallery
• Audio Commentary with Tom Six and Laurence R. Harvey
• Interview with Tom Six
• Tour of the Warehouse Set
• Foley Session
• Deleted Scene
• Making of the Poster
• Theatrical Trailer
• Teaser / Promo

The Human Centipede 3 Unrated Director’s Cut:

• Audio Commentary with Tom Six
• The Making of The Human Centipede 3 Featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Alternate Ending
• Teaser Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer

Trailers

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