Music, Style & Culture

The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)

It fails as a horror film on every level - plotless and worthless.

Released in cinemas 4th November 2011.

With a heavy heart, this fervent supporter of the fabulously grotesque Human Centipede reports that the sequel is a travesty. It's as if writer and director Tom Six devoted his time and effort into mocking his critics rather than satisfying his fans, and the result is pretty much indefensible.

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) was a superb Cronenberg-esque body shocker that was all about suggestion. Reading the synopsis was about as horrifying as it got, and then the actual film was all about enjoying Dieter Laser's menacing turn as the misanthropic surgeon intent on defiling the human body in the most unimaginable way. The most refreshing thing about Six's approach was his respectful treatment of his female leads - minimal, discreet, clinical nudity, and no sexual violence. After all, the villain saw them as mere lab rats.

The sequel's concept is simple and meta - a demented fan of Six's film decides to make his own human centipede. Set in London, Laurence R. Harvey is quite the find as Martin, a sweaty, bug-eyed, socially-inept car park attendent with mild special needs. Martin lives in a grim flat with his emotionally overbearing mother (a hysterically wooden Vivien Bridson), who blames Martin for his paedophile father being imprisoned. We hear Martin's flashbacks to being abused in a particularly tactless manner, and such crassness is mirrored with the absurd sexual predator of a family doctor (Bill Hutchens). Martin watches The Human Centipede repeatedly and has a scrapbook on how to construct a "100% medically inaccurate" specimen. He picks off his victims by hammering their skulls with enough force to kill them, but they wake up stark naked in a disused warehouse, before the film descends into a relentless gorefest with no allowance for plot or tension.

All the director's good will goes out the window in the sequel, with many of his scenes reprehensible. What doesn't help, is that it's also a shocking poor film - almost amateurish. Bar his new star, the acting is low grade throughout. It's ugly in every way possible, with appalling photography and editing - Martin is shown using his asthma inhaler repeatedly, with the camera lingering on it longer each time, as if it has some importance. It doesn't, except to make the film even more tedious.

The lack of anything resembling a narrative makes this a depressingly pointless experience, and the ludicrous appearance of Ashlynn Yennie as herself cheapens the first film's legacy even further. It's too bad-natured and witless to be a black comedy - we're laughing at the film, not with it. Six's fantastic creation has become senseless torture porn of the worst kind, with sexual violence throughout. This time, Six portrays the effects of the human centipede in all its stomach-gurgling, throat-choking, faeces-splattering horror, and it's shot in such a childish manner it's embarrassing to watch.

Ironically, it doesn't even work using shock tactics, thanks to the cuts the BBFC insisted upon, and the fact there's nothing or no one to care about. The tragic fate of a heavily pregnant victim is now left open, but there are still enough shots of her abused, naked body for it to be repugnant. An exploitative rape scene is still present, but minus the barbed wire. Last year's A Serbian Film had scenarios far more disturbing, yet ended up a provocative and intelligent examination of degradation with some judicious editing. The Human Centipede 2 ends up even more of a half-witted mess minus its talking points. Worthless.

Rating: 2/10