Review: The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (18)****

The premise of The Human Centipede is enough to bring on the effects of a cinematic emetic. Yet the visceral nature of the film is present only in fragmented fashion courtesy of a mad Frankensteinian scientist (the wonderfully monickered Dieter Laser) who grafts together three hapless strangers to create the creature of the title.

Dr Josef Heiter (shades of the notorious Mengele) is a retired surgeon who once specialised in separating conjoined twins. Now, living alone in a house in the woods, he dreams of using his skills and knowledge to play God: he wants to create a human centipede by surgically joining three people together to build one whole entity.

Writer-director Tom Six claims research with a real surgeon allowed him to present on screen the reality of a procedure that could actually happen. In the film the surreality of the situation is given added humour of the blackest sort as Heiter explains his plans in deadpan fashion to his subjects.

The terrified victims are American back-packers Lindsay and Jenny (Ashley C Williams and Ashlynn Yennie) and Japanese traveller Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura), who screams his defiance from his bed.

As an original concept Six's tale belongs in a genre all of its own. It is fascinating, repellent and funny in a deeply uncomfortable way. Laser is utterly hypnotising – like Udo Kier's older, odder brother – as an obsessed lunatic with a twisted messianic complex.

He dominates the film, giving an added weight, depth and dimension to a grotesque story that makes The Human Centipede an instant classic of a most unusual kind.

The Human Centipede plays at the National Media Museum tonight.

On limited release