The Human Centipede: First Sequence is a modern horror-movie victim of the internet age. A film that in any other decade would have become a true video nasty passed around between horror fans, it instead became a meme. The very concept of the film was passed around virally, to the point that most people became comfortable and cavalier with the concept of the film before ever walking into the theater or popping in the DVD. The film is effective enough, but its creepiness trades on the inherently fucked up nature of the plot, so to strip away the novelty and shock of that is to neuter much of its impact. There’s still some value to the film, but Tom Six made it clear very quickly when he started his follow up that he would be launching in the opposite direction, trading spare subtlety for blatant intensity. It now sounds like he meant it, and that he may have made the modern Salo: 120 Days of Sodom.
Details are emerging because the film has been reviewed by the UK Board of Film Classification, and been refused a rating. The board has unequivocally refused to grant the film a rating, regardless of cuts. They’re doing so because the film is considered to be in potential violation of many obscenity laws, and contains pervasive sexual cruelty and violence of a particularly extreme and “corrupting” nature. This isn’t something the board does frequently, but it does mean the filmmakers can not release or publish their film in the UK- relegating it to a piracy-only watch in that country, but a legendary horror flick everywhere else. You can’t buy this kind of publicity.
The filmmakers have six weeks to appeal, but it seems clear that shit isn’t going to happen.
The board has released a statement detailing exactly why they’ve made this decision, and with it comes some details about the films plot, including some specific details. I’m going to stay vague for a moment, and then I’ll post the full explanation below.
From what I read it sounds like Six has not only gone meta with his film, he’s made something that could end up being the new Salo. For those not familiar, Salo is an endurance test of a film from Pier Pasolini that in 1975 used a plot, modeled after the writings of Marquis DeSade, which centered around the systematic degradation of human beings to illuminate the horrors of fascism. The filmmakers was murdered before the film’s release, but it went on to be banned in dozens of markets and become legendary for its scenes of brutality, sexual degradation, violence, mental trauma and much more. I’ve written about it before, and it’s popped up on one of our nastier lists. If you think the comparison is premature, consider this line from the Brit’s explanation of their non-rating…
“There is little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience.”
I’m not sure if Tom Six has aspired quite as high as to take aim at an entire philosophy, but it does seem like he may have topped A Serbian Film for creating a controversial shitstorm of a movie that is a less a film than a roller coaster of endurance. There is the potential for some interesting subtext though, as I’ll discuss below.
From here on, there may be spoilers. I’d still like to hear your thoughts in the comments or on the boards if you skip them.
Anyway, the most intriguing element of the film seems to be a metatextual storyline that has an obsessed fan of the first film reenacting the experiment as a portal to his own fucked up sexual proclivities. The description below details some very specific, very horrifying events, and if the film is as continuously graphic as it sounds… damn. With this though, comes the possibility of Six commenting on the modern nature of fetishistic culture, the place of horror movies, and more. I don’t know if Six has pulled a Haneke, but it sounds like he had something to say, one way or another.
So here we go, take a look at this business…
“The first film dealt with a mad doctor who sews together three kidnapped people in order to produce the ‘human centipede’of the title. Although the concept of the film was undoubtedly tasteless and disgusting it was a relatively traditional and conventional horror film and the Board concluded that it was not in breach of our Guidelines at ‘18’. This new work, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), tells the story of a man who becomes sexually obsessed with a DVD recording of the first film and who imagines putting the ‘centipede’ idea into practice. Unlike the first film, the sequel presents graphic images of sexual violence, forced defecation, and mutilation, and the viewer is invited to witness events from the perspective of the protagonist. Whereas in the first film the ‘centipede’ idea is presented as a revolting medical experiment, with the focus on whether the victims will be able to escape, this sequel presents the ‘centipede’ idea as the object of the protagonist’s depraved sexual fantasy.
The principal focus of The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is the sexual arousal of the central character at both the idea and the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture, and murder of his naked victims. Examples of this include a scene early in the film in which he masturbates whilst he watches a DVD of the original Human Centipede film, with sandpaper wrapped around his penis, and a sequence later in the film in which he becomes aroused at the sight of the members of the ‘centipede’ being forced to defecate into one another’s mouths, culminating in sight of the man wrapping barbed wire around his penis and raping the woman at the rear of the ‘centipede’. There is little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience. There is a strong focus throughout on the link between sexual arousal and sexual violence and a clear association between pain, perversity and sexual pleasure. It is the Board’s conclusion that the explicit presentation of the central character’s obsessive sexually violent fantasies is in breach of its Classification Guidelines and poses a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers.
David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said: “It is the Board’s carefully considered view that to issue a certificate to this work, even if confined to adults, would be inconsistent with the Board’s Guidelines, would risk potential harm within the terms of the VRA, and would be unacceptable to the public.
“The Board also seeks to avoid classifying material that may be in breach of the Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964 (OPA) or any other relevant legislation. The OPA prohibits the publication of works that have a tendency to deprave or corrupt a significant proportion of those likely to see them. In order to avoid classifying potentially obscene material, the Board engages in regular discussions with the relevant enforcement agencies, including the CPS, the police, and the Ministry of Justice. It is the Board’s view that there is a genuine risk that this video work, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), may be considered obscene within the terms of the OPA, for the reasons given above.”
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18 comments
don’t know why i’d want to watch movie where a dude jerks off with sandpaper and then rapes a woman with barbed wire. just don’t see the entertainment value in that and i’m doubtful there’s a strong enough subtext to warrant the shock value.
I like the idea of this going metatextual…but…after seeing the first film it almost seems like it is just a vein excuse to create torture porn…I doubt that the film has the skill and subtext in place to have it equal Salo. It instead just seems like a nasty and gritty exploitation film( believe it or not it acutally sounds more like Waterpower, then Salo)…
no interest…
Damn…
I’m a fan of the first film, and was hoping the sequel would find another brilliant villan like Mr. Laser
and maybe even be more crazy then the first film.
But hearing what is in store… man, where can he go for the third film?
I watched both Glengary Glen Ross and 12 Angry Men this week. Nothing but men sitting around and talking. And they were and continue to be compelling and intelligent and suspenseful. And in the other corner, you’ve got this jerk off, Tom Six, whose name makes him sound like a Japanese cartoon character, doing the exact opposite. Fuck him and his bullshit.
sounds like shock for shocks sake. No interest.
hahahaha. i agree with above, sounds like just an excuse for extreme torture porn. at least Hostel, the first Saws and the movies that inspired them had a backbone of story behind them. this wankjob is just trying to make the most explicit movie ever just to say he did. had he done something like part one but fixed the flaws of the first, then i would have been very interested. but this just sounds stupid
The torture porn genre has run its course. Tom Six is five years too late with this. Not only that, he’s too dumb to realize that the genuine sick fucks who like things like defacation already own DVDs of people doing it FOR REAL. Why would they pay to see it done fake?
I guess Six realised the problem that comes with a movie like The Human Centipede. The audience has already seen three people sown together. Where do you from there? You add more people but that doesn’t really change much. What now? Oh, you rape someone with barbed wire. Yeah, that’ll do. I actually didn’t mind the first one but really can’t be bothered to see the second one if this is what we can look forward to.
Coincidentally, I just saw the first one last night, and while interesting, it didn’t grab me as much as I’d hoped. This sequel seems to have taken the idea and just gone in an insane new direction. The first one has been described as subtle, and from what’s been written about the sequel, that film is anything but subtle.
Fuck that shit, seriously. This sounds like garbage for the sake of garbage.
I like the South Park version more. “BURRITO TOO DEERISHUS!”
If you know Tom Six’s trackrecord it doesn’t exactly spells great filmmaker. So subtlety isn’t a quality you would associate with this man. At least i don’t.
Anyway, if this movie had been made somewhere in the years that say “Cannibal Holocaust”, I spit your grave” etc. were made i’m sure someone in the present time would have propelled it to the cult realms. But since these exact nasties getting the big screen treatment (last house on the left, i spit on your grave and i just read that even the house on the edge of the park will get a sequel) Human centipede just screams to just get noticed between all the other new and old torture porn movies. I rather ignore it and hope Mr Six will get a hint and do something meaningful with his life instead of boring us with people sown together and a masturbating chap with a piece sandpaper.
What they’ve done is denied it a certificate which is their professional right to do as their job is classification and recommendation This means that any cinema in the UK looking to screen it will need to get special dispensation from their local council which is perfectly possible. There’s a big difference as there is no legal ban presenting the film publically and no one will be imprisoned for doing so.
Thanks.
Sodomizing a mutant with a barbed wire cock sounds like the plot to BDSM-Men: First Fuck.
@Sprinky: You got a good point there. IMO the fact that movies like CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST were banned is the reason these movies were propelled to almost mythical proportions.
Same happened here in Germany with the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (what, I need to point out, is FAR above any other movie discussed in this topic).
But I hardly doubt that HUMAN CENTIPEDE (1 or 2, regardless) will get to that level, simply for the fact that you can download it somewhere and instantly watch it. Without the thrill and triumph of the search I do not think the movies hold too much appeal in itself.
BUT this is only me assuming, because after I saw the trailer for the first one I realized that after watching almost every Lucio Fulci movie, some FACES OF DEATH movies as a teen and, yes, SALO (which is a torture movie with a message, no „porn“ there at all), that HUMAN CENTIPEDE is a line I personally will not cross. Ever.
I’d like to see Tom Six go all Haneke just in the hopes that someday he’ll remake First Sequence with Naomi Watts, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet and Tim Roth as Dr. Heiter.
Very impressed with the comments. Normally I’m the minority against this sort of excess for the sake of whatever. Truly commendable comments. Hopefully this will fade quietly to the psuedo-porn sites.
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