Meet the man behind The Human Centipede
By Tim Masters Entertainment correspondent, BBC News
Tom Six Tom Six has screened the film at various film festivals around the world

One of the more controversial movies of the summer is niche horror The Human Centipede (First Sequence).

Written and directed by Tom Six, the film tells the story of a demented surgeon who kidnaps tourists to use for his bizarre experiments.

The publicity material for the film quotes tabloid headlines like "Is this sickest film ever made?" and trumpets in underlined capitals: "IT IS 100% MEDICALLY ACCURATE!"

Set in Germany, The Human Centipede sees the surgeon (played by Dieter Laser) surgically connect two young American women (Ashley C Williams, Ashlynn Yennie) and a Japanese man (Akihiro Kitamura) into conjoined "triplets".

It's enough to say that they share a single digestive tract. Free sick bags were given out at a recent press screening (although none were put to use).

Dutchman Six started his career in television as one of the original directors of Big Brother in the Netherlands.

Director ignores Facebook threats for Human Centipede
By Tim Masters Entertainment correspondent, BBC News

A Dutch film-maker has said he does not take seriously threats that have been made against him over his controversial horror film The Human Centipede.

The movie, set in Germany, tells the story of a demented surgeon who kidnaps tourists to use for his bizarre experiments.

Tom Six, who wrote and directed the film, said he expected his biological shocker to divide audiences when it is released in the UK next month. A sequel is already in pre-production.

"On Facebook people made a fan page for myself and the film," he told the BBC. "Some people say I have to be shot and some people want to sterilise me - and others say I'm the most genius film-maker there is."

As the title suggests, The Human Centipede (First Sequence) sees the surgeon (played by Dieter Laser) surgically connect two young American women and a Japanese man into conjoined "triplet".

"I knew when I made this film, it would provoke a lot of reactions because it's pretty strange and not everybody can handle that," Six said.

"I take it all with a blink of the eye, because why would you shoot a film-maker? I don't really care about it.

"Of course, there are a lot of lunatics out there but I don't see myself going to a premiere with bodyguards around me."

Six started his career in television as one of the original directors of Big Brother in the Netherlands. The Human Centipede is his fourth film.

In the latter stakes, The Human Centipede is up against it. Only this year, Srdjan Spasojevic's A Serbian Film has shown a newborn baby being raped to death while still attached umbilically to its mother. Spasojevic has explained: "This is a diary of our own molestation by the Serbian government ... It's about the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotise you." Of course in this contest, pretensions to profundity might actually lose you points.