Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this elegant and repulsive movie is that there will be a sequel! And it is elegant, even beautiful. The most disturbing images are lurid paintings of conjoined twins, a snapshot of dogs, simple diagrams on an overhead projector, and surgical markers on human skin. And Dieter Laser's extraordinary face, his tailored lab coat, his beautiful house with its clean lines, white walls, and gleaming tile floors.
The mid portion of the film is genuinely scary. What is more frightening than being restrained in a hospital bed while people do inexplicable things to you? I've seen it done!
The centipede leaves only the male with a voice (which he uses to great effect) and a will. He and the doctor play out dominance/submission scripts while the women are reduced to moans and sobs. If this had occurred earlier in the film I would have turned it off and gone back to bed.
I wondered, until the last scenes, whether this really was a horror film. "Its only a European art film", I told myself. We have a mad scientist, pretty and boring female victims, a spectacular setting that is the inverse of the traditional haunted house. And, at the end, the most horrific version of the "final girl" imaginable.
Not for children, not even suitable for 14 year old boys.
And we'll have to see a sequel before the end of the year!
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