The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

Like the arthropod which gives Tom Six's surreal chiller its title, the extras on this DVD (also available in Blu-ray) come in segments which, though not identical, are certainly very similar.

There are only so many ways that Six can tell the story of how the original idea for The Human Centipede derived from a casual joke about the best way to punish convicted paedophiles; or how he and his star Dieter Laser (Dr Heiter) are "like Herzog and Kinski"; or how Laser resembles "a dehydrated Christopher Walken"; or how his film is "100% medically accurate" and involves procedures that any competent surgeon could reproduce; or how the forthcoming sequel will be "100% medically inaccurate", will have a 12-part human centipede, and will make the first film look like "My Little Pony".

By the time you have worked through the full audio commentary, the two director's interviews, and the Q&A shot in London, you will have heard each and every one of these stories at least twice, and in some cases four times. Six's well-rehearsed patter suggests a filmmaker who is always being asked the same limited set of questions, and has long since learnt how to answer on automatic pilot. Still, he is also charming and affable company – and he has clearly thought through every aspect of his film. Particularly fascinating in the commentary is his (accurate) observation that most of the film's horror takes place in the viewer's head rather than on screen, and his suggestion (again accurate) that all the horror clichés in the film's opening third are there to lull the viewer into a false sense of comfort. We also learn that Akihiro Kitamura wrote his character's Japanese monologue for the film's climactic scene, and that Six himself painted the pictures of Siamese twins that decorate Dr Heiter's walls.

The single deleted scene shows Dr Heiter dancing exultantly around his human centipede. The eight minutes of behind-the-scenes footage include the three centipede actors dancing as though in a conga line. The five-minute foley session diplays the range of meats (and a melon) used to create the film's queasy auditory textures. The two-minute casting session shows Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie rehearsing together.

Whether Bounty Films should be praised for the comprehensiveness of their extras, or blamed for their sheer, repetitive exhaustiveness, probably comes down to a question of personal taste, but those whose time is short would be well advised to stick to Six's excellent audio commentary, and perhaps also to the Q&A, in which Laser is very good on Dr Heiter's associations with Nazism and his own insistence on staying in character on set. The other extras, though not bad in themselves, feel about as essential as a couple of extra sets of legs.