High art or just junk?

This is absolutely high art. This movie IS NOT just about the disturbing beginning. The reverse style of this film has a meaning. We end the film on a high note, a peaceful note, but that is actually the beginning. It shows how quickly life can go from good to bad, and the last shot of the film is one of the saddest shots I've seen in a film just knowing what is to come.

And it's not up to the viewer to decide if something is "junk" or not. You can not like a film but still appreciate what it is. This film is art, having disturbing scenes does not take away from that.

I have to say I mostly felt like the director sat down and thought "Me gunna make controversial muvie, baaah baaah." while watching this.

I think there is some undeniable merit to this movie. It has a clear massage that it wants to tell and it succeeds on telling it. It's just that the film tries very hard to be different in its telling. All the low frequency noise, shaky camera work, flashing lights makes it seem like the director had no confidence that he could make the story work using traditional film making and had to use all this gimmickry. Instead of making the audience feel disturbed by the story, the emotional acting etc. he tries to make us physically ill so that the people will feel as if the nausea and headaches caused by noise,shaking and lighting with the actual content of the film.

I like watching experimental films, sometimes there are great new techniques and thought provoking ideas. But this one just didn't do much for me.

I loved the film, but the English translation was just plain horrible. I watched this movie some time ago with Spanish subtitles (it's my native language) and it was OK. I rewatched it today, and didn't feel like looking for Spanish subs so I watched it with Eng subs and it is so bad, it's surprising since English translations are usually better than Spanish ones.

Maybe it's a comment on France as someone earlier posted and it's totally lost on me, but I thought the film was junk.

I think it was nothing more than a exploitative, shallow horror movie and without those two infamous scenes (which the rest of the film didn't really have the depth and intelligence to justify), it would have passed completely under the radar and faded into obscurity. I didn't hate it as there are more tacky, exploitative films out there, but I definitely cannot praise it or elevate it to anything I would consider Art.

I had no problem watching the human centipede trilogy in one sit. I also had no problem watching srpski film. But the drunken cameraman in this one is bothering the crap outta me and to be honest within five minutes I just quit watching this piece of "art". It kinda reminds me of some cutscenes in tomb raider chronicles where the camera just shows the player where to go next, but the difference is that this is a damn film and it is awkward as hell.