ill LYTeracy - Interview with Tom Six, Writer-Director of THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE

Sometimes, it is your duty as a critic to give spoilers.

Oh, believe me, I’m glad I went into THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE totally cold...but I can see where others will be enraged, revolted, and what-have-you when they think they’re paying for a typical horror movie, only to see...well...

If you’re a hardy sort, and have not seen the movie or heard plot details, be warned that major spoilers lie ahead. But as with Takashi Miike’s AUDITION, say, or Tim Roth’s THE WAR ZONE, there is sometimes a responsibility to give people some sense of the truly nasty material that awaits, even if it isn’t unveiled until late into the story.

Still here?

Okay. THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE is a horror movie about a mad German scientist with a truly f’ed up master plan. He wants to surgically conjoin three people together, ass to mouth, into a “human centipede,” with knee tendons slashed so they cannot run...and then, he wants the resultant creation to function as his pet dog.

Yeah. It’s that kind of movie.

Needless to say, I had to talk to the Dutch writer-director, Tom Six (not a pseudonym). In his native Holland, Six has caused controversy before with a gay-themed movie simply called GAY. He’s about to enter a whole new realm.

More spoilers, including discussion of some graphic details, are contained below.

LYT: I’ve noticed that the reaction to THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE has become almost like that Internet video “2 girls 1 cup,” where people take their friends to see how they’ll react, and be amused by the various horrified responses. Is that the kind of response you were looking for?

Tom Six: Oh yes, when I came up with the idea, I knew people would talk about it because of the very strange and disturbing content, but actually, when you eventually show people to see their reactions and you get a big buzz, as a filmmaker it’s very cool, and a very big honor, of course.

 

When it played Fantastic Fest in Texas, there was a lot of Twitter reaction, people were  retweeting, and one that people were posting said something like “WTF IS WRONG WITH WHITE PEOPLE???” So I thought I’d pose that question to you as a fellow white person...what is wrong with us?

(laughs)  Uhhhh...there’s nothing wrong with white people. There’s an Asian guy in it! Are they called white people as well? I’m not sure.

When I was watching this, I sort of imagined you were probably sitting around with friends at one point and saying, maybe drinking beers and saying what’s the most screwed-up thing we can possibly think of. Was it anything like that?

It was kind of like that. I always made a very sick joke to friends, if we were watching television, and we saw a child molester on television, I always said they should stitch his mouth to the ass of a very fat truck-driver, it would be a good punishment for him. Everybody was laughing, and thought that was so horrible, that I thought that idea’s great for a horror film. It all started with a very simple joke.

Looking at your filmography, it seems that all your other movies have been comedies and dramas. Is this your first horror movie?

Yes, exactly. This is my first horror movie.

So it’s quite a leap that your first horror movie is this incredibly disturbing thing...how did you make that transition from what you’d done previously?

Well, I always like to make controversial films, the Dutch movies I made are also controversial, though not in this way of course, but in Holland there’s not really a horror film culture or something, so I made comedies and more accepted styles. But I always thought my first international film must be a horror film, I think I can really use all my crazy ideas to put in that film. It’s the genre I like the most, because it’s a genre that has almost no limits, you can really go with all your crazy thoughts and think up the sickest things you can imagine which offend, like you said, because the horror audience, the thriller audience want to be thrilled and horrified. It’s why they go to the films.

 

What are some of your favorite horror films?

I really love some of the early work of David Cronenberg: THE BROOD, SHIVERS, CRASH, he creates really disturbing atmospheres. I also really like Japanese horror, like Takashi Miike’s AUDITION. There are some crazy Japanese directors out there with really sick imaginations, and I like that. SALO by Pasolini – I think that’s the most disturbing film of all time, but an incredible film.

I got kind of a vibe watching the film of ANDY WARHOL’S FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN; Dieter Laser reminds me of Udo Kier in that. Was it an influence at all?

No, I have not seen that one. I have seen some old Frankenstein films, of course, but not that one.

Udo Kier’s performance in that was very similar to Dieter Laser’s in CENTIPEDE.

Oh, I should see it then! Great. I love him [Udo Kier], like you say, he has the same charisma that Dieter has: his weird eyes, that incredible face, those actors have in common some incredible screen presence, the fact that they’re German makes them, with that accent, even worse.

Is there something inherently scary about German people, you think?

(laughs) Well, I dunno, of course, the history of the Second World War is in a lot of people’s minds, it was years ago, but the Germans were so incredibly evil in those days.

Is there a real challenge to directing people in so many different languages?

I don’t speak a word of Japanese. Of course I’d run through the lines with Aki [Akihiro Kitamura], but when he said it, he could have mentioned his grocery list of that day, I had no idea what he was talking about, so there’s a lot of trust. I do understand German and English, but the Japanese parts were tricky. He said all the right things, though, and I’m really happy. He did fine for it.

How did you go about casting him for that role?

Well, we were looking for a very daring Japanese actor, and we had an actor in Japan we were contacting who had back problems. The casting agent suggested we watch Akihiro, who was a very young actor. So we Skyped with him, he auditioned via Skype, and we loved his performance and his openness to this project. He’s a really daring guy, and we hit it off right away, and he was flown into Amsterdam, I think it was a week or two weeks later.

In terms of the actual makeup for THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, how actually attached were they? Did they have to just choreograph very carefully and pretend so that the makeup didn’t rip, or were they actually pretty tightly attached to each other with prosthetics?

The special effects guys did a great job with the prosthetics, making it look really real, and of course they always had to have an escape thing, for fire or something, but when they were attached they were pretty attached, really close to the ass, but they’re biting this kind of construction. They had to really walk slowly because of their bodies, and their neck, otherwise they are stretched too much. Physically it’s very demanding to sit on your hands and knees for eight hours.

And to what extent were their faces actually in each other’s asses – was there much of a layer of latex between the buttcrack and the face?

There was a layer of latex, of course, but latex is very thin, so they are very very close to the actual ass, so it couldn’t be too comfortable, but they got used to it after a while. The first time is pretty difficult.

Were you careful not to have beans at Craft Services?

Oh yeah, yeah, everybody says that. We heard the jokes all day, please don’t pass gas, and stuff, sure.

It mentioned in the press notes that you consulted an actual doctor about the reality of doing this...it seems to me that if you did it for real, and someone [defecates] in somebody’s mouth, it’s not necessarily gonna pass through, they’re gonna puke it up, and maybe choke on it...talk a little bit about the reality of it.

Yeah, yeah, sure. Because the construction of sewing the ass to the mouth, and the buttflaps attached to the cheeks, the surgeon said he could actually perform this operation for real. You can eat shit, it won’t kill you, but as you see in the film there are IV stands, giving fluids and stuff. Of course you could vomit or choke, there would be a chance, but in some way maybe you don’t have a choice but to swallow it. But the operation could actually be performed.

But would the patients survive very long?

They could survive for a really long time if you keep them medicated, and keep all the infections cleared and stuff, they could live for a while...but it won’t be a happy life, I think (laughs).

There’s this line a lot of critics have over here to describe certain movies: “Torture Porn.” The HOSTEL and the SAW movies are put in that category; would you think your movie is of a piece with those kinds if films, or not?

Well, of course it is a film about torture, but what I really wanted to show is the human emotions. Most times in horror films you see, like, girls being killed quickly, but this time you don’t see the actual killing, it just goes and goes, and you feel all the emotions with them, for a really long time. That’s something that I think is different from the quick torture-porn movies.

I’m saying this as someone who likes the movie, but...I think I might have a difficult time defending it if some right-winger were to say “Well, the only purpose of this movie is to show something sick and twisted.” What would your argument be if you were defending against some kind of Christian conservative-type person saying that this sort of thing is too twisted to be shown, and is just an excuse to show perversity?

I didn’t make the film for – what did you say? Christian right-wing people. When I think of making a horror film, I want to make a film that really thrills the audience, and horrifies them, and makes them speak about it, because that’s the fun for a horror audience to see a film. And the goal for a filmmaker is to scare the hell out of people, and gross the hell out of them. I knew when I started the project that so many people will not like it, or will be grossed out by the idea, but a lot of them do talk about it. Something fascinates them, I think. Maybe they’ll secretly see the film on DVD later on, and maybe enjoy it, silently – you never know. The idea is so incredibly horrible, to myself as well of course. The idea is terrible, and that’s why it works, I think, why there’s a big buzz going on, because that simple thing gives you the creeps

I noticed, of course, that the movie’s subtitle is “First Sequence.” Is this the beginning of a series?

We are working now on HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2, the “Full Sequence,” and part 1 will be My Little Pony compared to part 2 [Tom Six has suggested elsewhere that a “millipede” made up of twelve victims will be involved], and of course I have a lot of imagination, so I am already thinking about part 3, but I first want to see what happens to part 1 and part 2, because I really believe in those two parts coming out, and I never say no, that I don’t do a third one, but for now I only keep it with these ones.

Is Dieter coming back for part 2?

I want to keep this a little surprise, because what happens to the middle girl, and Dieter, is he dead or not...I really want to focus on originality, because I think a lot of Hollywood sequels are not so good, so I want to really try to make something original again, so hopefully that works out, and keep the audience not sure about what’s going to happen...for now.

Last question: can we look forward to more horror from you other than THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE PART 2, is that a niche you like to find yourself in, or do you wanna not stereotype yourself and do something totally different?

I’ve got some crazy ideas. I always like to be a little controversial, because that for me is the fun of it. I have some completely different ideas from THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE that will shock audiences.

 

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE will be available On-Demand as of Wednesday, Apr. 28^th. It opens theatrically in select markets Apr. 30.

 

Luke Y. Thompson is an actor, writer, and film critic living in Hollywood.