Dir.: Tom Six
Cast: Dieter Laser, Laurence Harvey, Eric Roberts, Bree Olsen, Tom Six
USA 2015, 102 min.
For those who have been able to watch the two preceding segments (!) of the saga, the production notes statement of ‘100% politically incorrect’ content and ‘American style XXL’ will be enough – otherwise, read on. Apart from his cult Centipede movies, writer/director Tom Six has also created (among other oddities) I Love Dries, about the Dutch singer Dries Roelvink, abducted by his biggest fans because to sire their babies. This may give you a hint of how serious Mr. Six is, but it will not quite prepare you for Part 3 of his infamous trilogy, created in the style of Grand Guignol in bad taste.
Set in an US penitentiary, where the supreme (and very bloody) rule of chief warden Bill Boss (Laser) is threatened by governor Hughes (Roberts), with the help of his accountant Butler (Harvey), Boss invents the eponymous human centipede: he literally fuses his inmates together at mouth and anus, and lets them exist on their excrements, supported by a continuous injection of vitamins. Needless to say, the governor despite some very obvious misgivings finally decides to uses this money-saving experiment for his re-election campaign.
Laser plays the sadistic governor like a slapstick hero, his lack of talent involuntarily helping the deranged plot to succeed. One must not forget Daisy (Olsen), the master’s sex slave, later to be incorporated in the centipede chain as an experiment. Countless inmates are tortured and annihilated gruesomely, making up the numbers in this gruesome cabaret of bad taste. Surely Tom Six knows what he is doing: fishing for an audience who delights in the low common of schlock horror – but it does not mean that the result has any merit, unless you buy into his ethos, in which case no one will keep you away! AS
ON GENERAL RELEASE AT SELECTED CINEMAS FROM 10 JULY 2015