Last Updated on August 3, 2021
#1 – Tendon Snip
In a crude attempt to mimic the procedure laid out by Dieter Laser, Martin slices into the knees of his victims, sticks his fingers inside and snips their tendons with a pair of scissors. It was about this time the entire theater went “Oooooh!…”, uncrossed their legs and started rubbing their kneecap. I’m not sure what it is about knees that just the thought of an injury to that area makes you cringe (remember when the bullets to the knees in DIE HARD was a big thing?) but man, does it ever.
#2 – Hammer to the Teeth
While most cinematic body mutilation is fairly passe at this point, there’s still something unbearable when it comes to the mangling of a set of pearly whites. Teeth aren’t welcome in a human centipede, so Martin must ever-so-delicately bash them out of your face with a hammer. Perhaps the most stomach-churning aspect of this particular moment is the sound; you can look away from the screen, but the crunchy sound of every tooth being knocked out still crawls up your spine. –EW
#3 – Baby Squash
I voted this Number 1 but Walkuski disagreed and we finally settled on the No. 3 position. Early in the film, as Martin is collecting his victims, he abducts a pregnant woman. This is the film’s only real tension because you spend the remainder of the film watching a naked (and very real) pregnant woman writhing around on the floor going, “They’re not really going to do this, are they?” And for a second, you think they won’t. As she passes out, Martin believes her dead and when she comes to, she’s able to escape. She takes refuge in a car outside (that won’t start, obvs) and as Martin bursts out and frantically tries to break in, the stress induces labor. And she gives birth. Onto the floor of the car. Now pay close attention to this part…then she floors the gas petal and graphically crushes her own baby’s skull.
#4 – Shit Splatter
Perhaps the most unappetizing aspect of the HUMAN CENTIPEDE experience is, well, just what a bad taste it puts in everybody’s mouth. There’s the feces, for example – that probably doesn’t taste very good. Unfortunately for the luckless pieces of the human centipede, they’ve plenty of shit to eat in an extended sequence where forcibly-induced laxatives are the real villains. I just wish they had kept the liquidy spew -which is the only thing in the film that isn’t in black and white – away from the camera lens… –EW
#5 – Funnel Gag
So he’s sliced open their butts, stapled their mouths and now has a full-on Human Centipede to call his own, but Martin can’t get the one thing going he’s really dying to see – that one digestive tract. He tries to force his centipede head to eat, but she won’t bite (literally). So he takes a funnel, shoves a long, plastic tube down her throat and fills it with laxative. There isn’t anything terribly graphic about this scene but the gagging noises as he forces the tube down the girl’s throat had me dry heaving. And then comes… –MS
#6 – Mouth Staples
You can’t follow up Buttcheek Slicing with anything other than Mouth Stapling; it’s the progression of any good do-it-yourself human centipede. As we’ve established, Martin is clearly no surgeon, so his impromptu method for attaching face-to-fanny involves a flesh-skewering stapler in one of the flick’s more, um, jaw-dropping moments. –EW
#7 – Buttcheek Incisions
“Ya can’t make a human centipede without slicing up some buttcheek” as the old saying goes, and by golly, Martin adheres to it. In order to adequately latch one person’s mouth onto another’s stink-hole, Martin has to make some major adjustments to one poor guy’s bum. It’s safe to say that Martin wouldn’t make it in the plastic surgery game – he’s way too liberal with a scalpel. –EW
#8 – Barbed Wire Rape
Along with the just mentioned sandpaper masturbation, another scene made infamous by the BBFC, the rape sequence is actually not as graphic as you might think. It’s since been cut from the theatrical release (even in the US) but I saw the unedited version at Fantastic Fest. Martin, who as we learned with the sandpaper, likes a little pain with his pleasure, picks up a random piece of barbed wire, wraps it around his dick and goes to town on the tail-end of his centipede. As disturbing as it is to see Martin pseudo-raping someone, I feared the worst and, for some reason, director Tom Six showed some restraint. –MS
#9 – Sandpaper Masturbation
One of the infamous scenes that the British Board of Film Classification listed as an example of why the banned they film, Martin gets such a boner from the thought of his own personal Human Centipede that he whips it out at work and beats the meat. But Martin was molested by his father we’re told and only derives sexual pleasure from pain. So he wraps his wiener in sandpaper and goes to town. So much for Jergens and a box of Kleenex… –MS
#10 – Centipede Up the Pooper
The caption should really say it all, but some grisly elaboration is inevitable: A funnel stuck in your anus would naturally be a pretty big bummer (pun intended?), but it’s got to be considered heavenly before a squirmy centipede is introduced into the equation. That’s one symptom Pepto-Bismol can’t tackle. –Eric Walkuski
Honorable Mention – Naked Martin
Not technically gross in the way that most of the moments on this list are, but seeing the roly-poly Martin in various forms of undress throughout the movie, isn’t exactly a visual feast. Especially when he’s sweaty and his mother comes in shouting, “You shit the bed again, didn’t you?!” Maybe ease up on the Taco Bell, Martin. –Mike Sampson
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