The Number One Question I Get Asked Is Did Anyone Fart In My Mouth?

September 17, 2020 9:59 AM

How we made: The Human Centipede [Grauniad] [Content may be NSFW, it being about The Human Centipede and all.]

A previous oral history of The Human Centipede.
An obituary for Dieter Laser, who died in February.

posted by chavenet (43 comments total)

The three actors wore little shorts that looked like bandages: around the anus area we attached a latex knob, which they had to bite down on.

Well, this answers the "how did they stay attached" question I had wondered about.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:19 AM on September 17, 2020 [7 favorites]

Latex Knob

I saw those dudes opening for Invasive Quagga Mussels in '94.
posted by thelonius at 10:27 AM on September 17, 2020 [42 favorites]

Best from the Grauniad comment section

"I quite liked the film, but it was a bit tongue in cheek."
posted by lalochezia at 10:35 AM on September 17, 2020 [50 favorites]

Framing: "At the auditions, 70% of people left the moment they heard the concept" -> "Surprisingly 30% of people stayed".
posted by piyushnz at 10:44 AM on September 17, 2020 [16 favorites]

What? And give up show-biz??!?
posted by Naberius at 10:50 AM on September 17, 2020 [23 favorites]

But it did at least have a happy ending for me. It was through the film that I met my husband.

hmm...
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:52 AM on September 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

I lied to my family about the plot of the film. When they went to the premiere, they were really shocked. My dad took it particularly hard – it wasn’t easy to see his daughter like that. It took him years to forgive me.

I wonder if most of the cast of Showgirls went through the same ordeal.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:54 AM on September 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

The Oral History of the Human Centipede Movies

See, that's just leaving money on the table
posted by thelonius at 10:56 AM on September 17, 2020 [33 favorites]

“Fart? No.”
posted by notoriety public at 10:56 AM on September 17, 2020 [5 favorites]

I lied to my family about the plot of the film. When they went to the premiere, they were really shocked.

I. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THIS COMING.
posted by sciatrix at 11:03 AM on September 17, 2020 [22 favorites]

Also, a belated . for Laser, who was also great as Mantrid in Lexx
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:03 AM on September 17, 2020 [6 favorites]

"How we made The Human Centipede" is far less important a question than "Why?" But perhaps there's no good answer for that.
posted by Grangousier at 11:15 AM on September 17, 2020 [21 favorites]

"How we made The Human Centipede" is far less important a question than "Why?" But perhaps there's no good answer for that.

Tom Six answers the 'why' at the beginning of The Guardian article. The reason is dumb.

I thought it was like Snakes on a Plane. There's a concept and nothing else to it, which makes sense that they were still working the script when they had already traveled to shooting locations.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:24 AM on September 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

Won't click the article because i'm at work, but honestly if I was that girl's sister, I'd be more likely to forgive her if she had just told me what the plot of the movie was. Actually... I'd not have anything to forgive her about? I mean.. you're an adult, do the movie. But if I had been tricked into being forced to watch the human centipede? Undying grudge
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:24 AM on September 17, 2020 [18 favorites]

I lied to my family about the plot of the film. When they went to the premiere, they were really shocked.
I. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THIS COMING.

Yeah, I'd love to hear what her plan was for that. Was she going to take them to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button instead and try to convince them Cate Blanchett was actually her? This makes no sense.
posted by Naberius at 11:38 AM on September 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

Definitely, if you're in Human Centipede, that's one of those premieres that you don't want to be all, "I'll let you discover this for yourself because spoilers."
posted by xingcat at 11:39 AM on September 17, 2020 [8 favorites]

Best from the Grauniad comment section:

"Eleven years old and we're still talking about it. It's got legs."
posted by flabdablet at 11:50 AM on September 17, 2020 [36 favorites]

Best from the blue, from a thread about a different movie. Auden wrote:

Sex and the City 2 currently has a 9% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The Human Centipede is at 47% ... to my mind, this suggests a way the filmmakers could have vastly improved the movie's box office appeal.

posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:00 PM on September 17, 2020 [14 favorites]

around the anus area we attached a latex knob, which they had to bite down on

Someone should have told those people there are more dignified ways to get a film credit and a sore jaw
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:02 PM on September 17, 2020 [15 favorites]

I hesitate to defend the film in public. But, I genuinely think it's deserves a lot more credit than it's usually given. There are lots of films that are so bad they're entertaining, but in most cases you get the feeling everyone involved actually thought they were making a normal film and they were all just utterly incompetent. (The Core, Battlefield Earth.) There are plenty of films that are absurd send-ups but make it clear nobody ever intended to put any real effort into the work. (Snakes on a Plane, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.)

Human Centipede is in that rare class of films where the cast and crew simultaneously know that they're engaged in absurd mime turned up to 11, are constantly winking at the audience, and yet also are genuinely talented people engaged creating a well-made film. The acting, cinematography, and editing are better than most blockbusters. It's hard to think of too many other films that are able to walk along the uncanny boundary that separates real film and parody in quite the same way. (Save the Green Planet comes to mind.) I'm not going to suggest you should watch it. But, I will suggest you shouldn't judge it based on the synopsis or critics' reviews.

I'm even happy to have seen the second and third films. Though, I can't actually recommend them.
posted by eotvos at 12:03 PM on September 17, 2020 [18 favorites]

The two leads we chose, Ashley C Williams and Ashlynn Yennie, were the bravest. I’m sure they thought I was a complete madman, but they took on this wild adventure.

I feel like the word 'thought' is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting in this sentence.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 12:06 PM on September 17, 2020 [8 favorites]

I lied to my family about the plot of the film. When they went to the premiere, they were really shocked.

I'd be curious about how this was handled by the performers in the sequels, at which point the subject of the movie is no longer secret. The first movie involves three luckless individuals attached, while the second and third depict, IIRC, respectively a dozen and a hundred. Being the middle of three, as Ashley C Williams was, at least you don't get lost in the crowd. If your role in the movie is to be seventy-third down the line, it's harder to play up your contribution.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:08 PM on September 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

Someone should have told those people there are more dignified ways to get a film credit and a sore jaw

But simultaneously?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:09 PM on September 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

I lied to my family about the plot of the film. When they went to the premiere, they were really shocked.
I. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THIS COMING.

Yeah, I'd love to hear what her plan was for that. Was she going to take them to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button instead and try to convince them Cate Blanchett was actually her? This makes no sense.

Yeah, that's not how lies work. First you say, "Oh the movie I'm doing? It's *mumble*.. ohisthatthetimebye". And about the tenth time they're enthusiastically trying to get details from you, because they care about you, you break and say, "It's a rom-com, with Jennifer Love-Hewett and a St. Bernard, mom."
posted by Horkus at 12:13 PM on September 17, 2020 [5 favorites]

Someone should have told those people there are more dignified ways to get a film credit and a sore jaw

But simultaneously?

Vincent Gallow's 'The Brown Bunny'.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:24 PM on September 17, 2020 [5 favorites]

I was surprisingly interested in the behind the scenes stories of the making of the Human Centipede and feel the article is disappointingly short. I'd like to have heard at least a bit from Dieter Laser (the mad scientist) who non-German audiences might remember from Lexx.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:26 PM on September 17, 2020 [4 favorites]

The link after the fold has some additional info.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:51 PM on September 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

I asked my ex-girlfriend to get on all fours and I took a picture of her in that position, which I Photoshopped into the first human centipede prototype.

I've definitely seen this DeviantArt account before.
posted by fight or flight at 12:54 PM on September 17, 2020 [6 favorites]

Just going to drop this here:
Key and Peele human centipede sketch.
posted by soy bean at 12:54 PM on September 17, 2020 [15 favorites]

I haven't seen any of the "Human Centipede" films - that particular sort of "ick" is not my jam - but wanted to make the point that "The Core," while not a "good" movie, is on some level well aware of its own ridiculousness.

It was co-written by John Rogers, known for identifying the 27% crazification factor and who seems to have pretty healthy senses of humor and self-awareness. And there are plenty of "winks" within the film, from the degree to which Stanley Tucci is allowed to chew the scenery to the fact that the key material essential for the planet-drilling ship is actually called "unobtanium" by all the characters.

"The Core" probably is at least 20 to 30 minutes too long, but unlike the very bad "Battlefield Earth," it's somewhat watchable (assuming you enjoy "plucky scientists save the planet" as a sub-genre).
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 1:19 PM on September 17, 2020 [6 favorites]

This is a bit of a derail, but I have found a reliable way to estimate the US crazification factor on a daily basis. The Crazification Index (depicted in green for easy reading).
posted by vorpal bunny at 1:48 PM on September 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

i have learned everything that i care to know about the movie the human centipede from metafilter. i'm with Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner - that particular sort of "ick" is not my jam.
posted by rude.boy at 2:10 PM on September 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

Youtube can fuck itself right the fuck off

I'm a little disappointed that of the whole cast and crew, The Guardian only seemed to have gotten a few minutes' time with the director and one of the cast. But then again, I half-wonder whether there's really anything more to say.
posted by ardgedee at 2:11 PM on September 17, 2020 [4 favorites]

Ashwaganda: I was surprisingly interested in the behind the scenes stories of the making of the Human Centipede...

I see what you did there.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:14 PM on September 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

I haven't seen any of the "Human Centipede" films - that particular sort of "ick" is not my jam

That's also my view, though having read the article, I'm less disinclined to see it. It's one of those films that knowing what one is looking at as well as what is being depicted helps rather than spoiling it.
posted by acb at 3:31 PM on September 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

My shrink loves this movie. I have a very interesting shrink.

I've never seen the film but I will pour one out for the late, great Dieter Laser. He elevated Lexx to something fabulously strange whenever he was on. "Most peculiar times two!"

If nothing else, this film's existence was justified by a joke John Oliver made a few months back. He showed a clip from some sleazy 90s erotic thriller where Trump showed up to flirt with Bo Derek, and Oliver remarked that the kissy face Trump made was the most disgusting image ever committed to film... and that was very much including The Human Centipede!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:52 PM on September 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

From a comment I made back in 2013:

You know what bothers me? There are four legs per segment -two human arms and two human legs - so taxonomically speaking it is clearly not a human 'centipede', but a human millipede.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:05 PM on September 17, 2020 [25 favorites]

One of my exes had a deep and abiding love for the first Human Centipede because “it does exactly what it says on the tin.” Part 2 came out after we’d been dating for a few months, and somehow I agreed to go along with him. It was, as of that time, the only movie my film snob ex has ever walked out of. I still have nightmares about it every once in a blue moon.

On the plus side, I win at bad date stories forever.
posted by ActionPopulated at 8:32 PM on September 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Human Centipede: a Oral-Anal-Oral-Anal-Oral-Anal History
posted by Baldons at 12:09 AM on September 18, 2020 [11 favorites]

I was yesterday years old when I learned about the existence of this movie/series. I regret my lost innocence.
posted by advil at 5:04 AM on September 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Dieter Laser is surprisingly terrific in this, an all-time great mad scientist role to rival Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator. What a fun actor. This isn't a favorite film of mine -- I think it would have been a very effective 15-minute short, but it isn't really scary or funny enough to work for an hour and a half -- but it is better than I expected, and mostly because of Laser.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:24 AM on September 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Dieter Laser is surprisingly terrific in this, an all-time great mad scientist role to rival Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator.

His performance was definitely my favorite part, along with the fact that **DIETER LASER** is the all time best name for a mysterious mad scientist.
posted by FatherDagon at 8:23 AM on September 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

It's hard to think of too many other films that are able to walk along the uncanny boundary that separates real film and parody in quite the same way. (Save the Green Planet comes to mind.)

Thank you for mentioning Save The Green Planet. It's one of those films that was so strange that my brain keeps misfiling its existence.

(it's a "don't read about it, just watch it, but know that it has some squicky bits" film)
posted by neckro23 at 8:24 AM on September 18, 2020 [1 favorite]