The
Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)
Mentally
disturbed loner Martin (Laurence R. Harvey) lives with his mother in a
crumbling ghetto housing block and works as a security guard in a subterranean
multi-storey car park. Sexually
abused as a child by his father, mentally abused by his hysterical mother
(Vivien Bridsen) and under the care of the predatory Dr Sebring (Bill
Hutchens), Martin’s life is pretty bleak, his only relief comes from the movie The
Human Centipede
which he watches obsessively.
Fantasising about creating his own human centipede, Martin embarks on an
orgy of kidnap and murder, ‘collecting’ victims (including the first film’s
Ashlynn Yennie, here playing herself.
Unconvincingly) who annoy or ridicule him at the car park and storing
them, naked, bound and hobbled, in a filthy, disused warehouse. Unlike the first film’s fictional Dr
Heiter (Dieter Laser), Martin’s surgical skills are a more little rudimentary
but who needs medical training when you have a hammer, a butcher’s knife and a
staple gun...
Picture
the scene gentle reader. It’s
Summer 2010, you’re Dutch director Tom Six and you’re feeling pretty pleased
with yourself. You’ve just
unleashed your masterpiece on an unsuspecting audiences around the world, the
shocking, perverse The Human Centipede, a satirically intelligent, remarkably
restrained slice of torture porn.
Touching a nerve with audiences, it’s the cinematic equivalent of
marmite; people either love it or hate it but, if they’ve seen it, they’ve got
an opinion.
Like
the film’s psychotic villain, Dr Heiter (Dieter Laser), you bask in the glory
of your creation. You think
proudly: “That’s it, I’ve done it.
No-one’s ever making another film that’s more offensive, more
disturbing, more shocking, more genuinely upsetting than this. My place in cinema history is
assured.” Then A Serbian Film came out and burst your
bubble. Not only was it more
offensive, it had something to say, something important. You weren’t sure what it was saying but
it was definitely saying something.
Your film didn’t really say anything. At least, nothing deep.
So
what do you do? What can you
do? You’re just going to have to
go further. You’re going to have
to make a film so extreme, so repulsive, that there’s no way it’ll ever be
released! A film that’s so
shocking, disturbing and joyously sick that the namby-pamby moral nannies at
the British Board of Film Classification will have no choice but to ban the
film outright! Even if it’s only
for five minutes! And this time,
gosh-darnit, it’ll have something to say!
Something important!
Grafting
on a meta-level which allows Six to comment on the reception of the first film
and the ever-popular tabloid scare stories of video nasties warping
impressionable minds by having Martin, his fictional protagonist, develop a
sexual obsession with the first film which drives him to recreate its
atrocities using one of the real-life actresses from the first film, The
Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) ups the gore, nastiness and filth of the first film, making
it both repulsive viewing and a better, smarter film than its predecessor.
Unsurprisingly,
it was immediately banned by the British Board of Film Classification who felt
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.”
Which
basically means that Britain’s great unwashed mass of proletariat are far too
stupid to watch this movie. We’ll
be corrupted by it. We’ll see a
fat man kidnap some people, staple them together ass-to-mouth, feed them
laxatives, rape and murder them and think: “That looks fun. I think I’ll rent a warehouse and go on
my own rape-happy scatological voyage of self-discovery.”
BBFC
director, David Cooke, also stated back in June: “The Board considered
whether its concerns could be dealt with through cuts. However, given that the
unacceptable content runs throughout the work, cuts are not a viable option in
this case and the work is therefore refused a classification.”
So,
the core of this film is so evil, so disturbing, so plain wrong that there’s no cuts that will
make this film acceptable and it’ll never be screened for a British
audience. Right?
Which
is why, five months later, shorn of just 2 minutes 37 seconds (the infamous
barbed wire rape scene and something very nasty happening to a newborn baby), The
Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) hits UK screens this weekend.
It’s
not a nice film. It’s not a
pleasant film. It’s not a date
movie. It’s a cynical, nasty,
satirical piece of exploitation cinema which at times feels as if Tom Six is
working his way through a checklist of offenses. The first film wasn’t violent enough for you? Don’t worry, I’m trebling the number of
victims. There’s going to be
blood, guts and brains all over the place. The first film was too clean, too clinical, too IKEA? This time it’s down and dirty. Not enough warped sexuality and rape in
the first film for you? We got
wall-to-wall deviants this time.
Not enough excrement? Stand
back, I’m going to give you fountains of shit this time.
It is
a stunning film however, it’s crisp black and white visuals both beautiful and
horrific, reminiscent of David Lynch’s early work (Eraserhead, The Elephant
Man),
completely immersing the viewer in Martin’s warped, clammy world to the extent
that all you’ll want to do after watching the film is have a long, hot shower.
The
cast are fantastic giving brave, committed and grueling performances and
Laurence R. Harvey, who used to play a gnome in a kids TV show, is a revelation
as the mute Martin, a pathetic, depraved, damaged monster eliciting both
sympathy and terror in equal measure whilst, stretching herself, Ashlynn Yennie
plays a bimbo actress called…Ashlynn Yennie.
A
little too self-referential and reverent towards the first film, I formally
propose that The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) should be the subject of a
drinking game. Every time Tom
Six’s name appears on screen (which happens constantly as Martin only ever
seems to watch the closing credits of the first film), you have to drink. Every time a character mentions the
first film, you have to drink.
Every time Martin looks at his scrapbook, you have to drink. In fact, drinking may be the best way
to get through the film.
Smart,
funny and deeply unpleasant, The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) is the only film you’ll see
this week that doesn’t want you to like it.
David Watson
Writer/Director
Tom Six
Cast
Laurence R. Harvey, Ashlynn Yennie, Bill Hutchens, Vivien
Bridsen, Emma Lock
Country
UK/Netherlands
Running time
84 minutes
Year
2011
Certificate
18
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