| The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Tom Six |
| Produced by | Tom Six Ilona Six |
| Written by | Tom Six |
| Starring | Laurence R. Harvey Ashlynn Yennie |
| Music by | James Edward Barker Eilam Hoffman |
| Cinematography | David Meadows |
| Studio | Six Entertainment Company |
| Distributed by | Bounty Films (United Kingdom) IFC Midnight (United States)[1] |
| Release date(s) | 22 September 2011 (Fantastic Fest) 7 October 2011 (United States)[2] |
| Running time | 87 minutes (International cut) 84 minutes (United Kingdom cut) |
| Country | United Kingdom Netherlands |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $123,043[3] |
The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) is a 2011 British-Dutch horror film directed by Dutch filmmaker Tom Six. The sequel to 2010's Dutch film The Human Centipede (First Sequence), the film was scheduled for straight-to-DVD release. It was originally banned in the United Kingdom by the BBFC because of its "revolting" content but was eventually granted an 18 certificate after over 32 cuts were made.
The film was shot in color and converted to black-and-white in post-production. The film's antagonist, played by Laurence R. Harvey, has no dialogue except for a few laughs and moans.[4] There is little dialogue in the film's second half, except for moans, screams, and whimpers.[5]
Contents |
The film opens with the final moments of The Human Centipede (First Sequence), including the closing credits. The camera pulls back, to reveal that this is playing on a laptop computer, and a man in a toll booth in a parking garage is watching the film. Martin Lomax (Laurence R. Harvey) is an asthmatic, overweight, mentally ill, middle-aged, short British man. He lives in a small flat with his emotionally abusive mother (Vivien Bridson) while working as a security guard in an underground parking garage. His neighbours play Hard Dance music at high levels all night and day, and Martin often spies on the rich individuals who use the parking garage. Dr. Sebring (Bill Hutchens) suspects that Martin was sexually abused repeatedly by his father, now in prison (a suspicion confirmed when Martin has a flashback to this abuse, in which the audience hears the father [voiced by Tom Six] raping his son).
In a metanarrative device, Martin is obsessed with The Human Centipede (First Sequence), watching it repeatedly at home and in his toll booth. At one point, he is depicted masturbating (graphically and on-screen) to the film with sandpaper wrapped around his penis. He keeps a centipede as a pet, and maintains a scrapbook on the film. When his mother destroys the scrapbook, Martin crushes her skull and then props her dead body up at the kitchen table. Martin wordlessly decides to recreate the fictional experiment he saw portrayed in The Human Centipede (First Sequence). Medically untrained, he assembles a potpourri of kitchen gadgets, woodworking tools, and assorted household items, puts them in a suitcase, and secures a dingy, dirty, dark abandoned warehouse to recreate the film's medical experiment. But Martin intends to create not just a three-person centipede, but the "full sequence" of 12 connected people.
Off-screen, he telephones the three actors from the first film, pretending to be Quentin Tarantino's casting agent, and tries to lure them to London. Only one, Ashlynn Yennie (portraying herself), does so. Most of the first hour of the film shows how Martin attacks, beats, and kidnaps his victims. Among his victims are a neighbor, a rental agent, and a rich man and his very pregnant wife. Once Martin has his victims, he severs the tendons in each person's legs (graphically and on-screen) to prevent them from fleeing. He uses a hammer to knock out their teeth one by one, putting his fingers in their blood-filled mouths to fish out their teeth so they will not swallow and choke on them in a suicide attempt. He slices open the buttocks of 11 of the victims (graphically depicted on screen), and then—lacking any surgical equipment—uses a staple gun to attach each person's face to the next person's anus. Martin chooses Yennie to be the front of the "human centipede", so she does not have to eat anyone else's feces. When one of his victims dies from their wounds, Martin sobs softly. Along with this, the pregnant woman is presumed dead, so the centipede finally contains only ten people, instead of twelve.
Martin, who is clad only in his underwear throughout much of the latter portion of the film, becomes more and more sexually aroused by the desperation and travails of his "human centipede". He administers an excessive amount of laxative to his creation (after a previous attempt to recreate the defecation scene from the 1st film fails), forcing each individual in the chain to explosively evacuate their bowels into the mouth of the person behind them. When one of his victims chokes to death on their own vomit, Martin again breaks down in tears.
Unbeknownst to Martin, the pregnant woman, whom he believed had died, regains consciousness under a tarp next to another dead body. She bursts out of the tarp and runs, with blood gushing from her, outside screaming and leaps into a car, trying to start the engine. Martin chases after her and throws himself against the car's windows, unable to get in. At the same time, the pregnant woman goes into labor and births a child into the foot well. Immediately after, she turns on the engine and stomps on the accelerator, leaving Martin crying in rage. Meanwhile, the "centipede" splits in half as one of the victim rips his face from the person in front. Martin then heads back into the warehouse and shoots all the members of the centipede in rage until his gun runs out of ammo, then slices their necks with a kitchen knife. Yennie is the only member that remains alive. She punches him in the genitals then, in a fit of adrenalin-induced rage, grabs the funnel Martin used to force-feed her earlier, shoves it into Martin's rectum, grabs the centipede and sticks it inside. Yennie is then stabbed in the face by Martin and presumably dies. Martin is shown screaming as he tries to remove the centipede. As he staggers out the door, the camera focuses on the dead human centipede and Ashlynn Yennie is shown turning over of her own accord, possibly hinting that she survived.
The film ends with Martin watching the DVD of the original film at work, while a baby is heard crying in the background, leaving it ambiguous as to whether the events of the film were real or not.
Director Tom Six stated in 2010 that he was working on a sequel to The Human Centipede (First Sequence), and a possible third film depending upon its success.[7] He said that the plot would follow on from the first film, but with a centipede made from twelve people as opposed to the three victims of the first film. The tag-line would be "100% medically inaccurate", in contrast to his "100% medically accurate" claim for the first film. Tom Six claimed the sequel would be much more graphic and disturbing, making the first film seem like "My Little Pony compared with part two."[8]
Speculation regarding the plot of Full Sequence grew after the Weekend of Horrors convention in May 2010, when Ashlynn Yennie and Akihiro Kitamura, who had starred in First Sequence hinted that their characters, despite their deaths in First Sequence, might be returning for the sequel.[9] Additionally, Ashley C. Williams, whose character was left alive at the end of First Sequence, stated in September 2010 that she was shooting a horror film in England, which led to speculation from FEARnet that she would be reprising the role of Lindsay from the first film.[10] In a further interview, Ashlynn Yennie confirmed Six's claims that the sequel will contain "the blood and shit" which viewers did not see in the first film.[9]
Filming for Full Sequence began in London in June 2010 with a largely British cast.[11] A teaser trailer was released on 24 September, in which Six introduced Martin, a man wearing a cardboard box over his head, as the new doctor.[12]
According to Six, he intentionally made Full Sequence very different from First Sequence, due to two reasons. First, back when he was writing the script of First Sequence, he knew people would want more "blood and shit" than is shown, and second, the two parts reflect the two different characters of their protagonists: the coloured First Sequence, with a slow-moving camera, fitted the story of Dr. Heiter, while Martin Lomax's character required a "dark and dirty" film. Six shot Full Sequence in colour, but "was always thinking about black and white" and realized while editing that it was "much scarier" in black and white.[13]
In June 2011, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) refused to classify The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) for a direct-to-video release, effectively meaning that the film could not legally be supplied in any format in the UK.[14] The BBFC had given the preceding First Sequence title an 18 certificate.[15] The board stated that they had considered First Sequence to be "undoubtedly tasteless and disgusting",[16] but deemed it acceptable for release because the "centipede" was the product of a "revolting medical experiment".[16] They had also taken legal advice that First Sequence was not in breach of the Obscene Publications Act.[17]
By contrast, the BBFC report on Full Sequence stated that the film's content was too extreme for an 18 certificate and was "sexually violent and potentially obscene".[18] The board members felt that the centipede of Full Sequence existed purely as "the object of the protagonist's depraved sexual fantasy".[16] They criticised the film for making "little attempt to portray any of the victims… 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"[19] and stated their opinion that the film was potentially in breach of the Obscene Publications Act.[14] The BBFC stated that they would not reclassify the film in future, as "no amount of cuts would allow them to give it a certificate".[14]
Director Tom Six responded to the BBFC's decision in a statement released the next day to Empire magazine. Six criticised the BBFC for including film spoilers in their report, and stated that the film was "...fictional. Not real. It is all make-belief. It is art..." and that viewers should be able to choose for themselves whether or not they decided to view the film.[20] Six also referred to the BBFC's refusal to classify the film as "exceptional".[20][21]
In October 2011, the BBFC granted the film an 18 certificate after 32 compulsory cuts totalling 2 minutes and 37 seconds were made. The cuts included: Martin masturbating with sandpaper around his penis; graphic sight of a man's teeth being removed with a hammer; graphic sight of lips being stapled to naked buttocks; graphic sight of forced defecation into and around other victims' mouths; Martin with barbed wire wrapped around his penis violently raping a woman; a newborn baby being killed; and the graphic sight of injury as staples are torn away from individuals' mouths and buttocks.[22]
In Australia, the uncut film was originally granted an R18+ rating;[23] however, this was later overruled after Minister for Justice Brendan O'Connor asked for a review of the rating (handled by a separate group, the Classification Review Board). On November 28, 2011, the film was reviewed and by unanimous decision of a three-person board, refused classification.[24] Conservative Christian groups (including Collective Shout, responsible for calling for a review of the original R18+ rating for A Serbian Film) and Family Voice Australia acclaimed the decision.[25]
Following the film's ban on review, Australian applicant Monster Pictures announced its plans to submit a modified version for classification on December 9, 2011.[26] On December 14, 2011, Monster Pictures announced that a "slightly trimmed" (with 30 seconds cut[27]) version of the film has been passed with an R18+ certificate in Australia.[28][27] The modified version will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 23, 2012.[29][30]
The film had its United States premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, on September 22, 2011.[2] The film's distributor, IFC Films, gave audience members complimentary barf bags at the screening,[2] and stationed an ambulance outside the theater as a gimmick.[1] However, one audience member became so physically ill during the premiere that real paramedics had to assist her.[1]
The film received a United States limited theatrical release on October 7, 2011.[31] It was released unrated and only had midnight showings.
As of December 3, 2011, the film had garnered negative reviews; it currently has a rating of 30% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 69 reviews,[32] and 17 out of 100 at Metacritic from 22 reviews.[33]
Giving the film a score of 7 out of 10, Bloody Disgusting writer Brad Miska said the film was a "brilliant response to critics of his first film. It makes a strong statement that it's just a movie and that people take his work way too seriously, while also implementing a unique concept". Miska added that he "found it an intensely engaging and absolutely hilarious meta experience that gets its point across with flying colors", but was critical of the script's lack of depth.[34] Entertainment Weekly writer Owen Gleiberman gave the film a B+ rating, stating that viewers "may feel gripped by the horror of what you're seeing and the terror of what's coming". Gleiberman noted how "The scatological climax would have the Marquis de Sade gagging into his popcorn."[35] Writing in the New York Post, V. A. Musetto gave the film 3 out of 4 and said Full Sequence "is sick, disgusting and vile. (but) It’s also demonically funny, stylish and ingenious."[36]
Jen Yamato, writing for Movieline, criticized the film's excessive gore and the way director Tom Six seemed to dislike his own audience. "It’s not really a film one can or should 'enjoy', which is what Six seems to be telling his own audience, the fans who giggled through The Human Centipede and demanded more! Gorier! More extreme! Well, those people will get what they asked for."[2] Eric Kohn, writing for indieWire, criticized the excessive grotesqueness of the film as well as Six's vanity. "Well, what if it turns someone's own body against them—is that a measure of success? To some degree, yes; it's designed to turn the tables on its own gore-hungry fans by depicting a fictionalized version of one of their own so revolting they think twice about their twisted tendencies. But it's so indulgently perverse, and so viscerally disturbing to watch—not to mention a painfully vain exercise in self-worship—that the lesson is incredibly hard-won. Take a word of warning, if you're on the fence; you don't have to see The Human Centipede II to know you don't want to see it."[1]
Some reviewers found the extreme nature of the film boring. Robert Koehler, writing for Variety, found the gore so excessive it was boring and a form of lazy filmmaking. "More boring than stomach-churning, the film nevertheless contains scattered scenes and sequences so far beyond the tolerance of the squeamish that it can't be overstated; one, detailing the violent birth and death of a baby, is here simply to shock the most jaded of the jaded," he wrote.[4]
Reviewer Robert Saucedo of InsidePulse.com was more generous toward the film, but found its execution lacking. "The film … has a hint of intelligence hiding behind its beady little eyes. Smeared with blood and poo as it may be, this intelligence exposes a film that has something to say. The problem, unfortunately, is that director Tom Six is like a child — attempting to make a profound statement but unable to get it out eloquently or even in anything not resembling a whimper or a groan most of the time. … Who would have guessed? Human Centipede II is a treatise about horror fandom as delivered by a giggling, poop-infatuated toddler."[5]
Mark Olsen, film critic for the Los Angeles Times expressed concern over the film's conclusion as well as its basic premise. The conclusion (which he admits is open to interpretation; did Lomax commit these crimes or not?) leaves the audience either believing that the film is a "cop-out repudiation of everything that has come prior" or that even more graphic torture is coming in the third film.[37] Regardless, Olsen concluded that writer-director Six has left himself with no good option for the third film. He concluded his review:[37]
"With this punkish response film, Six has in essence backed himself into a rhetorical corner, leaving as perhaps the only option for his next stunt something in which the filmmaker Tom Six winds up with his mouth surgically attached to his own anus. Except that with the preening, aggrandizing self-referentiality of The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) Six has more or less already contorted himself into The Human Ouroboros."
Roger Ebert, who did not assign a star rating to the original, gave this film zero stars on review.[38]
As of August 2011, Six was already working on a sequel, to be titled The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence). Six has revealed that the film will again be very different from the previous part but will also start with its ending, so in the end the parts of the trilogy would form one continuous film about four and a half hours long, making it similar to a centipede. Critics have likened this progression to the repeated defecation of each "segment" into the next. He also stated that the third film will answer some "lasting questions," will have a strange happy ending, and will be the last of the series as he does not want to do any more Centipede films.[13] In an interview with DreadCentral.com, Six said the third film will "make the last one look like a Disney film. We're going to shoot the third film entirely in America, and it's going to be my favourite... It's going to upset a lot of people."[39]