In this controversial horror, a brilliant German surgeon (played by Dieter Laser) tires of his groundbreaking success in separating conjoined twins, and experiments with reversing the process - connecting live bodies via their gastric systems to form a "human centipede". Drugging and abducting three tourists (two American girls and one Japanese man), he sets to work in his basement operating theatre and then attempts to train his twisted creation. Despite its stomach-churning premise, the film is relatively light on gore or gruesome scenes, certainly in comparison to "torture porn" franchises such as Saw and Hostel. Director Tom Six (a pioneer of the original and more sociologically experimental Dutch version of Big Brother) shows a deft hand when cranking up the suspense, with a few stylistic nods to Hitchcock and Kubrick. Laser is genuinely chilling as the medical madman with a God complex, only occasionally descending into cartoon villainy.

During a stopover in Germany in the middle of a carefree road trip through Europe, two American girls find themselves alone at night when their car breaks down in the woods. Searching for help at a nearby villa, they are wooed into the clutches of a deranged retired surgeon, who has a very disturbed vision.