LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

bnwfilmbuff This is "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" meets "House of Frankenstein". Mad doctor Frank seeks out sane doctor Simon, who has discovered a serum that keeps disembodied organs alive. Sane doctor Simon has a bad ticker that is ready to go, an attractive but crippled nurse Kernke, and we all know where this is going. Frank has no apparent motivation for his behavior other than he can do head transplants or keep disembodied heads alive and he's crazy. Desperate attempts were made to give this flick some atmosphere like eerie music and misty night shots but nothing works. Frank is good as the mad doctor and Kernke is attractive but the story is a bore. This was challenging to stay awake through the entire movie.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Die Nackte und der Satan" (and there are a lot of other German and English-language titles for this one) is a West German black-and-white sound film from the year 1959, so this one is already over 55 years old. It was written and directed by Russian filmmaker Victor Trivas very much at the end of his career already and it runs for slightly over 90 minutes. If you like horror films, then you may have understood the "Human Centipede" reference in the title of my review as this film is about all kinds of creepy things concerning body parts. We see a human head severed from his body and the head lives on and keeps talking obviously suffering a lot. And we find out how a crippled woman loses her torso and gets another torso attached to her head, so she could move and act effortlessly without her disabilities. But are things really as good as they seem? Far from that actually. It is all the work by an insane scientist Dr. Brandt alias Dr. Ood and he is played by Horst Frank, who is also the most known cast member (alongside Paul Dahlke and Michel Simon, who plays the severed head). As a whole, there is not only "Human Centipede" in here, but certainly also more than a touch of Frankenstein's monster. It is a very bizarre movie I must say. It lacks realism completely, but the absurdity sometimes makes it worth a watch I will have to admit. However, I still believe that this aspect alone is not enough to carry this film against all the weak and mediocre aspects. I personally felt that the bad outweighs the good and that's why I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

ctomvelu1 One of the oddest German horror flicks of the 1950s, The Head has not one but two mad scientists. One of them has found a way to remove the head from a dog and keep it alive. The second nut job removes the first scientist's head after he dies and keeps it alive on a table. Then he murders a stripper and grafts the head of a crippled nurse onto the stripper's body. Understandably, the woman becomes confused about her identity. Expressionistic sets remind us we're watching a German film. The acting is all bug eyes and wide-open mouths. One intriguing element for us guys: The nurse with the stripper's body goes to bed with her artist friend and then beds down with the second mad scientist (it's a Svengali kind of thing). The film is dubbed, and it is ripe for MST3K type coverage, if in fact it wasn't already. Noting special here, but certainly gruesome enough without being outright gory.

BaronBl00d As another reviewer pointed out most succinctly, The Head and The Brain that Wouldn't Die have marked similarities. There is no denying that the two are sleazy films hoping to cash in on the shock elements within. They both have their own style if you will but arrive finally at a similar end. The Brain is the better of the two for sheer exploitative value and lacks the creative, choking atmosphere that you get with a Euro sleaze picture like this. Notwithstanding all of that The Head is a pretty good example of prime Euro sleaze as we encounter a laboratory somewhere in a cemetery-like place in Germany where we get constant close-ups of the shadowy moon and the steps to the lab(a budgetary concern no doubt as this film was very cheaply made). Once inside we meet Professor Dr. Abel who is hiring the services of someone highly recommended - Dr. Ood. Dr. Abel has been working successfully with transplants and all other things broaching the border between the natural and unnatural and recently has successfully kept the head of a dog alive for some time(we do NOT see this as it would have been an FX nightmare at that time I'm sure). Well along the way Dr. Ood takes over, begins to kill anyone that stands in his way, keeps Dr. Abel's head alive by itself, and transforms an hunchbacked nurse with a beautiful face into a lounge singer/stripper body with the same beautiful face(yes this is very reminiscent of The Brain that Wouldn't Die). You get it all here: murder, a mad scientist, a haggard Dr. Abel's head talking about how tired he is, a hunchbacked nurse become a sultry showgirl, and one mad lunatic in Dr. Ood. Director Victor Trivas does a pretty good job with what he has to work with creating this exploitation gem and my interest was held throughout. There are some really nicely shot scenes and despite the poorly supplied budget, the film is generally well-crafted for a film of this class. This is no great film but taken as a member within its own sub-genre if you will, The Head is better than most of what was made with similar assets. the acting is pretty good too with Horst Frank giving an over-the-top performance which gives his role and the film even more credibility surprisingly. Uber Sleazy yah!