Latest / The Bechdel Cast / The Human Centipede
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On the Dog Cast, the questions asked if movies have
- 0:03Speaker 1: women in um, are all their discussions just boyfriends and
- 0:07Speaker 1: husbands or do they have individualism the patriarchy? Zef In
- 0:11Speaker 1: best start changing it with the Bell Cast. Hey, Caitlin, Yeah, Jamie,
- 0:18Speaker 1: what was the last meal? You eight? I'm just asking, well,
- 0:27Speaker 1: it it doesn't matter because I threw it up after
- 0:31Speaker 1: watching this movie. Oh well, I just I was like, well,
- 0:35Speaker 1: we're two friends and we've been on vacation together, and
- 0:38Speaker 1: I just I was wondering what your last meal was here, wait,
- 0:41Speaker 1: let me let me try again. It was definitely not
- 0:45Speaker 1: someone else's poo pooh. Oh, what a disappointment. I was
- 0:52Speaker 1: really hoping it was going to be someone else's poop poo. Well, well,
- 0:56Speaker 1: egg on my face, uh and poopoo in my mouth.
- 1:01Speaker 1: I didn't realize, Um, why what what was your last meal? Jamie?
- 1:06Speaker 1: It was poop? It was it was it was, you know,
- 1:11Speaker 1: and depending on I think the beauty of and today
- 1:14Speaker 1: we are. We we thought, listen, like there's a lot
- 1:18Speaker 1: going on. It's just like a really stressful, heavy time,
- 1:22Speaker 1: and so we wanted to meet the moment with an
- 1:27Speaker 1: episode about I think one of the most politically impactful
- 1:32Speaker 1: pieces of I'll just go ahead and say art. Well,
- 1:36Speaker 1: not only that, I would call this this is not
- 1:40Speaker 1: only a feminist text. Oh yeah, I would say that
- 1:43Speaker 1: this is a feminist masterpiece. Oh yeah, I totally agree.
- 1:47Speaker 1: And so we wanted to like, we wanted to spotlight
- 1:51Speaker 1: great feminist art um, to just start April and to
- 1:57Speaker 1: to really just you know, I think it's like this
- 2:01Speaker 1: is a if we're talking about gigantic feminist watershed moments
- 2:05Speaker 1: in cinema. I'm shocked it took us almost five years
- 2:09Speaker 1: to get to the Human Snipede, which is what we're covering. Yeah,
- 2:14Speaker 1: and this is our probably most commonly requested episode. I
- 2:18Speaker 1: think it's requested at least fifteen hundred times at this point,
- 2:23Speaker 1: if not more. Um, the people are just gagging on
- 2:28Speaker 1: pooh for us to cover this movie and finally we're
- 2:33Speaker 1: here and we're doing it, so um, the time is now.
- 2:37Speaker 1: First of all, wanted to apologize that it's taken us
- 2:39Speaker 1: so long to cover it because the response, as you
- 2:43Speaker 1: were saying, Caitlin, it has been really overwhelming and I
- 2:45Speaker 1: feel like I'm getting two or three messages a day
- 2:49Speaker 1: to say to the point where people have figured out
- 2:52Speaker 1: what my home address are and they're sending me handwritten
- 2:55Speaker 1: letters being like where is it? Where is it? Where
- 2:57Speaker 1: is it? And so here it is. You know, it's
- 3:00Speaker 1: understandably it's going to be, you know, a really serious episode.
- 3:05Speaker 1: And but but I think that we're gonna have a
- 3:09Speaker 1: really really rich, fiber full conversation and it's just gonna
- 3:16Speaker 1: be a mouthful of fiber. I feel like in terms
- 3:19Speaker 1: of what the episode is gonna be, like, what's gonna
- 3:22Speaker 1: be you don't like to listen to? Yeah, so so
- 3:31Speaker 1: this is the back pedcast. It's a really serious podcast. Yeah,
- 3:38Speaker 1: I apologize for laughing. It's prior to what's going to
- 3:42Speaker 1: be such serious. It's not funny. Yeah, this is a
- 3:51Speaker 1: serious episode. Sometimes we do an episode on something, you know,
- 3:54Speaker 1: like National Treasure where we can just go and sometimes
- 3:58Speaker 1: we do something club or This is not one of
- 4:02Speaker 1: those episodes. This, this is going to generate some very
- 4:05Speaker 1: serious discourse. And I apologize for laughing because I was inappropriate.
- 4:10Speaker 1: We laugh. Humans laugh in response to fear, and human
- 4:14Speaker 1: centipede and human centipes um probably shouldn't laugh because their
- 4:20Speaker 1: mouth is full. They can't they can't laugh if they
- 4:26Speaker 1: laugh it's muffled. Um yeah, what if one of them,
- 4:34Speaker 1: one of them gets a cold and their nose gets
- 4:36Speaker 1: stuffed up? Do they just suffocate? I feel like we're
- 4:39Speaker 1: introduced with kind of a cat dog dilemma with this film.
- 4:46Speaker 1: But it's also just like what if there was a
- 4:49Speaker 1: third animal between I mean, I guess with the human centipee,
- 4:53Speaker 1: what separates a human centipede from a cat dog is
- 4:56Speaker 1: the third piece is the centerpiece, Because apparently if you
- 5:00Speaker 1: remove the center of the human centipede, all you have
- 5:04Speaker 1: is a hilarious children's TV show. Um. But but the center,
- 5:10Speaker 1: the center person, really is what elevates it to a
- 5:14Speaker 1: feminist text, right, Yes, because I don't know. I mean,
- 5:17Speaker 1: did we did you watch? Did you ever watch Cat Dog?
- 5:20Speaker 1: I didn't know. I was a big cat dog fan,
- 5:24Speaker 1: and and and fans of cat Dog and people who
- 5:27Speaker 1: don't give a shit about cat dog are well versed
- 5:29Speaker 1: in the argument in just the discussion of like where
- 5:33Speaker 1: does the peepee come from? Where is the poop? Who
- 5:35Speaker 1: come from? Does it come from the cat's mouth, does
- 5:37Speaker 1: it come from the dog's mouth? Does it come from
- 5:39Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle of the tube, And in the
- 5:41Speaker 1: cat dog because cat Dog is like a cat head
- 5:45Speaker 1: on one end and then a dog head on the
- 5:47Speaker 1: other end, and they're just sort of like both attached
- 5:50Speaker 1: at the abdomen kind of thing. Yeah, they're just it's
- 5:53Speaker 1: a long animal tube and there's a cat at one
- 5:56Speaker 1: and a dog on one end, and they're just, you know,
- 5:59Speaker 1: they're just simple links and they have a sweet relationship,
- 6:03Speaker 1: and they couldn't be more different. But they're on the
- 6:07Speaker 1: same tube. But um, pooping, as far as I know,
- 6:11Speaker 1: never comes up in the show, and and I think
- 6:14Speaker 1: that that's maybe intense textually intentional, but there are times
- 6:20Speaker 1: where okay, so in cat Dog, just to like ease
- 6:23Speaker 1: us into the discussion, where I believe and cat dog
- 6:27Speaker 1: heads please correct me if I'm wrong, I believe there
- 6:30Speaker 1: are instances or perhaps a whole episode where cat gets
- 6:35Speaker 1: hairballs and they come out of dogs mouth. So that's
- 6:42Speaker 1: extremely confusing because it's not like cats poop out hairballs,
- 6:46Speaker 1: they come out of their mouth, and so they're just
- 6:49Speaker 1: kind of operating on a separate, separate level. Well, Cat
- 6:53Speaker 1: Dog doesn't sound like it's medically accurate, which the human
- 6:57Speaker 1: centipede claims to be. And as jam you and I
- 7:02Speaker 1: are both doctors. We are, Yeah, we can confirm that
- 7:07Speaker 1: the human centipeate is medically accurate. Yes, this is if
- 7:12Speaker 1: if you were to do this, this is everyone would
- 7:14Speaker 1: look like the Joker, except their head is attached to
- 7:16Speaker 1: someone's butt. Um. That's exactly how it would go. And well,
- 7:22Speaker 1: by the way, I mean, if this is your first episode, welcome,
- 7:26Speaker 1: This is a really serious podcast that we started to
- 7:30Speaker 1: really start human discussions. And I feel like our podcast
- 7:34Speaker 1: is kind of a human centipete of ideas and in fact,
- 7:38Speaker 1: we've really we really just we started the podcast to
- 7:41Speaker 1: be able to talk about this episode. This is like
- 7:44Speaker 1: the grand what if this is our last episode? This
- 7:46Speaker 1: is the Grand Female? This is it. I feel like though,
- 7:50Speaker 1: if you do remember that that when you contacted me,
- 7:53Speaker 1: I mean I would say probably five years ago now
- 7:56Speaker 1: about to start discussing, you know, doing this show together.
- 8:00Speaker 1: This was I think it took up a good hour
- 8:03Speaker 1: of our discussion of like, well, this is obviously where
- 8:06Speaker 1: we're building too, or we we would want to build too,
- 8:09Speaker 1: but it would take at least four years, and we
- 8:12Speaker 1: need to build trust, and we need to build a
- 8:15Speaker 1: listener base because we want this message to get across
- 8:18Speaker 1: to as many mouths ear, but mouth really and as
- 8:24Speaker 1: we can depending on what side of the center, peter
- 8:27Speaker 1: On and some of us are on both sides, and
- 8:31Speaker 1: so it's just it's an exchange of like what is
- 8:34Speaker 1: a human centipete if not an exchange of ideas? You know,
- 8:41Speaker 1: um where you know it's this human said to beat
- 8:44Speaker 1: is a metaphor. And if you're in the center, oh
- 8:47Speaker 1: certainly it's the least comfortable place to be. But are
- 8:49Speaker 1: you not both giving and receiving ideas from your peers? Yes, yes,
- 8:57Speaker 1: and the answers yes, and you may in fact be
- 8:59Speaker 1: the ask girls as a result, uh the ba um yeah, even.
- 9:12Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I wish that this is a
- 9:14Speaker 1: really serious episode. I think it's really important to clarify
- 9:18Speaker 1: what this show is about. So on this podcast we
- 9:25Speaker 1: analyze movies, works of arts such as Human Centipede from
- 9:31Speaker 1: an intersectional feminist lens, using the Backtel test as a
- 9:37Speaker 1: jumping off point. And we've been you know, the test
- 9:41Speaker 1: has been evolving along like our rendition of the test
- 9:45Speaker 1: has been evolving along with the show these past many years,
- 9:50Speaker 1: to the point where I would like to propose the
- 9:53Speaker 1: newest rendition. I mean, what better episode do two people
- 10:00Speaker 1: of any marginalized gender poop into the mouth of one another.
- 10:08Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're saying this for at the end
- 10:14Speaker 1: question mark, right. I mean it's dialogue, I think really
- 10:19Speaker 1: notwithstanding because there there you are introduced with the problem
- 10:23Speaker 1: when you get to a certain part of this Human
- 10:25Speaker 1: Centipede of how on earth could we pass this test
- 10:27Speaker 1: if if our mouths are sown to our dear friends anuss.
- 10:32Speaker 1: But that's why I'm proposing this, because we don't want
- 10:35Speaker 1: to leave anyone out. Absolutely not. This test is inclusive,
- 10:39Speaker 1: and it you know, people who's who cannot communicate verbally
- 10:45Speaker 1: because their mouth has been sown to the anus of
- 10:47Speaker 1: some other person specific. Yeah, but you know it's it's
- 10:52Speaker 1: representation that we had failed to see on screen before
- 10:56Speaker 1: this movie. So this movie really sheds a light on
- 11:00Speaker 1: those people and they should be included in the in
- 11:06Speaker 1: this test. So I felt, I felt. I just want
- 11:09Speaker 1: to start by saying I felt represented in the Human
- 11:13Speaker 1: Centipede because I have been a clueless American white girl
- 11:19Speaker 1: on vacation with a friend stumbling around there. You have
- 11:23Speaker 1: been that friend at at at many points, and so
- 11:27Speaker 1: it's like, oh, what is the human centipede. If not,
- 11:30Speaker 1: you know, the worst case scenario of us on tour,
- 11:35Speaker 1: of us just stumbling around wherever we happened to be,
- 11:39Speaker 1: and if we got to the to the woods of
- 11:42Speaker 1: question Mark, Common Germany, this very well could have been us.
- 11:47Speaker 1: And so it's a cautionary tale in many ways as well. Um,
- 11:52Speaker 1: what was your what was your experience with this? And
- 11:55Speaker 1: I'd like to just call it a text. Um, I
- 11:58Speaker 1: don't want to, you know, use kind of a dismissive term.
- 12:03Speaker 1: It's not simply a movie. No, No, this this text this, uh,
- 12:09Speaker 1: this document this manifesto, it's what what isn't it? Did
- 12:13Speaker 1: you ever say documentary? Documentary? I was going to just
- 12:19Speaker 1: say document but I was like, whoo. But when you
- 12:25Speaker 1: think about it, it it could be maybe it is a documentary.
- 12:28Speaker 1: What if we just don't it's a documentary, we just
- 12:30Speaker 1: don't know it yet. Yeah, could be. So my relationship
- 12:35Speaker 1: with this, I remember when the trailers were circulating on
- 12:42Speaker 1: I think the internet, Like I didn't see the trailers
- 12:45Speaker 1: weren't you know, on television or in front of any
- 12:49Speaker 1: movie I was seeing in theaters. But okay, you're distancing
- 12:52Speaker 1: I feel you. I feel you're distancing yourself from the
- 12:54Speaker 1: human sense, and I'm sorry. Well, I saw the trailers
- 12:58Speaker 1: and I was living with I think I was living
- 13:03Speaker 1: with j T at the time. Word caught on about
- 13:06Speaker 1: this movie, and I remember, I remember the marketing. The
- 13:10Speaker 1: marketing was you know this. You get a sense of
- 13:14Speaker 1: what the movie was about based on the trailer, and
- 13:17Speaker 1: I remember the claims that it was medically accurate, and
- 13:22Speaker 1: I was like, well, not only that, but it looks
- 13:25Speaker 1: to me like it's the most feminist film ever made.
- 13:29Speaker 1: So I have to see this. This is like, really,
- 13:34Speaker 1: you know, an intersection of all of my interests, you know,
- 13:37Speaker 1: medical accuracy, poo pooh feminism. Poop poo feminism was I
- 13:45Speaker 1: think a big discussion in the late two thousand's. I
- 13:48Speaker 1: would qualify a lot of movies that came out in
- 13:50Speaker 1: the two thousands as poo poo feminism. Yeah, so we
- 13:57Speaker 1: we got ahold of it somehow, j He and I.
- 14:01Speaker 1: So I saw it in like I think it was
- 14:02Speaker 1: like or maybe eleven. I don't know. You were early,
- 14:06Speaker 1: you were really, I was an early viewer of this text.
- 14:11Speaker 1: It is true, and I loved it. I was like,
- 14:16Speaker 1: this is I feel I feel seen, I feel heard.
- 14:20Speaker 1: I haven't seen a movie this feminist in ever, so
- 14:27Speaker 1: it became one of my favorite movies of all time.
- 14:31Speaker 1: What about your TV? My history with Human Centipede was
- 14:36Speaker 1: I honestly wasn't sure even going into because I hadn't.
- 14:40Speaker 1: I feel like I have a habit in my life
- 14:45Speaker 1: depriving myself of joy, and so I hadn't seen this.
- 14:49Speaker 1: I had just been kind of like intentionally depriving myself
- 14:52Speaker 1: of this text for for years out of avoidance and
- 14:56Speaker 1: just not wanting to feel really great. Um. I honestly
- 15:01Speaker 1: wasn't sure in preparing for this episode if Human Centipede
- 15:05Speaker 1: was like an online joke that became a movie, or
- 15:09Speaker 1: if the movie came first and then it became an
- 15:11Speaker 1: online joke because I had not seen so I had
- 15:14Speaker 1: to go back and because you know how like I
- 15:17Speaker 1: kind of thought that it was it had gone in
- 15:21Speaker 1: the direction of slender Man, where like Human Centipede was
- 15:24Speaker 1: this online thing and then it became I p But
- 15:30Speaker 1: it turns out I was quite wrong. It came from
- 15:32Speaker 1: the mind of one genius and then Mr Tom six
- 15:37Speaker 1: Feminist Icons six. Yeah, I think we should up him
- 15:40Speaker 1: to seven. While we're at it. Um Tom six, who
- 15:44Speaker 1: is also I mean, I think fascinating is an applicable word.
- 15:49Speaker 1: Just who he is, um, the Tom six universe, um,
- 15:53Speaker 1: and how he got his money is fascinating to me.
- 15:56Speaker 1: We'll get to that. But yeah, I kind of thought
- 16:00Speaker 1: this was an Internet thing that became a cinematic text
- 16:04Speaker 1: and was I don't know if the phrase is pleasantly surprised,
- 16:08Speaker 1: but I was, you know, artistically intrigued that it was
- 16:11Speaker 1: in fact a single person's idea that I mean, most
- 16:15Speaker 1: of what I knew about the human centipede was just
- 16:17Speaker 1: like internet jokes, like because I feel like they, I
- 16:21Speaker 1: mean they you know EBB that they you know, wax
- 16:24Speaker 1: and Wayne like the moon. But human centipede jokes are
- 16:27Speaker 1: always around, and in fact, I think there should be
- 16:32Speaker 1: more of them. Let's get let's get to waxing folks.
- 16:35Speaker 1: We need more human centipede jokes. Going seriously. Um, yeah,
- 16:39Speaker 1: So this was my first time really taking it all in.
- 16:43Speaker 1: I felt I felt really center of the centipede. Um.
- 16:48Speaker 1: I was taking it in and I was letting it out,
- 16:50Speaker 1: you know. So it was an absolute pleasure to prepare
- 16:54Speaker 1: for this really important episode. I will say, what is okay,
- 17:04Speaker 1: this is maybe I don't want to like get ahead
- 17:06Speaker 1: of ourselves. But what is your favorite part of Humans
- 17:10Speaker 1: and Defeat, Like, what's your favorite theme? I do have
- 17:14Speaker 1: a favorite, like moment um. This feels like cheating, but
- 17:19Speaker 1: all of them, every scene I love. I love that
- 17:23Speaker 1: it's a tight I was honestly thrilled to be like, oh,
- 17:26Speaker 1: it's just an hour and a half. I was terrified
- 17:28Speaker 1: that it would be a second longer. My favorite moment
- 17:31Speaker 1: in the Human Centipede parentheses first sequence, by the way,
- 17:35Speaker 1: and you know we did not watch the other two.
- 17:38Speaker 1: I did consider it though, but I said, you know what,
- 17:41Speaker 1: I've felt enough joy for one week. I you need
- 17:45Speaker 1: things to look forward to, you know, especially especially in
- 17:48Speaker 1: this pandemic. It's not a binger. I mean, yeah, you
- 17:52Speaker 1: want to like prolong this as much as you can, exactly.
- 17:56Speaker 1: My favorite moment in first sequence was when the so,
- 18:00Speaker 1: you know, the cops are a little too good in
- 18:02Speaker 1: this movie, right, I don't know what German cops are like,
- 18:05Speaker 1: but I can assume not great, right, But there is
- 18:08Speaker 1: a moment where when after the police have arrived, where
- 18:13Speaker 1: they're like, so you made the Human Centipede, right, and
- 18:17Speaker 1: he's like, no, no, I did not make the human
- 18:19Speaker 1: sent feed, but the human centipete cage is out. And
- 18:24Speaker 1: my favorite moment in the whole cinematic text is when
- 18:28Speaker 1: the cop is looking at the humans and human sentipet
- 18:30Speaker 1: cage and going, h what is this? But it's literally
- 18:37Speaker 1: the human centipete cage and it's just out there for anyone,
- 18:41Speaker 1: for anyone to stumble across. So, you know, I just
- 18:45Speaker 1: thought that that was a beautiful moment of I don't
- 18:47Speaker 1: I mean, I don't even know what I would call
- 18:49Speaker 1: you have to film degrees, what would you know? What
- 18:53Speaker 1: is that play there? What's going on there? Me? Is
- 18:56Speaker 1: it irony? Is it? It's a little bit, it's you know,
- 19:00Speaker 1: I would classify it as a number of things. It's um,
- 19:03Speaker 1: you know, it's perhaps foreshadowing. It's um, it's motif, it's
- 19:09Speaker 1: it's allegory, it's definitely Oh, there's a lot of metaphorically
- 19:13Speaker 1: on here. Yeah, um, you know, it's plant and payoff,
- 19:17Speaker 1: it's it's just a lot of it's a lot of
- 19:19Speaker 1: narrative devices all rolled into one. Because you know, this
- 19:24Speaker 1: is just a really masterfully written screenplay that is just
- 19:28Speaker 1: like making use of a lot of just like very
- 19:31Speaker 1: effective narrative devices. I totally agree. I mean, and I
- 19:36Speaker 1: had a fun like White Stripes moment trying to figure
- 19:40Speaker 1: out if Tom six and a Lot of six were
- 19:43Speaker 1: married or siblings. Oh, um, they are siblings, unlike the
- 19:48Speaker 1: White You. I always assumed the White Stripes were siblings,
- 19:52Speaker 1: but they were dating. This is quite the opposite, I see.
- 19:55Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean this is this isn't you know,
- 19:57Speaker 1: an oh to our piece, uh from from the six family,
- 20:02Speaker 1: which which is kind of fun down to the editing.
- 20:06Speaker 1: You know, Tom six was one of the credited editors,
- 20:09Speaker 1: of course, So I mean, when you have this brilliance
- 20:12Speaker 1: a concept, you have to be really protective of it.
- 20:15Speaker 1: I mean, you wouldn't want to get this wrong. You
- 20:17Speaker 1: don't want to put this in the hands of some
- 20:19Speaker 1: ya who who can't edit together the Human Centipede. Yeah,
- 20:23Speaker 1: I understand that he wanted to do that himself. Yeah,
- 20:28Speaker 1: a movie is so good that nonfeminine like misogynist icon.
- 20:35Speaker 1: Roger Ebert refused to give it any rating because it
- 20:40Speaker 1: was to quote unquote gross, which I think intentionally misses
- 20:45Speaker 1: the point. Yeah, gosh, Roger Ebert, don't get us started.
- 20:51Speaker 1: I already know we were not going to refuse to
- 20:54Speaker 1: give it a rating on our scale and cowards. I
- 20:59Speaker 1: already know what rating I'm going to give it, which
- 21:01Speaker 1: is obviously five nipples. Oh yeah, I don't see any
- 21:04Speaker 1: reason to hold back on what we're going to be
- 21:05Speaker 1: giving this movie. It's going to be five and well, actually,
- 21:08Speaker 1: actually the human centipede featured in this film has six nipples.
- 21:14Speaker 1: Oh that's true. Let's be included. Let's include every nipple.
- 21:17Speaker 1: So human snapede facts with Caitlin human sonapedes. At least
- 21:23Speaker 1: this I mean there. I mean again, I haven't seen
- 21:26Speaker 1: the sequels. I don't know if more centipedes get attached.
- 21:31Speaker 1: My understanding is, and I honestly didn't fully check, but
- 21:38Speaker 1: my understanding is that with each passing film, the centipede
- 21:41Speaker 1: gets the centipede gets longer, several times longer. Yeah, that
- 21:45Speaker 1: makes sense. So at least for um, what's this one
- 21:49Speaker 1: called first sequence? The third one? The third one may
- 21:52Speaker 1: in fact be as like scented like a full hundred.
- 21:55Speaker 1: I'm not totally sure, but they might have. Really, that's
- 21:59Speaker 1: where it was added. That's I mean heightening. If you
- 22:03Speaker 1: want to learn about heightening and storytelling, my gutwait really quick,
- 22:09Speaker 1: just go to the Wikipedia page for the Human Centipee
- 22:12Speaker 1: three and look at the poster and it might be
- 22:15Speaker 1: more than a hundred on god, that is so I
- 22:23Speaker 1: don't want to know anything else. This is so fucked up.
- 22:31Speaker 1: That's a lot of people. Uh so, yeah, safe to
- 22:34Speaker 1: say it gets longer than three. Um, but we did not,
- 22:39Speaker 1: We did not watch It looks like it just gets
- 22:42Speaker 1: longer with every movie. And I'm pretty sure based on
- 22:46Speaker 1: I consulted horror buff and friend of the cast Corey
- 22:49Speaker 1: Johnson about this because I was like, who, off the
- 22:52Speaker 1: top of my head, can I be certain has seen
- 22:54Speaker 1: all three Human Centipee movies and it is her? And
- 22:58Speaker 1: of course she said, um, she said, what what we
- 23:02Speaker 1: know already, which is that there is a message to
- 23:05Speaker 1: the first Human Centipede movie if what you sacrifice, and
- 23:10Speaker 1: that is a pretty short centipede. And as the centipede
- 23:13Speaker 1: gets longer, perhaps the powerful message gets smaller. You know,
- 23:18Speaker 1: it's a given take. So if you want a long centipede,
- 23:22Speaker 1: it has to be meaningless. If you have a short centipede,
- 23:25Speaker 1: you can have a powerful, tight react structure. Sure of course. Yeah.
- 23:31Speaker 1: So all that to say that the centipede featured in
- 23:35Speaker 1: this first film, this first work of art has six nipples. Therefore,
- 23:42Speaker 1: that is what I will be giving this movie. I wis, yes,
- 23:47Speaker 1: thank you, thank you so much. Um so, uh do
- 23:54Speaker 1: we need to talk about anything else before I recap
- 23:57Speaker 1: this brilliant narrative? Um? I don't think so. I mean
- 24:02Speaker 1: I think that you know, we we shouldn't hold back
- 24:04Speaker 1: any longer and really just like really, you know, release
- 24:12Speaker 1: like the information. Yeah, I'd love to um feed you
- 24:16Speaker 1: so to speak the recap Oh yes, please, please please
- 24:20Speaker 1: and iconic? How did that not end up on an
- 24:23Speaker 1: a f I list? Feed her, feed her, and if
- 24:28Speaker 1: you apply that to feed her knowledge, it becomes this
- 24:33Speaker 1: really powerful thing. It all depends on the direction you're
- 24:36Speaker 1: coming at it analytically. It's a brilliant film. Yeah, of course. Actually,
- 24:42Speaker 1: let's take a quick break first, you know, go to
- 24:44Speaker 1: the bathroom or whatever you need to do, and will
- 24:47Speaker 1: be right back. Okay. The Human Centipede first sequence opens
- 24:58Speaker 1: on a man. He is looking at some photos of
- 25:04Speaker 1: three dogs who are seen all kind of standing in
- 25:09Speaker 1: a single file line. They're in a row. They seem
- 25:12Speaker 1: to be sniffing each other's butts. We don't, but we
- 25:15Speaker 1: don't really might it be something more? And then we
- 25:19Speaker 1: see that same man approach a trucker who has pulled
- 25:23Speaker 1: off the road to take a poopoo, which is the first, um,
- 25:28Speaker 1: the first indication that that poopoo might be featured as
- 25:31Speaker 1: a motif in this film. I really thought that was
- 25:34Speaker 1: a tasteful introduction of what a prominent motif was going
- 25:38Speaker 1: to be, because then you go back and you watch
- 25:39Speaker 1: it later and you're like, oh my god, I mean again,
- 25:43Speaker 1: foreshadowing at its finest. Incredible stuff. Yeah, really really thoughtful.
- 25:49Speaker 1: So the man is seen approaching this uh, this truck
- 25:51Speaker 1: driver with a gun. Oh god, and we're like, oh.
- 25:55Speaker 1: Then we cut to two women, Lindsay and Jenny. They
- 26:00Speaker 1: are American tourists in Germany and they are heading to
- 26:04Speaker 1: a party but they get lost. Their car gets a
- 26:09Speaker 1: flat tire, they get out and walk through the middle
- 26:12Speaker 1: of the woods, which, really, it should be said, the
- 26:17Speaker 1: entire beginning of the movie between Lindsey and Jenny pretty
- 26:21Speaker 1: thoroughly passes the Bechdel test. They are talking to each
- 26:25Speaker 1: other about like do I want to go out? Do
- 26:27Speaker 1: I not want to go out? What do I want
- 26:29Speaker 1: to do? Oh my gosh, you know where we are No,
- 26:32Speaker 1: I don't. They're having really impactful conversations, and so I
- 26:38Speaker 1: feel like, also early on, you learned like, oh, this
- 26:40Speaker 1: is about women, this is about women, this is a
- 26:45Speaker 1: woman's story. This is an empowering story about female friendship. Yeah,
- 26:51Speaker 1: we see them interact a lot, and I honestly, I'm
- 26:55Speaker 1: genuinely very invested in their friendship, particularly with and we'll
- 27:01Speaker 1: get there, but like where their story goes, you know,
- 27:04Speaker 1: and where their story and I honestly I was not
- 27:07Speaker 1: prepared for where their story ends and how UM genuinely like, oh,
- 27:13Speaker 1: I'm sad I was going to feel at the end.
- 27:18Speaker 1: I value their friendship. They seemed to They seem to
- 27:20Speaker 1: be like really complimentary late two thousands, I like, I
- 27:25Speaker 1: like when I think it's Jenny Who's like, I'm wearing
- 27:28Speaker 1: shorts and high heels. I'm not getting out of the car.
- 27:30Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, that is what people were
- 27:32Speaker 1: saying in two thousand nine, you know it is. So
- 27:38Speaker 1: they're wandering through the woods. They're wandering through the woods,
- 27:41Speaker 1: and they eventually come upon a house. They knock on
- 27:46Speaker 1: the door, and who greets them, who opens the door?
- 27:50Speaker 1: But the man we saw at the beginning but we
- 27:53Speaker 1: forgot to mention that when they are stuck there, the
- 27:57Speaker 1: creepy guy pulls up and he hits on them, he
- 28:02Speaker 1: scares them. This is like plot relevant, so that by
- 28:05Speaker 1: the time they go into the woods, they are already
- 28:08Speaker 1: very anxiety written, they already feel really nervous, and so
- 28:13Speaker 1: I feel like you're given and I have some notes
- 28:15Speaker 1: about the way that seems to present it. But um,
- 28:18Speaker 1: they've already been kind of been made to feel unsafe
- 28:22Speaker 1: before they find this house, so they're already on like
- 28:26Speaker 1: ty alert. Yes, and this man opens the door, he
- 28:32Speaker 1: invites them in there, like, hey, can you call the
- 28:35Speaker 1: car company for us so that we can, you know,
- 28:38Speaker 1: hitch a ride out of here, And then he says
- 28:41Speaker 1: are you alone? Which is never a way to start
- 28:44Speaker 1: a conversation with the scariest looking person I've ever seen
- 28:49Speaker 1: in my life. Yes. Also, that actor's name is Dieter Laser,
- 28:56Speaker 1: which is also a very menacing name. Just everything. And
- 29:00Speaker 1: then the more I learned about the actor and his
- 29:02Speaker 1: conduct on set, I'm like, he just sounds like a scary,
- 29:05Speaker 1: scary guy. Yeah, we'll talk about Mr Lazer. It's probably
- 29:14Speaker 1: like Laser or or something. Please our German our German
- 29:19Speaker 1: listeners forgive us, but I just I was like, his
- 29:22Speaker 1: last name is Laser. He's scary. And then you look
- 29:25Speaker 1: up the facts about production and then everyone's like, no,
- 29:29Speaker 1: he was quite scary. Yep, everyone agrees. So he pretends
- 29:36Speaker 1: to call the car company for them, and then he
- 29:40Speaker 1: gives them both a glass of water which he has
- 29:43Speaker 1: drugged so the women lose consciousness. They wake up in
- 29:49Speaker 1: his basement tied to hospital beds. The trucker from earlier
- 29:54Speaker 1: is there as well, also tied to a bed, and
- 29:58Speaker 1: the man who Dr. Hyder, Yeah, Dr Hyder comes in
- 30:05Speaker 1: and he's like, he says to the truck driver that
- 30:08Speaker 1: he's not a match. We don't really know exactly what
- 30:12Speaker 1: he means, what context, but he kills the truck driver
- 30:14Speaker 1: while Lindsay and Jenny watch on in horror. What did
- 30:20Speaker 1: he mean when he said you are not a match?
- 30:23Speaker 1: Was there a reason that he wasn't a match? I
- 30:25Speaker 1: wasn't sure in text why precisely he wasn't a match?
- 30:29Speaker 1: What was I don't know if it was like a
- 30:31Speaker 1: blood type thing, oh, like literally a medical reason that
- 30:37Speaker 1: a human cent like all the human centipes have to have,
- 30:40Speaker 1: like viby blood types. I don't. Well, again, um, we
- 30:45Speaker 1: should know this since we are doctors women in stems.
- 30:50Speaker 1: If you're a gay human centipide, do the blood types
- 30:53Speaker 1: need to be vibe are? Like there are certain pre
- 30:56Speaker 1: existing conditions that disqualify you from participation eating. I wonder
- 31:01Speaker 1: what it would be. Yeah, I mean I know that
- 31:03Speaker 1: like if you're getting a an organ transplant, for example,
- 31:07Speaker 1: you have to like make sure that there's some kind
- 31:11Speaker 1: of and again I don't know if it's blood type
- 31:13Speaker 1: match or some other just sort of like compatibility thing. Um,
- 31:17Speaker 1: but yeah, my guess was there there was like a
- 31:18Speaker 1: medical reason that the truck driver could not participate and
- 31:23Speaker 1: he had to go. It was nothing personal, but you've
- 31:28Speaker 1: been said to be it's never personal. That's and I
- 31:33Speaker 1: love that that's a major theme in this movie. Um,
- 31:38Speaker 1: it's important to remember that sometimes the fate that the
- 31:42Speaker 1: truck driver suffers is uh far less bad than like
- 31:48Speaker 1: the fate he would have suffered if he had. Yeah,
- 31:50Speaker 1: I think we would all agree we would rather just
- 31:53Speaker 1: just die. So he kind of gets off easy. Yeah,
- 31:57Speaker 1: he gets let off the hook, but we still but
- 32:02Speaker 1: we still need I'm sorry, did you say but I'm sorry.
- 32:06Speaker 1: I was trying to hit the t hard so that
- 32:09Speaker 1: it would be implied that there were two of them.
- 32:11Speaker 1: Um but lead one more but to make a human centipede.
- 32:20Speaker 1: And that's when Dr Hyder comes home with a new man,
- 32:26Speaker 1: cut Serro, who he has abducted, and then he explains
- 32:31Speaker 1: to all of them what he plans to do. So
- 32:35Speaker 1: the thing with him is he is a retired surgeon
- 32:39Speaker 1: who used to specialize in separating conjoined twins. Right, he
- 32:44Speaker 1: uses a dismissive and very dated term that we're not
- 32:50Speaker 1: even going to repeat here, but yes, conjoined twins is
- 32:52Speaker 1: the is the correct term to use. One of the
- 32:55Speaker 1: few mistakes um this otherwise perfect movie. Yes. Um So,
- 33:02Speaker 1: now that he is retired, he has kind of refocused
- 33:06Speaker 1: his efforts and takes his surgical expertise and pivot applies
- 33:12Speaker 1: it to He's pivoting, he's having a second he's having honestly,
- 33:15Speaker 1: like my my dad just retired and he's kind of
- 33:19Speaker 1: looking for a second act. And so I kind of
- 33:22Speaker 1: want to show him this movie as a kind of
- 33:24Speaker 1: aspirational thing of like, oh, you already have applicable skills,
- 33:29Speaker 1: you just need to find your second act. You know,
- 33:31Speaker 1: and so you know that the doctor's really decided on
- 33:34Speaker 1: what his second act is going to be, which is
- 33:38Speaker 1: that he now is obsessed with surgically joining people together
- 33:45Speaker 1: but a very particular way, in a very particular way.
- 33:48Speaker 1: And what he is going to do is attach these
- 33:52Speaker 1: three people together, mouth to anus in a chain, forming
- 33:59Speaker 1: the iconic human centipede the feminist psychon. And so with
- 34:07Speaker 1: the three I feel like with the three person human centipede,
- 34:11Speaker 1: you really do have um, you know, everyone's role is
- 34:15Speaker 1: quite different, and you know, the longer the centipede gets,
- 34:19Speaker 1: the more kind of like central, Like if you're reaching
- 34:23Speaker 1: human centipee three, which that I don't know what goes
- 34:26Speaker 1: on in that movie, but there's like five people in
- 34:28Speaker 1: that chain. That's like four parts of the human centipede.
- 34:33Speaker 1: They could fucking unionize at that point. But in this point,
- 34:36Speaker 1: but it's like if you just have three people, there's
- 34:40Speaker 1: one person who's uniquely suffering as a part of the centipede,
- 34:45Speaker 1: and then you also have an appointed mouthpiece, right, the
- 34:49Speaker 1: only person whose mouth is available that is then the
- 34:52Speaker 1: head of the chew chew, the head of the the
- 34:58Speaker 1: poo poo train, the poopoo. Yeah, he doesn't and the
- 35:03Speaker 1: one who eats from the bowl, etcetera. So Dr Hyder
- 35:10Speaker 1: starts to prep them for surgery, but Lindsay manages to
- 35:14Speaker 1: escape her restraints, but he finds her again and he
- 35:18Speaker 1: says he's going to punish her by putting her in
- 35:22Speaker 1: the middle of the centipede. I found this sequence to
- 35:26Speaker 1: be very compelling. We see Lindsay acting with a lot
- 35:30Speaker 1: of um she's taking a lot of initiative, she has
- 35:35Speaker 1: a lot of agency. She's fighting for her life and
- 35:38Speaker 1: her friend's life, and she's really like going up against
- 35:43Speaker 1: the oppressor. I on it, I mean going I had
- 35:45Speaker 1: a lot of now I find to be ridiculous negative
- 35:49Speaker 1: assumptions going into this. But right at the top, we
- 35:53Speaker 1: see you know, like a highly motivated female character being like,
- 35:58Speaker 1: you know, what some think about this human centipede just
- 36:01Speaker 1: doesn't sound right to me, and I don't want to participate.
- 36:05Speaker 1: And she, you know, she she fights, and she also
- 36:07Speaker 1: fights for her friend. And I genuinely thought that sequence
- 36:12Speaker 1: was very like exciting is not the right word, but
- 36:16Speaker 1: I was on the edge of my seat. Sure, thrilling,
- 36:19Speaker 1: It's thrilling, And like you said, we see a woman
- 36:23Speaker 1: having agency. We see a woman like just taking the
- 36:27Speaker 1: information that's been provided to her and thinking critically about
- 36:32Speaker 1: it and like thinking about what she should do next,
- 36:36Speaker 1: so you know, she's using her brain. It's all pretty
- 36:39Speaker 1: I mean in all series, Like everything Lindsay and Jenny
- 36:43Speaker 1: do in like the first act of the movie more
- 36:47Speaker 1: or less make sense to me, as like tourists who
- 36:51Speaker 1: are panicking and we have just been scared by someone
- 36:55Speaker 1: who was aggressively hitting on them. It seems like like
- 36:57Speaker 1: wanted to assault them. There's only one house. They're like
- 37:02Speaker 1: communicating with each other silently as this creepy guy is
- 37:06Speaker 1: making them drinks. They're like, it's just like it's I
- 37:11Speaker 1: don't know, like there I was, I was like, oh,
- 37:14Speaker 1: you know, I'm glad that a Lana six was in
- 37:16Speaker 1: the room because I feel like these women, given the
- 37:19Speaker 1: horrific circumstances they're being thrown into, like it didn't seem
- 37:22Speaker 1: completely like in the way that most horror and like
- 37:27Speaker 1: especially like Gore movies, will introduce female characters as like
- 37:31Speaker 1: completely irrationally trusting of people. They don't really seem that way.
- 37:35Speaker 1: They just are like this is the option, and we're
- 37:37Speaker 1: still very freaked out, and like let's see what happens. Yeah,
- 37:43Speaker 1: I would, I mean not to criticize this perfect film,
- 37:47Speaker 1: but I know I I say this with a lot
- 37:51Speaker 1: of caution, But um, well, I see what you're saying,
- 37:54Speaker 1: and I think they're characterized maybe a little bit. I
- 37:59Speaker 1: don't want to say I don't want to say better.
- 38:01Speaker 1: I don't Also, I'm just like, when do we drop
- 38:04Speaker 1: the bit? But a bit sorry, I'm so sorry. Um.
- 38:11Speaker 1: There were still like choices that they made that I
- 38:15Speaker 1: was like, oh, these are female characters written by a
- 38:19Speaker 1: male horror writer, like which I had a point to
- 38:24Speaker 1: where I got like, oh, this is the line where
- 38:27Speaker 1: this has like lost I mean, and that is like
- 38:29Speaker 1: a trope of the genre or whatever, But like, what
- 38:32Speaker 1: was the choice for you where you're like, I'm no
- 38:34Speaker 1: longer like feeling connected to this this character's logic, I mean,
- 38:40Speaker 1: just like them getting out of the car. My thing
- 38:43Speaker 1: was them leaving the road. I could see them getting
- 38:47Speaker 1: out of the car if the car wasn't going to move,
- 38:50Speaker 1: but them leaving the main road to me made very
- 38:55Speaker 1: little sense. I was just like that, wouldn't you just
- 38:57Speaker 1: follow the road back to the town you came from? Ultimately,
- 39:01Speaker 1: and then like hope someone passed. Um. The other thing
- 39:05Speaker 1: is like, it's not a great idea, but you can
- 39:08Speaker 1: drive slowly with one flat tire for some amount of distance.
- 39:14Speaker 1: You could turn around, Like you could turn around. That's true.
- 39:17Speaker 1: I also don't have a driver's license, so I'm just like,
- 39:19Speaker 1: maybe you can't do that, but like it's not great
- 39:22Speaker 1: and it's gonna like mess things up a bit in
- 39:25Speaker 1: the car probably, But like the fact that they get
- 39:28Speaker 1: out of the car and then yeah, go immediately into
- 39:31Speaker 1: the woods. Going into the woods, I was just like, on, like,
- 39:36Speaker 1: it would make sense to me if they like we're like, oh,
- 39:38Speaker 1: I know something is here, but clearly they don't. They
- 39:41Speaker 1: have no idea where they were, so they get lost immediately. Yeah.
- 39:44Speaker 1: I can't imagine myself, especially in a country I know
- 39:47Speaker 1: nothing about and I don't speak the language, and all
- 39:49Speaker 1: this stuff like wandering into the woods does seem like
- 39:53Speaker 1: begging to die. Um, so in that way, and then
- 39:58Speaker 1: even if you can suspend your believe through that, because
- 40:01Speaker 1: then I like challenged myself, I'm like, Okay, what if
- 40:04Speaker 1: I what if I could get myself to the doctor's house? Right?
- 40:09Speaker 1: I Also I find it really I don't know, maybe
- 40:12Speaker 1: if you're like truly, I was kind of of two
- 40:16Speaker 1: minds of this. I don't think in one as an
- 40:21Speaker 1: adult that knows better. I don't think that I would
- 40:24Speaker 1: have accepted a glass of water from a total stranger
- 40:28Speaker 1: without watching them pour it. Like I feel like there's
- 40:32Speaker 1: a world where I could have been, like, I really
- 40:34Speaker 1: need water, I've been wandering around the fucking woods for
- 40:37Speaker 1: an hour, but let me see you just pour it
- 40:40Speaker 1: from the sink, you know, or something like that, because
- 40:43Speaker 1: he's just roofying literally everyone who walks in the door. Um.
- 40:49Speaker 1: But but I also could see and I don't know
- 40:52Speaker 1: how hard our King Tom six is thinking about this.
- 40:56Speaker 1: I also feel like when I was younger, which I
- 40:58Speaker 1: think that I don't know how out old these characters
- 41:01Speaker 1: are supposed to be, like anywhere between nineteen and thirty five,
- 41:05Speaker 1: I have no idea. I'm assuming college right early twenties.
- 41:09Speaker 1: When I was younger, I can see myself wanting to
- 41:13Speaker 1: watch someone prepare my drink and maybe being a little
- 41:16Speaker 1: too anxious to ask. And so, but I also am like,
- 41:21Speaker 1: how hard is Tom six thinking about this? Probably probably
- 41:25Speaker 1: no disrespect to our our king, but very possibly zero percent.
- 41:31Speaker 1: But I've had I don't know, have you ever had
- 41:32Speaker 1: a moment like that where someone offers you a drink
- 41:35Speaker 1: and I immediately always when like a stranger at all,
- 41:41Speaker 1: but particularly a stranger who is a man, forers me
- 41:44Speaker 1: a drink. I if I want to accept, I need
- 41:47Speaker 1: to know that I am watching it be prepared, just
- 41:51Speaker 1: because of the experience of knowing better. But I also
- 41:55Speaker 1: was an age at one point where I would have
- 41:56Speaker 1: been too nervous to advocate for myself up in that
- 42:00Speaker 1: way for sure. I mean, yeah, I definitely didn't always
- 42:05Speaker 1: insist on watching or it just insist on today I
- 42:09Speaker 1: would like, I would just be like, I'll make it myself. Thanks.
- 42:14Speaker 1: I would even go so far as to be like,
- 42:15Speaker 1: let's make them together. I'll come to the kitchen with you,
- 42:18Speaker 1: like so that there's nothing funky going on. And but
- 42:23Speaker 1: you know, as as a as a teenager, I can't
- 42:26Speaker 1: I you know, I don't know that I would have
- 42:27Speaker 1: had the because I truly, at this point in my
- 42:30Speaker 1: life don't give a funk. I just want to um live.
- 42:35Speaker 1: H But what I would probably do if I was
- 42:38Speaker 1: even in like my earlier more naive days or like
- 42:42Speaker 1: days of just like not being able to advocate for
- 42:45Speaker 1: myself or like speak up or like you know, just
- 42:48Speaker 1: be like fuck you, I'm making my own drink or
- 42:50Speaker 1: whatever I would say. Now I would I would accept
- 42:54Speaker 1: a drink, but just not touch it. I just would
- 42:57Speaker 1: not drink it. Yeah, I've done that too. I the
- 43:00Speaker 1: the part of that scene that I genuinely felt like, oh,
- 43:03Speaker 1: that is definitely kind of a thing that I recognized,
- 43:06Speaker 1: like in myself and when I was younger, and like
- 43:08Speaker 1: in college of like when the guy is being really
- 43:12Speaker 1: weird and then he leaves the room and then immediately
- 43:15Speaker 1: you turn to your friend and you're like what is
- 43:17Speaker 1: going on? Like that, I was like, oh, I've done
- 43:20Speaker 1: that five hundred times. And then the second he walks
- 43:22Speaker 1: back in, you're like like nothing to see here. I
- 43:26Speaker 1: feel this is so normal for me. Um well. I
- 43:30Speaker 1: also don't think I would have gone in the house
- 43:34Speaker 1: like and I understand it. It's like it's raining, you know,
- 43:36Speaker 1: they probably want to get out of the rain. That's
- 43:38Speaker 1: the thing is like I the fact that they added
- 43:40Speaker 1: the rain and the night. I think I would have
- 43:42Speaker 1: like knocked on the door and asked to use the phone,
- 43:44Speaker 1: but then like stayed outside on the stoop and like
- 43:48Speaker 1: not actually gone inside the house. And I also wondered.
- 43:51Speaker 1: I was like, is there some sort of and again
- 43:54Speaker 1: I don't know what I mean. We can't and we
- 43:57Speaker 1: can't put ourselves in the mind of a genius artist Tom.
- 44:01Speaker 1: We can't really know the mind from which the idea
- 44:05Speaker 1: for a Big Brother came is like Tom six thought
- 44:09Speaker 1: of Big Brother. So he's just he's just did you
- 44:13Speaker 1: know that? I did not? Oh my god. So that
- 44:16Speaker 1: is where Tom six Is money comes from. He was
- 44:21Speaker 1: an original director on the Dutch reality TV series Big Brother,
- 44:25Speaker 1: which apparently was the first incarnation of Big Brother that
- 44:29Speaker 1: obviously became an international phenomenon. So he was like into
- 44:34Speaker 1: some like some stuff, you know, and some like low
- 44:39Speaker 1: key torture, um pre human sense. I'm not seeing that
- 44:44Speaker 1: on his IMDb. Oh, it's in the first sentence. He
- 44:47Speaker 1: was six was an original director on his it's on
- 44:50Speaker 1: his uh Wikipedia's Wikipedia six was an original director of
- 44:55Speaker 1: Dutch reality TV series Big Brother, which has since become
- 44:57Speaker 1: an international franchise. So that's how he um established himself
- 45:02Speaker 1: and got you know, some credibility was by the survey
- 45:06Speaker 1: the abuse of surveillance TV show of of a generation.
- 45:12Speaker 1: Uh So there you go. I guess this is all
- 45:16Speaker 1: to say that, yeah, some choices were made to have
- 45:21Speaker 1: the women in the movie behave in a way that
- 45:25Speaker 1: I think was pretty indicative that those characters were written
- 45:29Speaker 1: by someone who UM does not really understand what it
- 45:34Speaker 1: is to be a woman who has to move about
- 45:37Speaker 1: the world and the danger we are often in and
- 45:40Speaker 1: the amount of on guard we always have to be
- 45:44Speaker 1: because a lot of men put us in danger and
- 45:47Speaker 1: make us feel unsafe. But I would say I would
- 45:50Speaker 1: say that, like, given I mean, and in this genre,
- 45:53Speaker 1: there's so many brilliant women who work in the horror
- 45:56Speaker 1: genre that UM would have executed this more realistically. But
- 46:00Speaker 1: in terms of like horror movies that I'm familiar with,
- 46:03Speaker 1: which are mostly like American horror movies that are probably
- 46:06Speaker 1: not great and we're released to wide audiences, Lindsay and
- 46:10Speaker 1: Jenny navigate the situation more realistically than a lot of
- 46:16Speaker 1: whole horror movies I've seen, where they're never just like
- 46:19Speaker 1: wandering into a room just to be like what's in here,
- 46:22Speaker 1: which I feel like is what we get a lot.
- 46:25Speaker 1: So it's a little more grounded UM. And also it's
- 46:28Speaker 1: you know, it's a it's a it's a and I
- 46:31Speaker 1: mean no disrespect, it's a B horror movie. So it's
- 46:33Speaker 1: like certain things just need to happen. But yeah, I'm
- 46:38Speaker 1: a but but yeah, So the bar we're comparing this
- 46:41Speaker 1: up against is so unbelievably low. Why would you say that?
- 46:47Speaker 1: Calen the bit? I mean bit, Well, I'm what I'm
- 46:52Speaker 1: saying that this movie rises far above the bar. Like
- 46:59Speaker 1: women are acting not completely the way a real woman would,
- 47:02Speaker 1: but they're not acting so unlike you would in that
- 47:06Speaker 1: situation that you're like, I have no I feel nothing
- 47:10Speaker 1: about this, you know, where it's like there were little
- 47:12Speaker 1: moments whereas like oh I got that, Oh I got that.
- 47:14Speaker 1: Oh I would never do that, but maybe, like maybe
- 47:18Speaker 1: someone I know might in some situation do that, you know,
- 47:21Speaker 1: Like it didn't feel so off the wall that it
- 47:24Speaker 1: was like completely in any case there they end up
- 47:28Speaker 1: participating in a human centipede. Yeah, voluntarily, they don't. Well
- 47:36Speaker 1: that's the other thing. I'm like, Okay, in in the
- 47:38Speaker 1: worst case scenario of the script, what if they're like,
- 47:42Speaker 1: pitch this to me and he's like okay, so here's
- 47:44Speaker 1: my idea. They're like okay, um, I guess like they
- 47:50Speaker 1: do not they do not consent to be a part
- 47:53Speaker 1: of the human centipede. That would not be realistic, No
- 47:57Speaker 1: one concerns. So so we we've got some realism represented
- 48:03Speaker 1: on screen here. It is it's realism. Um okay. So
- 48:08Speaker 1: let's see where were we in the recap? So dr
- 48:13Speaker 1: hyder okay. So he explains his plan, Lindsay tries to escape.
- 48:18Speaker 1: He's like, I'm going to punish you by putting you
- 48:20Speaker 1: in the middle. They have a bit of us scuffle.
- 48:24Speaker 1: She ends up in his swimming pool. I think he
- 48:29Speaker 1: thinks that she has drowned, so he walks away. He
- 48:33Speaker 1: clearly does not know what his own swimming pool is like,
- 48:36Speaker 1: because she literally just like pushes up that Because I
- 48:39Speaker 1: was kind of wondering that when he's like, I'm going
- 48:41Speaker 1: to trap you, I'm like, I'm pretty sure those kind
- 48:43Speaker 1: of things you just kind of push up a little bit,
- 48:45Speaker 1: and then you have breathing room, which is she's fine. Yes.
- 48:51Speaker 1: So he goes away and Lindsey takes this opportunity to
- 48:55Speaker 1: go back down and try to save Jenny. So she's
- 49:00Speaker 1: dragging Jenny, who I think is unconscious, up the stairs,
- 49:04Speaker 1: out of the basement, out of the house. But oh.
- 49:07Speaker 1: Dr Hyder finds them and shoots Lindsay with a tranquilizer.
- 49:12Speaker 1: There's a lot of moments in Human Centipede. Truly, Yes,
- 49:17Speaker 1: I mean this again. This movie accomplishes many things. Feminism,
- 49:22Speaker 1: oh moments. Um it is. It's a very it's an
- 49:26Speaker 1: effective horror movie. It makes you feel horrified. Yes, yeah,
- 49:34Speaker 1: yes so um so. Then he performs the surgery, making
- 49:37Speaker 1: them into a human centipede with Cutsuro in the front,
- 49:43Speaker 1: Lindsay in the middle, and Jenny in the back. Lindsay
- 49:47Speaker 1: in the middle as punishment for trying to escape, right,
- 49:51Speaker 1: and Dr Hyder loves his creation. It's his little pet.
- 49:56Speaker 1: He makes them walk around the yard. He take picks,
- 50:01Speaker 1: he takes pictures the kennel. There's a kennel. He makes
- 50:04Speaker 1: Cut Sorrow eat out of a dog food dish. It's
- 50:07Speaker 1: all very fucked up. It's extremely fucked up. And then
- 50:13Speaker 1: eventually Cuts Sorrow goes poo poo into Lindsay's mouth, which
- 50:22Speaker 1: then you have to imagine the trickle down effect does go.
- 50:28Speaker 1: It's like economics. It's like that economics thing that never works,
- 50:33Speaker 1: but in the driggle down system may not work in
- 50:36Speaker 1: the American economy, but in the human centipede it is
- 50:39Speaker 1: extremely effective. Um, and so it does it does all. Well,
- 50:45Speaker 1: that's a question I had because again this movie, if
- 50:48Speaker 1: if if a woman poo poos into the mouth of
- 50:51Speaker 1: another woman, it passes the Picktel tests, especially if they're
- 50:55Speaker 1: holding hands because they're freshly exactly. But I don't know
- 50:59Speaker 1: if that ever ends up happening in this movie, because
- 51:02Speaker 1: at one point Dr Hyder is doing a check up
- 51:04Speaker 1: on all of them and he's like, cut Sero, you're
- 51:07Speaker 1: you look great, You're you're healthy. Is a human centipede
- 51:12Speaker 1: To Lindsay, he says, you're constipated. She doesn't want to
- 51:15Speaker 1: poop in her friend's mouth. She doesn't. Yeah, she's like
- 51:17Speaker 1: holding it in like this. I don't know this woman,
- 51:22Speaker 1: so I guess she'll understand. I don't know. I mean like,
- 51:25Speaker 1: I'm not going to run it cuts from cut Sero's perspective.
- 51:28Speaker 1: He's like, I'm not going to run into her. I
- 51:30Speaker 1: don't know her. Whereas Lindsay and Jenny, if Lindsay poop
- 51:34Speaker 1: who is into Jenny's mouth, they have to drive home together,
- 51:37Speaker 1: Whereas cut Sero is like, I can just go, you know,
- 51:40Speaker 1: you have no idea where where I'm going. So it's
- 51:43Speaker 1: not a big deal. It is kind of like a
- 51:45Speaker 1: one night stand thing versus a long term relationship. Sure, exactly. Yeah.
- 51:51Speaker 1: Also worth mentioning that cut Serro does not speak English, um,
- 51:55Speaker 1: he speaks Japanese, so he is unable to communicate with
- 51:59Speaker 1: both the Doctor Hyder or the two women. And also
- 52:04Speaker 1: like it's another way in which Dr Hyder kind of
- 52:07Speaker 1: has the upper hand because it seems like when he
- 52:10Speaker 1: does not want the women to know what's going on,
- 52:11Speaker 1: he speaks in German, and when he does want the
- 52:14Speaker 1: women to know what's going on, he speaks in English
- 52:16Speaker 1: in a way that they can understand him. But Catsro
- 52:18Speaker 1: is kind of like uniquely isolated in this way. Yeah, yeah,
- 52:24Speaker 1: and so yeah, the check up happens, and then Jenny
- 52:28Speaker 1: seems to be very ill. She she's not taking well
- 52:31Speaker 1: to the human so ton apede. Well, she's starving operation
- 52:34Speaker 1: no one's giving her poop poo, She's starving. She her
- 52:38Speaker 1: her mouth's incisions are infected. Uh, and it seems like
- 52:41Speaker 1: she's dying. Then two detectives show up to Dr Hyder's
- 52:47Speaker 1: house and asks if he knows anything about some people
- 52:51Speaker 1: who have gone missing. Then my favorite moment in the
- 52:54Speaker 1: movie where they see the humans Hanne Kennel and the
- 52:58Speaker 1: detective I think we're supposedly that is the smarter detective
- 53:01Speaker 1: in that he is not the detective who immediately becomes roofied.
- 53:06Speaker 1: He is like, so what is this for? It's so
- 53:10Speaker 1: funny to me when he looks at the humans that
- 53:12Speaker 1: to be the cage and it's like, are you sure
- 53:14Speaker 1: you don't know anything about these people who have gone? Meanwhile,
- 53:18Speaker 1: Dr Hyder is acting, he's acting out, he really is yelling.
- 53:23Speaker 1: He's really banking on them being roofied soon based on
- 53:29Speaker 1: his behavior, right. Um. Dr Hyder then goes back down
- 53:35Speaker 1: to the basement and he's like, okay, new plan. Jenny's
- 53:39Speaker 1: about to die, so she'll get removed from the human centipede,
- 53:42Speaker 1: but I'm going to add two more people, these detectives
- 53:45Speaker 1: who are upstairs. But before that happens, the detectives leave
- 53:50Speaker 1: because they need to go. They said this is another
- 53:52Speaker 1: thing that I was like, Oh, this is genuinely like
- 53:56Speaker 1: sort of a funny trace where they're like, we really
- 53:59Speaker 1: want to inspect the house and he's like, well, you're
- 54:01Speaker 1: gonna have to get a search warrant and they're like, Okay,
- 54:04Speaker 1: we'll be back in twenty minutes. And in the twenty
- 54:07Speaker 1: minutes things really go off the rails inside the Human
- 54:10Speaker 1: Centipete house truly, because Cut zero, Lindsay and Jenny use
- 54:17Speaker 1: this as a distraction to attack the doctor and kind
- 54:21Speaker 1: of incapacitate him. Cut Soro really like he I think
- 54:24Speaker 1: gives him like too brutal, like debilitating wounds. Yes. And
- 54:29Speaker 1: then so they're using this opportunity to try to escape,
- 54:33Speaker 1: but the doctors like right, he's you know, dragging himself
- 54:36Speaker 1: right behind them, and it seems like they're trapped and
- 54:39Speaker 1: they have no way out. So cut zero kills himself,
- 54:44Speaker 1: not before making uh Shakespearean monologue where we'll talk about this,
- 54:50Speaker 1: but like cutzero, we know we I mean, it's another
- 54:54Speaker 1: I feel like we've done a lot of these movies
- 54:55Speaker 1: recently where you know nothing really about any of the
- 54:59Speaker 1: character is in terms of other than like who knows
- 55:01Speaker 1: each other and who doesn't. I think you, I would
- 55:03Speaker 1: argue you most you know most about the doctor at
- 55:07Speaker 1: this point, because you really don't know anything about the
- 55:10Speaker 1: girls other than their American and friends, and you know
- 55:14Speaker 1: nothing about kut Serro other than he has been plucked,
- 55:19Speaker 1: you know, out of his car. And then he like
- 55:22Speaker 1: gives this this like soliloquy at the end where he's like,
- 55:26Speaker 1: I've lived a sinful life. I have lived selfishly. I
- 55:30Speaker 1: abandoned my child. And you're like, cat Sero, what is
- 55:34Speaker 1: going on? And then and then he's dead, and it's
- 55:37Speaker 1: just like you learn everything you're ever going to learn
- 55:40Speaker 1: about this character at the like three seconds before he does,
- 55:42Speaker 1: and it's like, right, what that was, we'll talk about it.
- 55:47Speaker 1: But I was like, oh my god, cat Sero, and
- 55:51Speaker 1: no one can understand what he is doing. I mean
- 55:53Speaker 1: we can as an audience because we are given the subtitles.
- 55:56Speaker 1: We're given the subtitles, but it's like the centipee nor
- 56:00Speaker 1: the doctor can understand this like very tragic thing he's
- 56:05Speaker 1: just told us. It made me sad. Yeah, everyone in
- 56:09Speaker 1: the human centipede deserved better, I'll say it. I'd even
- 56:16Speaker 1: go so far as to say they didn't deserve to
- 56:19Speaker 1: be made into a human centipede. But that's just me,
- 56:23Speaker 1: I just me, I agree. And something that made me
- 56:26Speaker 1: really particularly sad about Catzera's speeches that he didn't seem
- 56:30Speaker 1: to feel that way he seemed to feel like, well,
- 56:33Speaker 1: because of all this ship that I've done in my
- 56:36Speaker 1: life that is bad, and I have like done these
- 56:38Speaker 1: things that were that I feel a lot of guilt about.
- 56:42Speaker 1: I guess this is my come uppance. I guess I
- 56:45Speaker 1: just had. And he's like, I'm but and I love genuinely.
- 56:48Speaker 1: I was moved when he said, but I am still
- 56:52Speaker 1: a human being, and you're like, yeah, there's nothing you
- 56:57Speaker 1: can do that would be so bad, so us to
- 57:00Speaker 1: deserve being a human centipede? Really, I mean, certainly not
- 57:03Speaker 1: what he's describing. He's it sounds like he's certainly made
- 57:06Speaker 1: big mistakes in his life regrets, but not a human centipede, greed, sin.
- 57:13Speaker 1: It's just it was I was moved by that speech.
- 57:16Speaker 1: Oh my god, same heavy indeed. Um. So the movie
- 57:25Speaker 1: is almost over. The detectives come back and they discover
- 57:32Speaker 1: the human centipede. They are there, they don't know what
- 57:36Speaker 1: they this is out of their pay grade. Then there's
- 57:40Speaker 1: like a scuffle between them and Dr Hyder where they
- 57:44Speaker 1: both the detectives and Dr Hyder are shot and killed
- 57:47Speaker 1: or killed in some way, and then Jenny dies. So
- 57:53Speaker 1: Lindsay is in the middle still alive, but with two
- 57:57Speaker 1: dead people on either side of her, and she's like
- 58:00Speaker 1: sobbing and there's no one to help, and she's her
- 58:05Speaker 1: life has been. She's in a human centipede. And that
- 58:09Speaker 1: is how all the movie ends. I mean, it's it's
- 58:11Speaker 1: safe to say that she's fucked. You know, she's more
- 58:16Speaker 1: or less fucked, is is what you could really say
- 58:20Speaker 1: about her situation. Let I was shocked that that's where
- 58:24Speaker 1: it ends. I guess, let's take a break. Let's take
- 58:26Speaker 1: a break. We'll come right back and we're back. Yes,
- 58:38Speaker 1: all right, well, um we I mean during the recap
- 58:42Speaker 1: we talked a fair amount about the relationship between the
- 58:45Speaker 1: two female characters in this movie. You know, I don't
- 58:50Speaker 1: think it's a perfectly written relationship. I think that it
- 58:53Speaker 1: is in terms of, like, if we're going this genre specifically,
- 58:58Speaker 1: it's not the word. And I felt like, I don't know,
- 59:04Speaker 1: most of my feelings about this movie get into like
- 59:07Speaker 1: the themes surrounding the doctor. Yeah, so I don't know.
- 59:11Speaker 1: I guess, let's do you have any other kind of
- 59:13Speaker 1: observations about how the women in this movie are treated
- 59:18Speaker 1: outside of becoming a human centipede? Of course? Right? Um?
- 59:21Speaker 1: As far as like character development goes, Yeah, I just
- 59:26Speaker 1: don't think a lot of time is spent characterizing them.
- 59:30Speaker 1: In fact, I don't even know if I could. I
- 59:32Speaker 1: could not tell the difference between the two women for
- 59:36Speaker 1: a long time. I knew curly hair, straight hair, That's
- 59:40Speaker 1: what I knew. And I also I it felt like
- 59:45Speaker 1: kind of early you found out like, oh, Linda is
- 59:48Speaker 1: our final girl, because she is the one making an
- 59:50Speaker 1: active effort to escape, which I genuinely do appreciate in
- 59:54Speaker 1: this genre because sometimes it's just like nope, like everyone
- 59:58Speaker 1: here just doesn't have like any sort of judgment skills,
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: and they'll do anything, and they're not going to try
- 1:00:04Speaker 1: to escape, and they're going to be very passive, and
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: Lindsay is kind of immediately established as the person who
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: will be active. I feel like it would have been
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: maybe cooler to see them both participating in this effort.
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: But Jenny is like unconscious for most of the time,
- 1:00:20Speaker 1: like most of Act two and three, it seems like
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: she was like drugged maybe harder, Like it seems like
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: like the drugs like affected her maybe more than it
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: did Lindsay. That's what it seemed like, because she's like
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: knocked out a lot. I don't know, I appreciated their friendship.
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: I was like, like at the end when Jenny died,
- 1:00:41Speaker 1: I don't know why I didn't see it coming, but
- 1:00:44Speaker 1: when Jenny died, and because there is kind of this
- 1:00:46Speaker 1: like repeated shot of like when things are the most
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: fucked up with the Human Centipede, Jenny and Lindsay will
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: hold each other's hands as if to say, Wow, this
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: is really fucked up, that's what. But it was like,
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: I really thought that that was like a nice touch
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: to connect these characters because they're the only characters in
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: these scenes that know each other and have any history together,
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: and like having god having a female friendship at the
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: center of the Human Centipede. I just I thought it
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: was nice that they that you kind of got that
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: repeated connection between them just to even remind the audience like, oh, yeah,
- 1:01:28Speaker 1: these women like really know and love each other and
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: what's happening to them. And so so by the time
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: that Jenny died at the end, I genuinely did feel
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: like really like I don't know, given what, and we'll
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: talk about kind of the behind the scenes stuff, but
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: I thought that the actors in this movie given truly
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: impossible material did pretty well of like communicating their arc.
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: And I think that like Jenny and Lindsay had like
- 1:01:59Speaker 1: clearly commu indicated what their arc was as friends and
- 1:02:02Speaker 1: human centipies. I think that cut Serro like given truly
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: nothing until the end, Like you just, I thought that
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: the actors in this movie did that really made a
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: meal of of the poop poo, because because I was
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: genuinely like like that that whole scene at the end
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: where cutzero is like gives his like parting monologue and
- 1:02:24Speaker 1: you're like what and then he and then and then
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: immediately after Jenny dies and the doctor, which we'll talk
- 1:02:33Speaker 1: about him, but he's like the scariest villain of all time,
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: and like you did feel like I don't know, I
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: guess that my only my not my only note. But
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: like Lindsay and Jenny sort of seemed to be on
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: like they weren't on really separate arcs. They were kind
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: of a unique character like you were describing, And I
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: kind of wish that you got more from the two
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: because there was space for that. Yeah, I think their
- 1:02:59Speaker 1: characters could have been like differentiated a bit more. I
- 1:03:01Speaker 1: couldn't really get a sense of a distinct personality from
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: either of them, or they just sort of seemed to
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: be kind of like two characters with the same personality,
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: which was barely developed in the first place. It seemed
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: to kind of come down to like and and in
- 1:03:18Speaker 1: a way that I could really distinguish particularly but like
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: Lindsay is the strong one for some reason, and Jenny
- 1:03:25Speaker 1: is the weak one for some reason. But if you
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: were asked to decide who was who in the establishing scene,
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: it would be basically impossible. You're like, they're kind of
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: acting exactly the same. Why would one behave one way
- 1:03:36Speaker 1: or over the other. So yeah, I think they do
- 1:03:38Speaker 1: kind of form this unique character. They also are the
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: ones the only ones that have to eat poop um,
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: so there is that the way only women eat poop
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: and human centipede one. And I mean, I mean, just
- 1:03:54Speaker 1: thinking about the behind the scenes production, like these actors
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: on this set, it also means that this this writer
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: wrote a movie where two women actors have to have
- 1:04:07Speaker 1: their faces in someone's ass and their topless. Also the
- 1:04:11Speaker 1: entire movie. Yes, uh huh, So let's talk a little
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: bit because we I know we both read this. There
- 1:04:17Speaker 1: was I I feel like every like camp or like
- 1:04:21Speaker 1: niche movie we covered, there is some sort of extremely
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: useful oral history that's been done. And I love this trend.
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: I hope it keeps up. This one is from Vulture
- 1:04:32Speaker 1: was put together by Kenny hurt zog Um. We're going
- 1:04:34Speaker 1: to be pulling from the first one because I was like,
- 1:04:36Speaker 1: I just cannot interact with other movies in this series.
- 1:04:41Speaker 1: But but there is a lot like with a movie
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: like this, particularly where you're like, this is the most
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: fucked up thing you could Like, this is truly Tom
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: six saying what's the most fucked up thing I could
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: think of? And then I'll make a movie of it.
- 1:04:55Speaker 1: And I feel like when you are doing that, it
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: is is like a responsibility of the creator to be
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: very careful and be very deliberate with how you're treating
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: your cast and your crew who you are, you know,
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: like paying to execute your vision. But you have to
- 1:05:12Speaker 1: treat people honestly and in good faith. And so I
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: went into this thing being like, I hope that Tom
- 1:05:20Speaker 1: six was very upfront about like this is what this is.
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: If it's really foxed up and you don't want to
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: do it, that's totally fine, don't do it. But this
- 1:05:28Speaker 1: is what it is. It does not sound like that
- 1:05:32Speaker 1: is the way that it went. But first I wanted
- 1:05:35Speaker 1: to just mention as just kind of a way of discussing,
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: Like I do think that there is a point to
- 1:05:42Speaker 1: the first human centipede. It sounds like there's not to
- 1:05:44Speaker 1: the other ones. But like the way that Tom six
- 1:05:47Speaker 1: described his conceiving of the worst thing everyone now knows
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: for some reason, like from one man's mind, everyone's nightmare
- 1:05:58Speaker 1: forever was that it sounds like it came from two places.
- 1:06:02Speaker 1: And I have a longer but like, let's talk about
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: the protection. But he started, he started by saying, like,
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: you know, what is the worst I mean, it seems
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: like he was what's the worst crime I could think of?
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: And how would I punish it? And so what he
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: thought of was child sex abuse and what is the
- 1:06:19Speaker 1: worst way to punish a child sex abuser? Something akin
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: to a human centipede? And so that is kind of
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: where this idea comes from. And then it seems like,
- 1:06:29Speaker 1: and I have other stuff here too, but like it
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: seems like where he goes is building out this like
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: Nazi doctor character and kind of taking it in this
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: different historical direction to create this uniquely cruel punishment. But
- 1:06:45Speaker 1: the difference with the human centipede is that the people
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: who are forced to be a human centipede are not
- 1:06:51Speaker 1: child sex abusers. They're just people who this doctor perceives
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: to be vulnerable. So and on top of that, I
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: read the writer, director Tom six, saw some television program
- 1:07:08Speaker 1: about like a child sex abuser and was like, Oh,
- 1:07:12Speaker 1: what's the worst possible punishment for them? I know, stitching
- 1:07:16Speaker 1: his mouth to the anus of a quote fat truck driver.
- 1:07:21Speaker 1: So it's already like extremely insensitive things to do. And
- 1:07:25Speaker 1: I didn't even want to repeat that because I'm like, fine, well,
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: I don't want to give that air. Like I understand
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: the idea he's communicating, but I found it interesting that
- 1:07:35Speaker 1: he took that idea but then applied it to innocent people,
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: Like it sounds like it was conceived as like, what's
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: the worst punishment for the worst crime you can think of?
- 1:07:46Speaker 1: And then was like, but then the way his script
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: works out, it's three not just innocent people, but three
- 1:07:52Speaker 1: marginalized and uniquely vulnerable people in this situation. Um, and
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: he's like putting language barriers in front of people, and
- 1:08:00Speaker 1: you know, through doctor, what's his name doctor scary. You know,
- 1:08:07Speaker 1: like he is like this wealthy white guy who intentionally
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: victimizes two women and a Japanese man who he holds
- 1:08:19Speaker 1: a lot of power over, whether it's a control, and
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: how he speaks to them and how he treats them physically,
- 1:08:26Speaker 1: and it just seems like he's intentionally choosing people that
- 1:08:29Speaker 1: he perceives to be as weaker than him. And even
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: if you you know, apply that lotgic to the trucker
- 1:08:36Speaker 1: from the beginning, who's another white guy, but a white
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: guy who who doesn't have money, and uh it comes
- 1:08:42Speaker 1: from a lower class, and it's like he, you know,
- 1:08:45Speaker 1: the doctor is very intentionally choosing people that he used
- 1:08:49Speaker 1: to be whatever I mean, like weaker than him or
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: I felt like that was like an intentional choice writing wise, Yeah,
- 1:08:57Speaker 1: and then, like you mentioned, the rector was trying to
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: draw a parallel between like the events of this movie
- 1:09:07Speaker 1: and then like medical experiments that were being carried out
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: by Nazi doctors in Nazi Germany, and like that's where
- 1:09:16Speaker 1: part of the inspiration of this movie came from. Where
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: he's like drawing this parallel and I guess like attempting
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: to comment on like Nazism and fascism. Yeah, I mean
- 1:09:30Speaker 1: I can speak to that a little bit. That's as
- 1:09:32Speaker 1: close as I could get to feeling like this movie
- 1:09:36Speaker 1: was trying to say something. You know, it's like, does
- 1:09:40Speaker 1: it make the point very effectively? Almost definitely not. But
- 1:09:45Speaker 1: but in terms of like creating, so it's like his
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: two intentions are definitely in conflict because his first thing
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: was what we just talked about, where it was like,
- 1:09:55Speaker 1: you know, if there were no rules, how would you
- 1:09:57Speaker 1: punish the most vile crime you can think of? And
- 1:10:01Speaker 1: he doesn't do that in this Instead he goes this
- 1:10:03Speaker 1: other direction of like creating this I mean, I think
- 1:10:07Speaker 1: very clearly coded Nazi doctor. He's they're literally in Germany
- 1:10:12Speaker 1: and you're brought into this man's house, and like it's
- 1:10:17Speaker 1: not a sensitive portrayal of anything, but there is I
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: mean in terms of like reflecting any sort of realism.
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: It's like, I don't even want to go too deep
- 1:10:27Speaker 1: into it, but there there, of course is a very
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: traceable and underreported and not taught in mainstream education history
- 1:10:36Speaker 1: of medical experimentation on marginalized people's and so this particular
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: doctor is commenting it seems to be like on Nazi doctors,
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: and there were a ton of Jewish people who were
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: medically experimented on without their consent, against their will. Some
- 1:10:54Speaker 1: were murdered as a result. And this is an extremely
- 1:10:58Speaker 1: I mean at this point, well document did, but not
- 1:11:00Speaker 1: commonly discussed thing. And there's a great book about it
- 1:11:04Speaker 1: that we can link in the description called the Nazi
- 1:11:07Speaker 1: Doctor's Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. That there's
- 1:11:11Speaker 1: many you know, there's many commonly held medical practices today
- 1:11:15Speaker 1: that were achieved because of these really brutal and murderous
- 1:11:20Speaker 1: doctors from from the twentieth century. And it also applies
- 1:11:24Speaker 1: to um black Americans very often. There's this there's the
- 1:11:29Speaker 1: Tuskegee um syphilis experiment that we can also link to.
- 1:11:34Speaker 1: It's I mean, really and and then there's of course
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: the issue of I think that it's intentional that women
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: are here um in in this uh in this human centipede.
- 1:11:47Speaker 1: Uh not just because they're this is so common to
- 1:11:50Speaker 1: the genre of victimizing women, but also because medical experimentation
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: also targe like very often targets women without their consent.
- 1:12:00Speaker 1: And I think that it's this is like the furthest
- 1:12:03Speaker 1: thing from the human centipede, but I was reminded of
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: the story of Henrietta Lacks. There was like a movie
- 1:12:09Speaker 1: about it a couple of years ago that obrah wasn't
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: But m Henrietta Lacks was a um someone who eventually
- 1:12:16Speaker 1: died of cancer, whose cancer cells were studied without her
- 1:12:20Speaker 1: consent to create uh you know, just strides forward in
- 1:12:25Speaker 1: the field that have saved millions of life since. But
- 1:12:28Speaker 1: this was a black woman who's you know, a part
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: of her body was taken from her without her consent,
- 1:12:34Speaker 1: and her family was never compensated. She was never asked,
- 1:12:37Speaker 1: And this is like a serious issue in the medical community,
- 1:12:42Speaker 1: and it's like, you know, we're we're not the best
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: qualified people to talk about it, but it is like
- 1:12:46Speaker 1: a very real thing that's going on. Does the human
- 1:12:52Speaker 1: said depeede? No, No, But I I did find it
- 1:12:57Speaker 1: at least I guess that. I I'm like working with
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: a with a yardstick of like more than I expected.
- 1:13:05Speaker 1: UM like that it even attempts to kind of touch
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: on something like this, because I honestly went into this
- 1:13:12Speaker 1: movie thinking like they just want to do the grossest
- 1:13:16Speaker 1: thing they can think of and make me watch it,
- 1:13:18Speaker 1: which is what they do as well. But but there
- 1:13:22Speaker 1: was also like at least some level of cognizance in
- 1:13:25Speaker 1: terms of how the characters were curated. I'm not saying
- 1:13:29Speaker 1: it's good. I'm just saying it's more intentional than I
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: thought it would be. Yes, I can't argue with that,
- 1:13:37Speaker 1: but it's again it's a matter of like intention versus
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: what actually ends up happening on screen. Like, well, I
- 1:13:47Speaker 1: feel like it's I do think that, Like I don't
- 1:13:49Speaker 1: know that the human centipedes trying to say anything. It's
- 1:13:52Speaker 1: like it's referencing more than I thought it was. Sure, sure, sure,
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: because ultimately I don't know that Tom six is like
- 1:14:01Speaker 1: there is some grand takeaway you should be unless he's
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: really just like off in this other zone. I don't
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: even recognize, Like I don't know that he's being like
- 1:14:12Speaker 1: and you're going to take away this huge it's really
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: going to make you think. But he's just like referencing
- 1:14:18Speaker 1: more things than I I thought he was just gonna
- 1:14:21Speaker 1: be like mouths a butt, it's going to be ninety minutes,
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: you're gonna watch it or you're not going to, which
- 1:14:26Speaker 1: is true to an extent, But like he's he is
- 1:14:27Speaker 1: referencing some stuff that I was like, I mean, it's
- 1:14:32Speaker 1: not saying anything, but it is referencing things where I
- 1:14:36Speaker 1: don't know what the intention is here. I mean honestly, like,
- 1:14:40Speaker 1: it doesn't it's it's it's interest. Interesting is a very
- 1:14:43Speaker 1: generous way to describe it. But like in this oral history,
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: I feel like it seems like Tom Sticks was being
- 1:14:51Speaker 1: asked what his intention is over and over and over
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: and he is not really able to answer the question.
- 1:14:55Speaker 1: He's able to like list things he was thinking about,
- 1:14:59Speaker 1: and he's able to things that he's referencing, but he's
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: not really able to tell you, like this is the point.
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: I think the point is it's fucking gross. Like yeah, ultimately,
- 1:15:09Speaker 1: I think that is the point. I don't know. Yes, um,
- 1:15:13Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about like the
- 1:15:16Speaker 1: production of it. Yes, Yeah, let's go, let's go through
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: that a little more because this, um, there's a lot
- 1:15:22Speaker 1: to to chew on with this oral history. Yeah, so
- 1:15:27Speaker 1: because it seems like it was presented very disingenuously to
- 1:15:30Speaker 1: the actors and the production in general. Yeah, I did
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: read I think this is mentioned in the oral history
- 1:15:39Speaker 1: that um, because I'm pulling information from both of that
- 1:15:42Speaker 1: and UM our favorite scholarly journal Wikipedia. UM. But like
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: a lot of actors who came in to read for
- 1:15:50Speaker 1: the roles of like Lindsay or Jenny or cuts, We're like,
- 1:15:55Speaker 1: this is what this movie is. Fuck no, and then
- 1:15:58Speaker 1: they like stormed out of the audition kind of things.
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: So there was some transparency, But like, I do think
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: that it seems like it is like kind of bizarre
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: to me that you could get all the way into
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: the like that's I guess something that It's like, I
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: don't know that I've ever Maybe this isn't totally true,
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: but I don't know that I've ever gone into an
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: audition room for something that is like that much with
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: having no idea until I'm already in the room with
- 1:16:26Speaker 1: the director. You know, Like that even seems kind of
- 1:16:30Speaker 1: like sketchy. Um that you could get all the way
- 1:16:34Speaker 1: into an audition before realizing what a human centipede is.
- 1:16:37Speaker 1: You know, they should be more upfront about Yeah, I
- 1:16:41Speaker 1: did read that. Um. Before the actors signed onto the project,
- 1:16:46Speaker 1: they were given an outline of the script or an
- 1:16:50Speaker 1: outline of the storyboard, rather than a full script, so
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: they didn't fully know exactly what like specific scenes they
- 1:16:59Speaker 1: were going to have to be doing out that they
- 1:17:00Speaker 1: were given sketches of how this centipede would look, so
- 1:17:06Speaker 1: they at least know, well, that's not not that part.
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: My favorite cursed quote from from this was Ashlyn Jenny,
- 1:17:15Speaker 1: who played Jenny. The way that her manager framed it
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: to her when she was asked to audition was hey,
- 1:17:23Speaker 1: would you like to audition for this controversial European film.
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, could you like frame the
- 1:17:31Speaker 1: human centipede in a less honest way than I mean,
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: it is technically a controversial European film, but that's not
- 1:17:38Speaker 1: what I think of, no, when I think of yeah.
- 1:17:42Speaker 1: And then I was also curious because I was like,
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: how safe were these actors? How much discomfort were they
- 1:17:49Speaker 1: in on like physically, emotionally, mentally, you know, I just
- 1:17:54Speaker 1: I had to feel. I was just like, I was
- 1:17:56Speaker 1: so worried that I would learn the condition on set
- 1:18:00Speaker 1: were like really unpleasant and toxic, and to some degree
- 1:18:03Speaker 1: they were. And regarding Dieter later Dieter Laser Mr laser Um,
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: I mean, he sounds like when he was in method
- 1:18:13Speaker 1: zone he was like full Tom Hardy as Matt mac full,
- 1:18:16Speaker 1: like like any man doing method. It sounds like he
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: was behaving and as scary and kind of like in
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: that same way where it's like, oh, well, he's an artist,
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: so he's allowed to treat you like ship while you're
- 1:18:28Speaker 1: at work, like that ship that we've talked about a
- 1:18:30Speaker 1: million times that we like fucking hate. Yeah. Yeah, he
- 1:18:33Speaker 1: was screaming at the other actors. He was like refusing
- 1:18:37Speaker 1: to talk to them like between takes to like preserve
- 1:18:42Speaker 1: the level you know, the whatever. Who even knows, But um, yeah,
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: so he was being a real piece of ship on set.
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: It seems like the human Centipede itself, the three were, um,
- 1:18:55Speaker 1: there was some solidarity within the Centipede. Yeah, and I
- 1:18:59Speaker 1: where and that they were given like massages at the
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: end of the of each shooting day because of like
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: the uncomfortable positions they had to maintain, and there were robes.
- 1:19:12Speaker 1: There was like some because that was honestly, like I
- 1:19:15Speaker 1: was just like, oh, is there are they being given
- 1:19:17Speaker 1: for such an obviously uncomfortable position for an actor to
- 1:19:21Speaker 1: have to be in? Were they given the correct amount
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: of like you know, layers between each other and like
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: was there there was some of that? It seems like yeah,
- 1:19:31Speaker 1: ultimately it's so low budget that. I'm like, I just
- 1:19:34Speaker 1: find it hard to believe that it was totally above board.
- 1:19:37Speaker 1: And there's also a few creepy quotes in there where
- 1:19:41Speaker 1: the actor who played cats Sero said something kind of
- 1:19:45Speaker 1: creepy in the in the Oral History where he's like,
- 1:19:49Speaker 1: I did a skype audition and Tom was like, just
- 1:19:51Speaker 1: to let you know, these two beautiful girls's face are
- 1:19:54Speaker 1: going to be attached to your ass. I was like,
- 1:19:57Speaker 1: you're a genius, and it's like, well, that's not the
- 1:20:00Speaker 1: best vibe to be like that doesn't make me feel
- 1:20:03Speaker 1: particularly good about the conditions that these these women were
- 1:20:06Speaker 1: brought into. Uh, we weren't there. Here's something we're bravely
- 1:20:12Speaker 1: gonna admit we weren't on the set of The Human Centipede. Um.
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess it's like falls into this
- 1:20:19Speaker 1: gray area where it's like it doesn't seem like it
- 1:20:22Speaker 1: was completely I most most of where I felt like
- 1:20:26Speaker 1: uncomfortable was the pre production stuff from like, you have
- 1:20:29Speaker 1: to be super fucking straightforward about what you're signing people
- 1:20:32Speaker 1: up for, Tom six, you can't be like coy about
- 1:20:36Speaker 1: the Human Centipede, which he was very coy about it
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: to at least to some degree that the cast as
- 1:20:44Speaker 1: well as financiers. Um, did you read this story? I
- 1:20:48Speaker 1: don't care about that. That's kind of funny, but that's
- 1:20:51Speaker 1: just funny. Where he was just like, yeah, it's about
- 1:20:55Speaker 1: a surgeon who conjoins people, but he left out the
- 1:20:58Speaker 1: part where it was like a mouth to anus. Just
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: didn't say where I feel like that in the on
- 1:21:03Speaker 1: the financier part, that's hilarious, but on the actor part,
- 1:21:08Speaker 1: it's really on though, Like if you want to build
- 1:21:10Speaker 1: trust with people and you want them to not like
- 1:21:13Speaker 1: sue the ship out of you lately like later on,
- 1:21:17Speaker 1: then you know you've you've got to be It bothered
- 1:21:20Speaker 1: me that it sounds like he would be he was
- 1:21:22Speaker 1: being a little coy about that, because it's like, well,
- 1:21:26Speaker 1: what do you stand to gain other than this like
- 1:21:28Speaker 1: weird power upper hand over these relatively I mean like
- 1:21:34Speaker 1: actors that had experience, but we're not famous and you
- 1:21:37Speaker 1: would imagine not famous enough to have more power than him, essentially,
- 1:21:43Speaker 1: Like it just made me uncomfortable. Yeah, I don't think
- 1:21:49Speaker 1: that Tom six is a very I mean, he is
- 1:21:53Speaker 1: quoted as saying that he gets quote a rash from
- 1:21:58Speaker 1: too much political correctives. So he's not a woke guy.
- 1:22:03Speaker 1: I mean, the human fucking centipede, Like he is not
- 1:22:09Speaker 1: not awoke guy. I mean, I'm just like, okay, even
- 1:22:13Speaker 1: if you're not politically aligned with me, like you have
- 1:22:16Speaker 1: to treat your actors ethically, you know, like that is
- 1:22:20Speaker 1: there is a very low bar you need to clear,
- 1:22:23Speaker 1: and it just didn't seem like at least it seems
- 1:22:25Speaker 1: like at least once the movie was in production, that
- 1:22:29Speaker 1: there was some care taken um, but in pre production,
- 1:22:33Speaker 1: and also it's just I don't know. I never I
- 1:22:36Speaker 1: never know what to think because it's like so often
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: when actors say like, oh, I'm fine, it's just because
- 1:22:41Speaker 1: they want to just they just wanted to be over
- 1:22:45Speaker 1: um and not because they're actually fine, but they're like, well,
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: I don't want to prolong the problem, like I don't
- 1:22:49Speaker 1: want to prolong this by saying I'm uncomfortable. I mean,
- 1:22:53Speaker 1: especially you know women or actors of color, like who
- 1:22:57Speaker 1: don't want to which the whole human centipede is right,
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: and they don't want to appear difficult because you know,
- 1:23:03Speaker 1: if they get a reputation, they won't get cast in things,
- 1:23:06Speaker 1: so they have to just kind of tolerate whatever abuse
- 1:23:12Speaker 1: it dealt to them on set. So I meanwhile, the
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: the you know, the main white guys going method and
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: screaming at everybody, and so it's like there is a
- 1:23:22Speaker 1: clear differentiation of power, yes the set. I also just
- 1:23:29Speaker 1: want to be clear. I mean in terms of like
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: the medical experimentation and Nazi doctor stuff, there's just like
- 1:23:36Speaker 1: our show is not equipped to fully unpack all of that.
- 1:23:39Speaker 1: I tried to acknowledge that I think that that's what's
- 1:23:42Speaker 1: being referenced here, which is not. It just wasn't my
- 1:23:46Speaker 1: understanding of what this movie was that I didn't even
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: think it was going to attempt to reference anything. And
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: the way that it does, I mean it's like, ultimately
- 1:23:55Speaker 1: this movie doesn't accomplish anything. But I don't think that
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: anyone was like shocked by that. I don't know. I
- 1:24:03Speaker 1: found there was a fun friend of the cast, Karina
- 1:24:06Speaker 1: Longworth quote in that that I wanted to share just
- 1:24:10Speaker 1: because like she she was I think this was like
- 1:24:12Speaker 1: pre podcast and she was a full time film reviewer
- 1:24:16Speaker 1: at this time. But what she said was the reaction
- 1:24:19Speaker 1: I had of wanting to throw up is a visceral thing,
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: and the movie showed a certain kind of skill in
- 1:24:25Speaker 1: getting that reaction out of me for what it was.
- 1:24:27Speaker 1: The Human Centipede was perfect. And it's like, I feel
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: like that's like the true theme of the Human Centipede
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: is that it's fucking the grossest thing that anyone has
- 1:24:39Speaker 1: ever thought of in their entire life. But the but there,
- 1:24:44Speaker 1: but the but but within that, they are like putting
- 1:24:47Speaker 1: some historical context and they are putting two women women
- 1:24:53Speaker 1: and an Asian man in the Human Centipede exclusively, and
- 1:24:57Speaker 1: there is like I don't I mean, it's like it
- 1:25:00Speaker 1: doesn't really matter if Tom six doesn't want to talk
- 1:25:02Speaker 1: about the politics of what he's doing. What he's doing,
- 1:25:06Speaker 1: his his choices are intentional here, you know. Yeah. Um,
- 1:25:11Speaker 1: just a little bit about the inclusion of the character
- 1:25:15Speaker 1: of cut Serro, who is played by a Hiro Kitamura,
- 1:25:21Speaker 1: who's been in a bunch of like a bunch of
- 1:25:25Speaker 1: I was going through his filmography and like, this actor
- 1:25:28Speaker 1: has been in a lot of wild movies. Um, what
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: I was reading about that character is basically cut Serro
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: was included simply to create a language barrier between him
- 1:25:44Speaker 1: and like the two women and also the doctor. So
- 1:25:49Speaker 1: basically you get an inclusion of an Asian character. But
- 1:25:53Speaker 1: it's only for that reason, which again is not the
- 1:25:58Speaker 1: inclusion that where hoping for in film. Well absolutely no,
- 1:26:05Speaker 1: absolutely not like the like no question mark either. It
- 1:26:10Speaker 1: absolutely isn't. And I mean it takes longer, I guess
- 1:26:13Speaker 1: than I expected in The Human Sent to Be for
- 1:26:15Speaker 1: someone to die. But the first person who dies is
- 1:26:18Speaker 1: the only non white person in the cast is the
- 1:26:21Speaker 1: first person to die. Um, everyone, you know, it's it's
- 1:26:24Speaker 1: kind of a Rohan Dominoes. But I feel like that
- 1:26:27Speaker 1: that keeps with that classic horror trope of a white
- 1:26:31Speaker 1: person is never the first person to die in a
- 1:26:32Speaker 1: horror movie or in a thriller gore movie like this,
- 1:26:35Speaker 1: and the Humans Sent to Be kind of upholds that.
- 1:26:39Speaker 1: I mean, unless you're you're including the truck driver who
- 1:26:42Speaker 1: was killed first. I guess I guess I meant, like,
- 1:26:46Speaker 1: of the cast that we know, I don't I don't
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: even know what the truck driver's name was. Um, but yeah,
- 1:26:55Speaker 1: I mean I think that it's I would be curious.
- 1:27:00Speaker 1: I guess I'm like, I don't know if I really
- 1:27:02Speaker 1: want to know what anyone who was in the Human
- 1:27:04Speaker 1: Centipede what's on their mind right now? Maybe not, but
- 1:27:07Speaker 1: but you know, I I think that it's I think
- 1:27:10Speaker 1: it just shows like, uh that that seems like a
- 1:27:13Speaker 1: Tom six problem of like just so like, oh, well,
- 1:27:17Speaker 1: I need to introduce an obstacle and what is the
- 1:27:20Speaker 1: way I can do this? And it's just so do
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, it's just so like
- 1:27:28Speaker 1: white guy brain to be like, oh this would be oh,
- 1:27:32Speaker 1: this is perfect because it's it's it's not like intentional
- 1:27:35Speaker 1: inclusion in any way, shape or form. And it seems
- 1:27:39Speaker 1: like he's choosing people that the doctor would feel comfortable
- 1:27:43Speaker 1: victimizing too, which introduces this whole other layer of fucked
- 1:27:47Speaker 1: up inness, right and then and again I'm I'm pulling
- 1:27:51Speaker 1: from Wikipedia here, but hit it. It's says cut Cerro's
- 1:27:57Speaker 1: position in the Centipede being like the first one sets
- 1:28:02Speaker 1: up the opportunity for the doctor and the male victim
- 1:28:07Speaker 1: of the centipede to fight towards the climax of the
- 1:28:10Speaker 1: film end quote, which reads to me like Tom six
- 1:28:14Speaker 1: couldn't envision a scenario in which a woman would fight
- 1:28:20Speaker 1: a man. Okay, I thought that was an interesting choice
- 1:28:25Speaker 1: to that Catzerro is at the front of that, Like,
- 1:28:29Speaker 1: I guess I saw that going to directions, and I
- 1:28:32Speaker 1: always I'm kind of assuming that Tom Sex is going
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: in the less well thought out direction, which is that yeah,
- 1:28:38Speaker 1: like he's just like, oh, well, I want a woman
- 1:28:42Speaker 1: at the front. She'll just be yelling and screaming all
- 1:28:44Speaker 1: day like, and which is It's it's frustrating because it's
- 1:28:50Speaker 1: like Lindsay, you know, we've been introduced to Lindsia' is like, oh,
- 1:28:53Speaker 1: this is the you know, this is our female character
- 1:28:56Speaker 1: that we're kind of like rooting for. It seems like
- 1:28:58Speaker 1: she kind of has the smart and the ability and
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: you know, like know how to get out of this situation.
- 1:29:05Speaker 1: But then she is punished, and then after she's punished,
- 1:29:09Speaker 1: she kind of disappears like there's not really anything she
- 1:29:12Speaker 1: does after that that is like, oh, there's that scrappy Lindsay.
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: We knew from the beginning who got out of the situation,
- 1:29:18Speaker 1: and it seems I mean, I guess it's like if
- 1:29:20Speaker 1: this were a real life situation, maybe, but it's like,
- 1:29:24Speaker 1: in terms of plot, it doesn't even really make a
- 1:29:27Speaker 1: ton of sense to me that you would establish this
- 1:29:29Speaker 1: kind of like this female character with agency, have her
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: be punished and then have kind of nothing happened after that.
- 1:29:36Speaker 1: It seems like a there was so much set up
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: that like a lot of the setup I didn't even
- 1:29:42Speaker 1: dislike that. I was like, oh, okay, but then she
- 1:29:45Speaker 1: doesn't do anything. For there's the movie she's stuck in
- 1:29:47Speaker 1: the middle of, which is like, realistically, I guess probably
- 1:29:51Speaker 1: what would happen, But in terms of like a three
- 1:29:53Speaker 1: X structure, it's like I was assuming someone was gonna
- 1:29:57Speaker 1: unso themselves, or like something was going to happen been,
- 1:30:00Speaker 1: or like they would find a way to like communicate
- 1:30:03Speaker 1: with Kutzero, or like there was just the I guess
- 1:30:08Speaker 1: it's like foolish of me to be like the human
- 1:30:11Speaker 1: said to be was so disempowered. But like, but I
- 1:30:16Speaker 1: just thought, because you are, like the doctor is so
- 1:30:19Speaker 1: intentionally creating this so that they can't possibly communicate with
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: each other, because it does seem like that's the other
- 1:30:27Speaker 1: That was the thing that I was like, Oh, maybe
- 1:30:29Speaker 1: he's trying to do that by introducing the only person
- 1:30:32Speaker 1: who can speak no one can understand what they're saying
- 1:30:36Speaker 1: because like Katzero is the only person in the room
- 1:30:38Speaker 1: who speaks Japanese, and I'm like, maybe that was his
- 1:30:42Speaker 1: but like I don't even really want to give Tom
- 1:30:44Speaker 1: six that much credit. I just like, I just wish
- 1:30:48Speaker 1: that the human said to be had been able to
- 1:30:50Speaker 1: communicate or like there had been some sort of moment
- 1:30:52Speaker 1: other than because I mean, and and it was exciting
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: to see katzero stab the doctor and ship like that.
- 1:30:59Speaker 1: Like that was and he is our only non white
- 1:31:02Speaker 1: character in the entire fucking movies. So I'm like, I'm
- 1:31:05Speaker 1: glad that he had those moments of agency and like
- 1:31:08Speaker 1: taking charge of the situation, But I would have rather
- 1:31:11Speaker 1: have seen that with them like working together, you know,
- 1:31:14Speaker 1: or like connecting, because it's so it makes it even
- 1:31:18Speaker 1: more upsetting when cuts Cerro makes this like tragic speech
- 1:31:23Speaker 1: at the end that no one can understand and just
- 1:31:26Speaker 1: no one ever gets to know him, and then he
- 1:31:28Speaker 1: does like it's show that what are you trying to
- 1:31:34Speaker 1: say with that? Tom Sex said so fucking depressing? It's like, yeah, like,
- 1:31:39Speaker 1: I mean, and I just don't believe that Tom six
- 1:31:41Speaker 1: is actually trying to say anything with that. I think
- 1:31:42Speaker 1: he's just like, well, he's at the front of the
- 1:31:44Speaker 1: human see what do you want? Like, but yeah, I mean,
- 1:31:48Speaker 1: he's written a script and made a movie where the protagonists,
- 1:31:54Speaker 1: who is a woman loses all of her agency half
- 1:31:58Speaker 1: at the midpoint of the movie and then doesn't she's
- 1:32:00Speaker 1: not even the protagonist by the end, Right, who is
- 1:32:03Speaker 1: the protective Like, is there one like it? The doc
- 1:32:07Speaker 1: is right, the doctor? I mean, the movie starts to
- 1:32:10Speaker 1: focus so much on the doctor, especially post surgery, because
- 1:32:15Speaker 1: that's what happens when you sew people's mouths to other
- 1:32:18Speaker 1: people's anuses. They can't talk anymore too much. Like then
- 1:32:24Speaker 1: the movie focuses on the doctor and kind of like
- 1:32:27Speaker 1: what he's up to It not that we're rooting for him,
- 1:32:29Speaker 1: but like it's such a weird writing choice. It is. Yeah,
- 1:32:33Speaker 1: Like I feel like it does get into the like
- 1:32:35Speaker 1: factor of and I don't want to like let Tom
- 1:32:37Speaker 1: sis off the hook in anyway here because he's making
- 1:32:40Speaker 1: a lot of racist and misogynist choices in kind of
- 1:32:44Speaker 1: like like he's referencing this clear racism and misogyny that
- 1:32:48Speaker 1: this doctor has, but he's not really like it's not
- 1:32:51Speaker 1: going anywhere, So it's kind of right, he's just racism
- 1:32:54Speaker 1: and misogyny that's happening on screen that isn't going anywhere.
- 1:32:58Speaker 1: But like I just kept waiting for like well, Lindsay's
- 1:33:03Speaker 1: got like Lindsay's going to find a pen, you know,
- 1:33:06Speaker 1: like someone's going to find a way of communicating with
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: somebody they're going to be able to. Like it's just
- 1:33:12Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like I'm trying to think
- 1:33:14Speaker 1: of like another movie example where this happens. But it's
- 1:33:16Speaker 1: like characters with language barriers find ways to communicate with
- 1:33:20Speaker 1: each other in other movies and in life, you know.
- 1:33:24Speaker 1: And it's like I just thought that that was going
- 1:33:26Speaker 1: to happen at some point, Like I thought that it
- 1:33:29Speaker 1: was like, Okay, so we have this like pretty sizeable
- 1:33:32Speaker 1: language barrier between these characters. That's why it's going to
- 1:33:35Speaker 1: be all the more like Wow, when they managed the
- 1:33:40Speaker 1: bigger obstacle to write and then they're going to manage
- 1:33:43Speaker 1: to overcome it, and the doctor is going to be
- 1:33:45Speaker 1: shocked and like it's going to be really exciting. But
- 1:33:47Speaker 1: then they just they just don't and they just stay
- 1:33:51Speaker 1: a human centipiece. And Jenny. I mean, it's like, if
- 1:33:54Speaker 1: you think Lindsay disappears, where does Jenny go, Like she
- 1:33:58Speaker 1: just is dying the entire your movie. She's just dying.
- 1:34:03Speaker 1: Now that we fully dropped the bit um it's such
- 1:34:07Speaker 1: a It is a bummer because it's like because he
- 1:34:15Speaker 1: said it is, because it's like we're given, you know,
- 1:34:19Speaker 1: three characters that it could possibly it would still be disgusting,
- 1:34:24Speaker 1: but like it would be interesting if they found a
- 1:34:26Speaker 1: way to communicate with each other and like make a
- 1:34:28Speaker 1: plan instead of just like a lot of movie passing
- 1:34:32Speaker 1: and then katzero being like, um, so we should get
- 1:34:35Speaker 1: out of here right like, because that's kind of all
- 1:34:37Speaker 1: that happened, and it makes sense that he would, you know,
- 1:34:42Speaker 1: want to get out of there. But it's just like
- 1:34:45Speaker 1: the entire caboose is just really disempowered in that good
- 1:34:54Speaker 1: So glad we're talking about this. Yeah, so I guess
- 1:34:59Speaker 1: now that now that we have dropped the bit um
- 1:35:02Speaker 1: a little peek behind the curtain, this was, Um, I
- 1:35:05Speaker 1: thought it would be a very very funny April Fools
- 1:35:08Speaker 1: joke if we cover I thought we should do the
- 1:35:10Speaker 1: Snyder cut, but that's four hours long, so this is
- 1:35:14Speaker 1: actually the lesser of many evils that we pitched. So um, yeah,
- 1:35:19Speaker 1: happy April Fool, Stay everybody. Yeah, let's wrap this up.
- 1:35:23Speaker 1: I need to go, Doe, I need to go absolutely die.
- 1:35:28Speaker 1: Um was there other stuff that kind of stuck out
- 1:35:30Speaker 1: to you. I don't think so. Yeah, I think that
- 1:35:37Speaker 1: this movie references one or two interesting points, but it
- 1:35:41Speaker 1: doesn't make a point about any of them. It just
- 1:35:44Speaker 1: kind of like if you did have a pre existing
- 1:35:46Speaker 1: knowledge of deeply cruel medical experiments, maybe your brain would
- 1:35:53Speaker 1: be pained at a few points in this movie of like, oh,
- 1:35:55Speaker 1: I think that that's what they're referencing there, but it's
- 1:35:58Speaker 1: not going anywhere, and so you are just kind of
- 1:36:00Speaker 1: seeing the cruelest possible punishment inflicted onto three innocent people
- 1:36:08Speaker 1: I just to meet. The saddest part of the movie
- 1:36:11Speaker 1: is when we learn I mean, we end up kind
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: of by the end of the movie learning more about
- 1:36:15Speaker 1: cutzero than we know about the I mean, at least
- 1:36:19Speaker 1: Lindsay and Jenny, because he just kind of like tells
- 1:36:22Speaker 1: his life story in his dying breath and but his
- 1:36:25Speaker 1: whole like I've done all this fucked up stuff, but
- 1:36:29Speaker 1: human Centipede, really it just seems like a bit much.
- 1:36:33Speaker 1: And then he dies and you're just like, oh my god,
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: I feel the same way. I mean, it's like implying
- 1:36:39Speaker 1: that he might deserve it. I'm like cut Thoro, there's
- 1:36:42Speaker 1: just like no way that you deserve. You were just
- 1:36:45Speaker 1: on vacation. Yeah. The best horror movies, at least for me,
- 1:36:51Speaker 1: are ones that are like clearly allegorical or have some
- 1:36:55Speaker 1: kind of social commentary or something. In this movie is
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: just devoid of that. I think it's like starts in
- 1:37:04Speaker 1: an interesting place and then and then takes the hard
- 1:37:07Speaker 1: left into just simply being the human centipede. Um, which
- 1:37:13Speaker 1: is a shame because it would I mean, like theoretically,
- 1:37:17Speaker 1: it would be pretty fucking incredible if a like really
- 1:37:21Speaker 1: skilled writer was able to turn this disgusting thing into
- 1:37:24Speaker 1: an interesting conversation. Um, but it's kind of a nonstarter
- 1:37:29Speaker 1: to talk about here because that's just like kind of
- 1:37:31Speaker 1: not what happened. So, um, I give it six nipples,
- 1:37:39Speaker 1: and it does pass the Bactel test, not even lying. Absolutely. Yeah, um,
- 1:37:46Speaker 1: I give it six centipede legs, which is the equivalent
- 1:37:54Speaker 1: of zero nipples. Wait, you're I thought we were No,
- 1:37:59Speaker 1: We're gonna give okay six sorry, six nipples. I can't
- 1:38:04Speaker 1: believe you bailed. I can't believe you bailed on me
- 1:38:07Speaker 1: like that. You know what that's gonna look like on
- 1:38:08Speaker 1: the Wikipedia chaos. Yeah, but I can't have I cannot
- 1:38:14Speaker 1: in good conscious have one of our highest rated movies
- 1:38:17Speaker 1: be The Human Centipede. That's so funny, that's so funny.
- 1:38:23Speaker 1: I want I want history to look back on this
- 1:38:26Speaker 1: show and then and then, because all that means is
- 1:38:29Speaker 1: they have to go back and listen to this episode
- 1:38:31Speaker 1: and look at the date of release and be like,
- 1:38:33Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I'm giving it. Okay, I guess like
- 1:38:42Speaker 1: I give it six nipples parentheses as a little joke. Okay,
- 1:38:48Speaker 1: And I don't want to give a real rating because
- 1:38:50Speaker 1: I don't want to think about this movie for another second. Okay, Um, ditto,
- 1:38:55Speaker 1: I'll do the same thing. Whoever is editing the Wikipedia page,
- 1:38:59Speaker 1: make sure to say parent disease as a little joke,
- 1:39:03Speaker 1: and then we're good to go. Well, I guess that's
- 1:39:08Speaker 1: it for the Human Centipede episode. Oh yeah, I mean
- 1:39:13Speaker 1: I guess. In terms of behind the scenes, it was
- 1:39:16Speaker 1: literally all Tom six and occasionally his sister. So you know,
- 1:39:21Speaker 1: there was a woman at the top of production, but
- 1:39:24Speaker 1: she was from a cursed bloodline. She was from Tom's
- 1:39:29Speaker 1: Tom six sister. Um, so we hope you enjoyed this. Yeah,
- 1:39:34Speaker 1: you're welcome everyone. You know, I know that this is
- 1:39:36Speaker 1: a really that there was a high demand for this
- 1:39:39Speaker 1: and people and and hey, if you want an episode
- 1:39:42Speaker 1: on the Snyder Cut. Um, you know, I was. I
- 1:39:46Speaker 1: thought that was funny until I found out it was
- 1:39:48Speaker 1: four hours long? Is it really four hours long? It's
- 1:39:50Speaker 1: literally four hours like jokes, four hours long, and it's
- 1:39:54Speaker 1: supposed to be like just as bad but in a
- 1:39:56Speaker 1: totally different way. Okay, So, um, you know this is
- 1:40:02Speaker 1: what you get. Okay, April fool, gotcha he he joke, joke.
- 1:40:09Speaker 1: We're still inside, so everything's great. And we hope you're well.
- 1:40:14Speaker 1: We hope you're safe, and we hope you're making good
- 1:40:17Speaker 1: choices and um and we and we love you, We
- 1:40:21Speaker 1: love you so much. And aper fools fell on a Thursday.
- 1:40:25Speaker 1: You left us with no choice. We had to, we
- 1:40:28Speaker 1: had to, and you know the usual stuff social media,
- 1:40:33Speaker 1: our Matreon, give us, you know, give us six nipples
- 1:40:37Speaker 1: on iTunes or Apple podcasts or whatever. Honestly, if you've
- 1:40:42Speaker 1: made it to the end of this episode, it would
- 1:40:44Speaker 1: mean so much to simply give us, uh five stars
- 1:40:48Speaker 1: on iTunes. It always helps because occasionally we get a
- 1:40:51Speaker 1: wave of m R A s and it and it's stressful. Yeah, please,
- 1:40:55Speaker 1: So please dilute their low ratings by giving us five nipples.
- 1:41:00Speaker 1: And um we'll be back with more soon. More to come,
- 1:41:04Speaker 1: all right, um bye bye bye