The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)
Encyclopedia
The Human Centipede 2 is a 2011 British-Dutch body 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 compulsory 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. There is little dialogue in the film's second half, except for moans, screams, and whimpers.
, 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 asthma
tic, 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
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.
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 neighbour, a rental agent, and a rich man and his very pregnant wife. Once Martin has his victims, he severs the tendon
s 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 buttlocks 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.
However, with one of his victims dies from their wounds, and the pregnant woman seem to be dead, the centipede 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 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 labour and births a child into the foot well. Immediately after, the engine turns on and she stomps on the accelerator, smashing her newborn's skull in the process. Martin is shown 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 up Martin's rectum, grabs the centipede and sticks it inside. Yennie is then stabbed in the face by Martin and presumably dies. Martin is then shown screaming as he tries to remove the centipede. As he staggers out the door, the camera focuses on the dead 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.
to The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
, and a possible third film depending upon its success. 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."
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. 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. 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.
Filming for Full Sequence began in London
in June 2010 with a largely British cast. 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.
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.
(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. The BBFC had given the preceding First Sequence title an 18 certificate
. The board stated that they had considered First Sequence to be "undoubtedly tasteless and disgusting", but deemed it acceptable for release because the "centipede" was the product of a "revolting medical experiment". They had also taken legal advice that First Sequence was not in breach of the Obscene Publications Act
.
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". The board members felt that the centipede of Full Sequence existed purely as "the object of the protagonist's depraved sexual fantasy". 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" and stated their opinion that the film was potentially in breach of the Obscene Publications Act. 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".
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. Six also referred to the BBFC's refusal to classify the film as "exceptional".
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: a man 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; a man with barbed wire wrapped around his penis violently raping a woman; a newborn baby being killed; and graphic sight of injury as staples are torn away from individuals' mouth and buttocks.
) and Family Voice Australia acclaimed the decision.
in Austin, Texas
, on September 22, 2011. The film's distributor, IFC Films
, gave audience members complimentary barf bags
at the screening, and stationed an ambulance outside the theater as a gimmick
. However, one audience member became so physically ill during the premiere that real paramedics had to assist her.
The film received a United States limited theatrical release
on October 7, 2011. It was released unrated and only had midnight showings.
based on 64 reviews, and 17 out of 100 at Metacritic
from 22 reviews.
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. 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." 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."
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." 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."
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.
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."
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. Regardless, Olsen concluded that writer-director Six has left himself with no good option for the third film. He concluded his review:
Body horror
Body horror, biological horror, organic horror or venereal horror is horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body. Such works may deal with disease, decay, parasitism, mutilation, or mutation...
film directed by Dutch filmmaker Tom Six. The sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to 2010's Dutch film The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
The Human Centipede is a 2010 Dutch horror film written and directed by Tom Six. The film tells the story of a German doctor who kidnaps three tourists and joins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming a "human centipede". It stars Dieter Laser as the villain, Dr. Heiter, with Ashley C. Williams,...
, the film was scheduled for straight-to-DVD release
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
. It was originally banned in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by the BBFC because of its "revolting" content but was eventually granted an 18 certificate
18 certificate
The 18 certificate is issued by the British Board of Film Classification to state that, in its opinion, a film, video recording, or game should not be seen or purchased by a person under 18 years old....
after over 32 compulsory cuts were made.
The film was shot in color and converted to black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
in post-production. The film's antagonist, played by Laurence R. Harvey, has no dialogue except for a few laughs and moans. There is little dialogue in the film's second half, except for moans, screams, and whimpers.
Plot
The film opens with the final moments of The Human Centipede (First Sequence)The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
The Human Centipede is a 2010 Dutch horror film written and directed by Tom Six. The film tells the story of a German doctor who kidnaps three tourists and joins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming a "human centipede". It stars Dieter Laser as the villain, Dr. Heiter, with Ashley C. Williams,...
, including the closing credits
End Credits
"End Credits" is the first single from Drum and Bass duo Chase & Status' second studio album No More Idols. The single was co-written, co-produced and features vocals from Plan B and was released on 29 October 2009, reaching a peak position of No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart...
. 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 asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
tic, overweight
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
, mentally ill
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, 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
Hard dance
Hard Dance is an umbrella term that refers to a group of Hard electronic dance genres which aren't hard enough to be classified as hardcore. The term usually includes genres such as Hard House, Hard NRG, Hard Trance, and Hardstyle...
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
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
repeatedly by his father, now in prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
(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
Metanarrative
A metanarrative , in critical theory and particularly postmodernism, is an abstract idea that is thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. According to John Stephens, it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge...
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
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
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.
He telephones the three actors from the first film, pretending to be Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's casting agent, and tries to lure them to London. Only one, Ashlynn Yennie
Ashlynn Yennie
Ashlynn Yennie is an American actress from Riverton, Wyoming. She is best known for playing the role of Jenny in the 2010 Dutch horror film, The Human Centipede . In 2010, she starred as Starlene Arbuckle, in the CM Downs directed horror film, Fetch...
(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 neighbour, a rental agent, and a rich man and his very pregnant wife. Once Martin has his victims, he severs the tendon
Tendon
A tendon is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone and is capable of withstanding tension. Tendons are similar to ligaments and fasciae as they are all made of collagen except that ligaments join one bone to another bone, and fasciae connect muscles to other...
s 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 buttlocks of 11 of the victims (graphically depicted on screen), and then—lacking any surgical equipment—uses a staple gun
Staple gun
A staple gun or powered stapler is a hand-held machine used to drive heavy metal staples into wood, plastic, or masonry. Staple guns are used for many different applications and to affix a variety of materials, including insulation, house wrap, roofing, wiring, carpeting, upholstery, and hobby and...
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
Coprophagia
Coprophagia or coprophagy is the consumption of feces, from the Greek κόπρος copros and φαγεῖν phagein . Many animal species practice coprophagia as a matter of course; other species do not normally consume feces but may do so under unusual conditions...
. When one of his victims dies from their wounds, Martin sobs softly.
However, with one of his victims dies from their wounds, and the pregnant woman seem to be dead, the centipede 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
Laxative
Laxatives are foods, compounds, or drugs taken to induce bowel movements or to loosen the stool, most often taken to treat constipation. Certain stimulant, lubricant, and saline laxatives are used to evacuate the colon for rectal and/or bowel examinations, and may be supplemented by enemas under...
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 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 labour and births a child into the foot well. Immediately after, the engine turns on and she stomps on the accelerator, smashing her newborn's skull in the process. Martin is shown 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 up Martin's rectum, grabs the centipede and sticks it inside. Yennie is then stabbed in the face by Martin and presumably dies. Martin is then shown screaming as he tries to remove the centipede. As he staggers out the door, the camera focuses on the dead 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.
Cast
- Laurence R. Harvey as Martin Lomax
- Ashlynn YennieAshlynn YennieAshlynn Yennie is an American actress from Riverton, Wyoming. She is best known for playing the role of Jenny in the 2010 Dutch horror film, The Human Centipede . In 2010, she starred as Starlene Arbuckle, in the CM Downs directed horror film, Fetch...
as Miss Yennie - Dominic Borrelli as Paul
- Vivien Bridson as Mrs. Lomax
- Lee Harris as Dick
- Peter Blankenstein as Alan
- Bill Hutchens as Dr. Sebring
- Dan Burman as Greg
- Daniel Jude Gennis as Tim
- Kandace Caine as Karrie
- Maddi Black as Candy
- Lucas Hansen as Ian
- Georgia Goodrick as Valerie
- Emma Lock as Kim
- Hugo Sampson as Oscar
- Tom Six as the voice of Mr. Lomax
Production
Director Tom Six stated in 2010 that he was working on a sequelSequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
The Human Centipede is a 2010 Dutch horror film written and directed by Tom Six. The film tells the story of a German doctor who kidnaps three tourists and joins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming a "human centipede". It stars Dieter Laser as the villain, Dr. Heiter, with Ashley C. Williams,...
, and a possible third film depending upon its success. 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
My Little Pony
My Little Pony is a brand of toy ponies marketed primarily to girls produced by the toy manufacturer Hasbro. These ponies can be identified by their colorful bodies and manes and a unique symbol on one or both sides of their flanks...
compared with part two."
Speculation regarding the plot of Full Sequence grew after the Weekend of Horrors convention in May 2010, when Ashlynn Yennie
Ashlynn Yennie
Ashlynn Yennie is an American actress from Riverton, Wyoming. She is best known for playing the role of Jenny in the 2010 Dutch horror film, The Human Centipede . In 2010, she starred as Starlene Arbuckle, in the CM Downs directed horror film, Fetch...
and Akihiro Kitamura
Akihiro Kitamura
is a Japanese actor and director, who appeared in The Human Centipede .-Early life:After moving to the United States at the age of 18, Kitamura studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse for five years...
, who had starred in First Sequence hinted that their characters, despite their deaths in First Sequence, might be returning for the sequel. 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. 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.
Filming for Full Sequence began in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in June 2010 with a largely British cast. 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.
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.
Classification refusal in United Kingdom
In June 2011, the British Board of Film ClassificationBritish Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
(BBFC) refused to classify The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) for a direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
release, effectively meaning that the film could not legally be supplied in any format in the UK. The BBFC had given the preceding First Sequence title an 18 certificate
18 certificate
The 18 certificate is issued by the British Board of Film Classification to state that, in its opinion, a film, video recording, or game should not be seen or purchased by a person under 18 years old....
. The board stated that they had considered First Sequence to be "undoubtedly tasteless and disgusting", but deemed it acceptable for release because the "centipede" was the product of a "revolting medical experiment". They had also taken legal advice that First Sequence was not in breach of the Obscene Publications Act
Obscene Publications Act
Since 1857, a series of obscenity laws known as the Obscene Publications Acts have governed what can be published in England and Wales. The classic definition of criminal obscenity is if it "tends to deprave and corrupt," stated in 1868 by John Duke Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge.There have been...
.
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". The board members felt that the centipede of Full Sequence existed purely as "the object of the protagonist's depraved sexual fantasy". 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" and stated their opinion that the film was potentially in breach of the Obscene Publications Act. 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".
Director Tom Six responded to the BBFC's decision in a statement released the next day to Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
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. Six also referred to the BBFC's refusal to classify the film as "exceptional".
In October 2011, the BBFC granted the film an 18 certificate
18 certificate
The 18 certificate is issued by the British Board of Film Classification to state that, in its opinion, a film, video recording, or game should not be seen or purchased by a person under 18 years old....
after 32 compulsory cuts totalling 2 minutes and 37 seconds were made. The cuts included: a man 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; a man with barbed wire wrapped around his penis violently raping a woman; a newborn baby being killed; and graphic sight of injury as staples are torn away from individuals' mouth and buttocks.
Classification refusal in Australia
In Australia, the film was originally granted an R18+ rating; however, this was later overruled after Minister for Justice Brendan O'Connor asked for a review of the rating. On November 28, 2011, the film was reviewed and by unanimous decision of a three-person board, refused classification. Conservative Christian groups (including Collective Shout, responsible for calling for a review of the original R18+ rating for A Serbian FilmA Serbian Film
A Serbian Film is a 2010 Serbian horror film and the first feature film directed by Srđan Spasojević. It tells the story of a down-on-his-luck porn star who agrees to participate in an "art film", only to discover that he has been drafted into a snuff film with child rape and necrophilic themes...
) and Family Voice Australia acclaimed the decision.
United States release
The film had its United States premiere at Fantastic FestFantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of The Iron Giant and Secondhand Lions. The festival focuses on genre films such as horror,...
in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, on September 22, 2011. The film's distributor, IFC Films
IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....
, gave audience members complimentary barf bags
Airsickness bag
An airsickness bag is a small bag commonly provided to passengers on board airplanes and boats to collect and contain vomit in the event of motion sickness. Hovercraft-ferry operators and even train companies have also been known to supply bags...
at the screening, and stationed an ambulance outside the theater as a gimmick
Gimmick
In marketing language, a gimmick is a unique or quirky special feature that makes something "stand out" from its contemporaries. However, the special feature is typically thought to be of little relevance or use. Thus, a gimmick is a special feature for the sake of having a special feature...
. However, one audience member became so physically ill during the premiere that real paramedics had to assist her.
The film received a United States limited theatrical release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
on October 7, 2011. It was released unrated and only had midnight showings.
Reception
As of November 15, 2011, the film had garnered very negative reviews; it currently has a rating of 27% at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 64 reviews, and 17 out of 100 at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
from 22 reviews.
Giving the film a score of 7 out of 10, Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is a website that covers horror movies with reviews, interviews and news. It is currently run by Brad Miska, and Tom Owen. According to one source, the site has 1.5 million unique visitors and 20 million page views each month. It is widely considered to be the "world's most...
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. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
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." Writing in the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, 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."
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." 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."
Some reviewers found the extreme nature of the film boring. Robert Koehler, writing for Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, 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.
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."
Mark Olsen, film critic for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
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. Regardless, Olsen concluded that writer-director Six has left himself with no good option for the third film. He concluded his review: