The Human Centipede (First Sequence) 2009

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: A must-see for coprophiliacs and spanking enthusiasts, The Human Centipede (First Sequence) may be the year's first mainstream fetish movie. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: You really have to hate logic, party girls and evil German doctors to dig this excruciatingly stupid movie, whose main gag is creating a surgically linked chain of disbelieving adults. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The director forces into our mouths what he forces into the mouths of his female characters. The movie stinks to heaven. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: A film that, in bare description, sounds like the greatest outrage ever put to screen, but ends up being fairly tedious when watched. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It would be nice to report that Six ... has an eye for horrific imagery and a head full of fresh ideas - or, barring all that, that he's simply a hard-working hack. But this is lazy moviemaking based on the thinnest of concepts. Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: The schlock humor of the first scenes is replaced with squirms-it's as painful as you're picturing and possibly worse. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This nasty stuff plays like a cross between Saw, Naked Lunch, and Bride of the Monster. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Much of the film's ''entertainment value'' rests on the sadistically outlandish performance of Dieter Laser, who's like Boris Karloff starring in a movie by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Read more

Michael Ordona, Los Angeles Times: There are terrible movies and there are loathsome movies. And then there's that rare breed so idiotic, exploitative and sickening one wishes they could be scrubbed from memory. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The problem is that this slick piece of schlock is dull, risible and, ultimately, boring. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Although I'd certainly recommend it to hard-core horror fans, I don't think I'd ever want to meet anyone who truly enjoyed it. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The Human Centipede, by skillful Dutch director Tom Six, might be compared to Hollywood schlock like Hostel. But it has a style and sense of humor sorely lacking in the American movies. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This horror show from Dutch director Tom Six will be heaven for devotees of four-star torture porn and zero-star hell for everyone else. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: It's definitive psychological horror, positioning the viewer to identify with the victim's suffering and lack of free will, even after harshly judging what they did with that free will when they had it. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Read more