The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is a 2009 Dutch horror film written, directed, and co-produced by Tom Six. The film tells the story of a German surgeon who kidnaps three tourists and joins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming a "human centipede", a conjoined triplet. It stars Dieter Laser as the creator of the centipede, Dr. Josef Heiter, with Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, and Akihiro Kitamura as his victims. According to Six, the concept of the film arose from a joke he made with friends about punishing a child molester by stitching his mouth to the anus of a "fat truck driver". Inspiration for the film also came from Nazi medical experiments carried out during World War II, such as the crimes of Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
When approaching investors prior to filming, Six did not mention the mouth-to-anus aspect of the plot, fearing it would put off potential backers. The financiers of The Human Centipede did not discover the full nature of the film until it was complete. The film received generally mixed reviews from mainstream film critics, but it won several accolades at international film festivals. The film was released in the United States on a limited theatrical release on 30 April 2010. A sequel, entitled Full Sequence, also written and directed by Six, was released in 2011.
