The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence. 2011. Directed and Written by Tom Six.
Starring Laurence R. Harvey, Ashlynn Yennie, Maddi Black, Kandace Caine, Dominic Borrelli, Lucas Hansen, Lee Nicholas Harris, Dan Burman, Daniel Jude Gennis, Georgia Goodrick, and Emma Lock. Six Entertainment Company.
Unrated. 91 minutes.
Horror
1/2★
I’d always known from the subtitle of First Sequence in the first film, Tom Six would continue on to do more work on sequels. I think that was always his plan because it seems that subtitle intended right away there would be further films in the series.
That being said, I’m not particular thrilled that Tom Six decided to keep going. While I do find the premise of The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence, I think Six would do far better moving onto something else and putting his unique touch on another film. That’s his choice, however, and I’ve got nothing to do with it.
It only frustrates me because the first movie was a decent horror, and the beginning of this movie sets up an interesting premise, yet Six squanders the potential.
There’s a bit of a deeper idea behind this sequel. Certainly it’s meta, beyond the concept of meta, which is actually something I love. Though it’s only a bit of shock horror, much unlike the method Six went for in the first film, I feel like Six has a bit of a message here. It’s still just blood and gore and depravity, but the main character sort of speaks to the obsession people have with horror. I don’t know if, ultimately, Six is mocking people who think horror/disturbing films have an overall negative effect on people, or if he’s saying there are some twisted fucks out there who might be sitting at home or at their dead-end jobs plotting to use horror movie scripts as their own M.O. Not sure, but regardless, I think beyond all the cheap horror Six brings for this lacklustre sequel, there is some kind of commentary on horror movies, and how we as viewers interact with that horror as either detractors or fans.
Meet Martin (Laurence R. Harvey) – he’s a loner, mentally ravaged by his parents, living with his mother in a terrible sort of flat on a dreary housing complex. He is a nightshift security guard in a below ground parking lot. There, he watches The Human Centipede: First Sequence, fantasizing about applying the fictional Dr. Heiter’s methods to real life and making himself a real Human Centipede. At home, he is plagued by his mother’s hatred, tough guy neighbours who want to play their music however loud they feel, and a creepy doctor who seems to take an affection to Martin, though, the wrong kind.
Slowly, Martin begins to collect victims so that he might eventually create the fabled Human Centipede. It isn’t only a will to kill and hurt. Martin is beyond turned on by the prospect of connecting all his victims, mouth to anus, anus to mouth. He is a vile, wretched human being.
Thus begins the vicious and menacing sequel which is: The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence.
Before I let loose on what I don’t like about this sequel, I’ll start with the few portions I actually really do enjoy about Full Sequence.
There’s something about the choice to film this in black-and-white that interests me. Not sure what Six was attempting to accomplish. Perhaps it’s because of how hardcore the gore and sick imagery is in the film, Six decided to go with black-and-white to try and counteract how vicious things look; if it were colour, I can only begin to fathom how brutal it might end up being. Black-and-white can really give off a natural feeling when used appropriately. I think Six does well with this concept, though, it does not help to really tone things down in the end because there’s just so much rottenness happening. Taking the colour out so that the blood and guts and nasty bits don’t look as vibrant and in your face, for this film, does nothing to lessen the blow. Maybe that’s not why Six chose to do this black-and-white, maybe he just imagined it would look a bit artsy and give the film some credibility. I don’t know.
I do think that at times this really works. The scenes at home with Martin and his mother, all those bits, they were spectacular as black-and-white. Honestly, if the depravity level weren’t skyrocketing into the outer atmosphere near Mars, this movie would have done well with the black-and-white scheme. I don’t think it hurts the horror, it does not detract. I just feel as if the horror here is for horror’s sake. I know that the story itself dictates how much blood and gore will come out – it’s all based around Martin’s obsession and sick lust over the original film. But still, I loved the first Human Centipede because, though highly disturbing subject matter, it felt like it was more restrained than I’d expected, and Six really put together a decent horrifying film.
The black-and-white idea is really something when it comes to a lot of scenes. Even that savage moment where Martin kills his mother, drags her to the table, then has a little bit to eat before egging on the musclehead upstairs and subduing him to add to his Centipede; I found this a chilling bit of horror. Honestly, if Martin hadn’t succeeded to even put together the Centipede, this might’ve worked. Then I guess that would defeat the purpose, there has got to be a form of the Centipede somewhere throughout the film. The end result doesn’t spoil the good black-and-white scenes, but I wish Six could’ve done something better with it all.
My big problems with The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence have to do with the excess of gratuitous EVERYTHING. Not only does Six go for more disgusting sequences of nasty gore, he pulls in a lot of sexuality. Now, I’ve just finished with reviewing the Wrong Turn series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI), and part of my problem especially with the later entries was that there was a lot of sex and nudity brought in to either fill time, or from some perceived notion that there needed to be some sex in order to be true to “horror roots” (which is nonsense; I won’t go any further on that). Six does exactly this with his sequel. While Martin (Laurence Harvey) could have been just as sick and maniacal without so much of the sexual aspects being played up, and graphically most of the time onscreen, Six still opts to pile it on when it comes to the sex, as well as nudity.
The whole aspect of Martin obviously being abused by his father is fine. That’s understandable, especially dealing with a psychopath like Martin; he’s bound to have a history of sexual abuse, or any abuse. But Six lays it on way too hard. There’s enough outright and graphic imagery here without having to full-on show us every last single little thing.
C’mon, Tom! You can leave bits to the imagination while still having your nasty fun.
Basically, I think it comes down to Six’s lack of worry as a screenwriter. I hate to say that, and it’s not to say he can’t write, but I just feel like too much of this sequel (as opposed to the first film) relies on shock horror and the “torture porn” aspect of his story instead of going for real tension and suspense. The first had some excellent moments of tension that worked, but here that’s almost non-existent. Six has the ability to write, it’s just as if he doesn’t want to at times.
This is one of those horror movies that goes way over-the-top with its excessive blood, gore, and overall nastiness. I know that’s probably exactly what Tom Six set out to accomplish, and perhaps that’s the total of his expectations for the film. Unfortunately, for me anyways, I really did think that the first Human Centipede was a good horror – for all its flaws, it was effective and it didn’t need to go far over the line. It gave enough to get enough of the reaction needed. Here, Six surpassed was is needed to effectively communicate the disturbed world of Martin, the loner security guard and Dr. Josef Heiter obsessive fan. I think the combination of all the ridiculous gore while Martin creates his Centipede and the depraved sexuality that’s going on at certain points (worst case: Martin humps on one of his victims collected for the Centipede and it is horrifyingly sickening) really made things too much to even enjoy. For the people who love shock horror, and dare I say it “torture porn” (again I fucking hate that label), I guess it’s really enjoyable.
But to me, this goes beyond shock horror, or whatever you want to call it. Martin shits himself, he farts and he makes disgusting noises, and at certain times during the film I was saying aloud, “Are you fucking kidding me?” Once again – maybe that’s the point Mr. Six is trying to get at, maybe that’s what he wants from me as a member of his audience. I just don’t find it to be good horror, nor is it enjoyable on any level when things get to the point of ridiculously staged debauchery and murder.
Don’t even get me started on the fact that, without all the proper medical equipment and knowledge, I don’t see how a guy like Martin, dumb and fucked up in the head as he is, could ever manage to successfully staple and tape together a Human Centipede. Not even touching the fact he had what, twelve people, ten? I mean, that’s just brutal.
I can only give Full Sequence a half of one star. Honestly, I really did dig a lot of what Tom Six did in the first film, but this one is just an absolute mess – as we say here in Newfoundland, Canada, it’s a real fuckin’ state. What a brutal movie – and in no way do I mean that as complimentary. I thought a lot of the black-and-white was great when it involved the scenes at Martin’s flat, with his mother, et cetera. Even a few of the moments with him in the parking garage complex, before his big creation began, I found fairly well done and the black-and-white helped its creepy atmosphere. However, that does not keep up long.
In the end, there’s too much gross-out horror at work. The shock horror, the “torture porn” is all too evident. Some might say, “What did you expect?”. Well, frankly, I expected Six to follow up his decent start of the series with something near equal to what he’d done. What he did was try only to gross us out – nothing more. Maybe that’s fine for some, but even with the gory horror (think more modern like Martyrs – tons of gore and a great story) I often like to have at least some semblance of well-intentioned writing and coherence. Here, Six cops out, and instead of writing something that could’ve worked terrorizing wonders on his captive audience, all we get is the full toilet humour most jokes about The Human Centipede films cover. There’s no attempt at creating genuine horror. Here you’ll only find the disgusting, the nasty, and the wretchedly vile.
BEWARE: in the last fifteen minutes there is some truly atrocious stuff happening – I’m not one to get disgusted, I have seen so many rotten and over-the-top disgusting horror flicks, but this one really took my stomach for a whirl. It’s not that which ultimately bothers me, it’s the fact this stuff has no real purpose other than shock. In the first film, there was at least an attempt on Six’s part to come up with something that was uniquely terrifying, this is just nothing but cheap gross-out horror and failed attempts at (crazily) dark humour.
P.S. Why does that mother step on her baby? Did I miss something? I get it – she wanted to get away. But would a new mother who’d just traumatically popped out her child really just go ahead and step on the gas pedal, crushing her infant child? Is that actually plausible? She couldn’t pick the thing up, toss it in the passenger seat with the umbilical cord and drive away?
Come on, Tom – you can do better. Or I don’t know, maybe the “What did you expect?” crowd is right – maybe I should expect nothing more than perversity and needless gross-out horror from you. I’m about to watch the third instalment, who knows what it holds in store for me!
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