Not
Rated
Running
Time: 1 Hour & 28 Minutes
Cast:
Laurence
R. Harvey-Martin Lomax
Ashlynn
Yennie-Miss Yennie
Vivien
Bridson-Mrs. Lomax/Martin’s Mother
Bill
Hutchens-Dr. Sebring
Maddi
Black-Candy
Peter
Blankenstein-Alan
Dominic
Borrelli-Paul
Dan
Burman-Greg
Kandace
Caine-Karrie
Peter
Charlton-Jake
Daniel
Jude Gennis-Tim
Georgia
Goodrick-Valerie
Lucas
Hansen-Ian
Lee
Nicholas Harris-Dick
Emma
Lock-Kim
Katherine
Templar-Rachel
Directed
by Tom Six
 |
| What a way to end 2011 by watching "The Human Centipede 2 [Full Sequence]"! |
As
a film critic (professional or otherwise), I do not have the luxury of being
picky with the types of films that I watch as it is my obligation to present my honest opinion to my readers. The best I
can hope for is that my criticism of a particular film inspires mature
discussion; whether the reader agrees with me or not is irrelevant as it is,
after all, just an opinion. Now, I am not a squeamish person as I’ve seen my
fair share of films with…questionable content but director Tom Six’s “The Human
Centipede II [Full Sequence]” is such an unrelenting endurance test into the
depths of human depravity that it will turn off even the most stoic of viewers.
Two years ago in 2009, “The Human Centipede [First Sequence]” became infamous
for its unusual premise when it made
the rounds at various film festivals. Six’s film gave new meaning to ‘ass to
mouth’ as it told the story of a mad doctor kidnapping three victims so he can
realize his vision of a Siamese triplet…by surgically connecting their mouths
and anuses together! His inspiration for the film came from seeing a child
molester on the news, prompting him to joke, ‘they should stitch this guy with
his mouth to the ass of a very fat truck driver. It would be a really good
punishment for him.’ Reactions to the film ranged from glowing praise to
outright revulsion, with Michael Ordoña of the Los Angeles Times declaring in his review as a ‘crime against
cinema.’ Whatever Six set out to accomplish, it worked and now we have the
equally-controversial sequel that serves as the answer to all those naysayers
who complained about the original’s relative lack of blood and gore. “The Human
Centipede II [Full Sequence]” feels like a totally different film and while it
may be hard to believe, the sadistic violence does serve a purpose but in his attempt to outdo himself, Six has
created something that feels little more than a gimmick. Yet it has a certain
unexplainable hypnotic quality to its bleak black-and-white imagery and even
when the most horrible acts are being committed, you find yourself unable to
look away from the screen thanks to the excellent dialogue-less performance of Laurence
R. Harvey.
Asthmatic and overly obese Martin Lomax (Laurence R. Harvey) is a short
middle-aged man who works nights as a toll booth collector at an underground
parking garage somewhere in the UK. He lives in a small flat with his elderly
mother (Vivien Bridson) who hates Martin’s very existence and frequently voices
her desire to kill him and herself. It is heavily implied that his father (who
is currently in prison) sexually abused him when he was a child. Martin’s only
source of happiness (and pleasure) comes from watching Tom Six’s “The Human
Centipede [First Sequence]” on an endless loop while he works at his toll
booth. He keeps a centipede as a pet and a scrapbook on the film under his bed.
His only visitor is the lecherous Dr. Sebring (Bill Hutchens), who reassures
Martin’s mother that he is going through ‘a phase’ and that it will pass. The
lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur for Martin as he takes his
obsession with Six’s film to new extremes by brutally kidnapping twelve people
and creating his own ‘human centipede’ at a dingy warehouse.
“The Human
Centipede II [Full Sequence]” is billed as ‘100% Medically Inaccurate’ and the amount of blood and fecal matter on display
makes the original film look relatively tame as it serves as a response to all
those viewers who were expecting an all-out gore fest but came away
disappointed. As I was watching the film, it almost feels like Tom Six is gleefully
daring audiences to see if they can make it through to the end credits. I must
confess that the version I saw was edited
with approximately 2 minutes and 37 seconds of scenes excised in order for it
to be released into theaters. The full uncensored version that premiered at
Fantastic Fest 2011 back in mid-September at Austin, Texas is currently
available on Bounty Films’ website for rent or download but unfortunately, it
is restricted to UK and Australian citizens only, which is ironic considering
the fact that both countries
initially banned the film from being shown in cinemas. I do not approve of any
form of censorship against films (or media in general) as people should have
the right to choose what they want to watch but regulatory organizations such
as the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) feel it is their
‘responsibility’ to protect the public from material that would be considered ‘obscene.’
Violent or objectionable content in media often spurs complaints from watchdog
groups that it will inspire copycats and the sequel uses that as its
inspiration with Martin attempting to make his own human centipede. I find it
admirable that Six wanted to challenge his critics by utilizing a
meta-narrative device but in his attempt to outdo himself and give the audience
what they clamored for, all the commentary and subtext ultimately gets lost in
a sea of dehumanizing, sadistic violence and that’s the reason why this sequel is
inferior. Looking at the film at a more technical level, the editing this time
feels haphazard and amateurish compared to the original but I believe it is
Six’s attempt to give it more of an ‘underground’ vibe. The black-and-white
style does seem at odds with the
sequel’s intentions but I admit it exudes a bleak, oppressive atmosphere that wouldn’t
be possible in color. There’s a sense of hopelessness to what is happening and
has a gripping, hypnotic effect that it’s impossible to turn away. Say what you
will about Tom Six but he certainly has a way of drawing the viewer in and
keeping them immersed in this depraved world he’s created.
As for the violence,
I just know you’re curious so I’ll
give a brief rundown of the highlights. A woman gets repeatedly hit with a
crowbar in the head and we see the gory aftermath with her skull smashed to
bits. Martin uses a hammer to knock everyone’s teeth out and uses a rusty pair
of scissors to cut off their tendons to keep them from escaping. To connect all
his victims, he bloodily slices open their buttocks and staples their faces to
the next person’s anus. He injects laxatives into everyone and the fecal matter
expelled splashes onto the screen in the film’s single use of color. Last but
not least, a woman’s tongue is forcibly removed with a pair of pliers and the
tail-end of the centipede is brutally sodomized by Martin with a piece of
barbed wire wrapped around his penis (implied in the edited version). This is only the edited version as the
uncensored one includes a newborn infant having its skull graphically crushed
against a gas pedal by its own mother who is desperately trying to escape.
Knowing all this, would you still watch the film? This I leave up to you, the
reader, to decide.
Dialogue is kept to a minimum in the film and the acting is
on the amateurish side as everyone exaggerates with all the expletives. I must
say, I am impressed by Six being able to gather such a cast willing to strip
down naked and then crawl on all fours while having their heads taped to
another person’s rear end. The one performance that really stands out is Laurence
R. Harvey, who inspires pity and disgust at the same time. I have no idea where
Six found him but he apparently worked in children’s television and theater so
there’s a bit of irony seeing him in a film like this given his previous roles.
During his audition, he admitted that he flipped a chair upside down to mimic
raping someone as Six wanted to challenge him. From interviews, he comes off as
a friendly chap but on film, his mere blank stare inspires chills. This is the
birth of a horror icon. None of the original cast returns with the exception of
Ashlynn Yennie, who is playing an exaggerated version of herself.
“The Human
Centipede II [Full Sequence]” had a limited theatrical release on October 7,
2011 and will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on February 14, 2012, which is
ironically Valentine’s Day. For those living in New York City, the only theater
that showed the film was the IFC Center and they were only doing midnight
screenings. I have no information on its production budget but it was
reportedly similar to the first film. Either way, its low box office earnings ($123,043
domestic) shouldn’t be a problem as it’ll break even as a home and
video-on-demand release. Reception has been negative with 31% on Rotten
Tomatoes as critics concluded the sequel ‘attempts to weave in social commentary
but as the movie wears on, it loses its ability to repulse and shock and ends
up obnoxious and annoying.’ Roger Ebert wrote in his own review that it was ‘reprehensible,
dismaying, ugly, artless and an affront to any notion, however remote, of human
decency’ and awarded the film zero
stars compared to the non-rating of the original. I will not be surprised if
most people have this type of reaction and there’s nothing wrong with that but
for me, it’s impossible to quantify my feelings with an arbitrary score. I
appreciate Tom Six’s talent in making
the film but whatever he wanted to say was lost in the sea of relentless
violence so the only comment I can make without hesitation is that this sequel
is inferior to the original. Whether you hate it or love it though, “The Human
Centipede II [Full Sequence]” will be
talked about for a long time to come.
Final
Rating: N/A (Does not mean 0 out of 5)
*No
line here since much of the film is dialogue-less.*
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