by Thomas Willett
11:00pm PST, November 2, 2011
In 2009, director Tom Six made considerable buzz with The Human Centipede, a movie that was considered grotesque and different. While it isn’t in the pantheon of great horror, it is impressive to have seen it grow into a popular title alongside Paranormal Activity. When Six announced a sequel, he promised it to be more violent and medically inacurrate.
What resulted in The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence doesn’t feel like a triumphant continuation, but a self-indulgent love letter. The movie centralizes around Martin (Laurence R. Harvey), a mentally disturbed fan of the first film, The Human Centipede. That movie isn’t so much referenced as it is used as a play-by-play for Martin’s own centipede creation. His obsessive study leads to brutally injuring innocent bystanders and throwing them in an abandoned warehouse.
Where the original’s twist on the unfortunate traveller scenario had some flavor by focusing on the victims, the choice to focus on the villain is less interesting. While it attempts to establish Martin as a sympathetic person, it’s done so poorly that the first 40 minutes of quiet tension drag on. There is nothing established to make his character interesting and what background he’s given doesn’t help to shift tones as this enters the graphic third act. The fact that he’s enjoying every moment feels more of a reflection from the director’s desire to push envelopes than make a great story.
It definitely is more repulsive, but it’s also less interesting. The attempt to commentate on The Human Centipede’s cultural influence is a running gag that falls flat, even bringing back actress Ashlynn Yennie to discuss her part in the film. The film wants to make Martin into the psychotic, movie obsessed villain like in Scream, but never once allows him to do more than stare dead-eyed and hurt anyone that stands in his way. The supporting cast also lacks any ambition and refuses to fight against Martin. This eventually becomes an 88 minute movie about bullying with no rich context.
The movie’s biggest flaw lies in the choice to shoot it in black and white. While bizarre imagery and dark, dramatic tones worked for Eraserhead, this feels like a bad knock-off. The choice felt more like a pretentious move by Tom Six to sophisticate a dumb plot and try to make it seem artistic. The movie’s lack of plot can be noticed heavily when the entire procedure of breaking teeth and cutting bones each get minutes of close-ups. It can be argued that it’s meant to shock, but this is a 30 minute story stretched way too thin.
Most of all, it relies too much on the notoriety of the first film to forward the plot. Every scene in some way directly references it. By the end, Six proves that his attempt to make a movie more graphic and medically inaccurate can be done, but he acknowledges that he is more of a one trick pony by writing a love letter to himself. He tries to go for weird, Lynchian imagery, but lacks any strong characters or stories to complement it.
The Human Centipede II manages to squash all of the intrigue and as a result, it will never be respected in the torture-porn category as much as Saw. It’s only lasting achievements will be a reminder of an idea that was exploited to the point of a terrible movie. No one will be ripping off this franchise any time soon, except the director. It’s a dull mess that is very self-indulgent and has high hopes that it never tries to reach. It gives horror a bad name by insulting its audience and never once thinking that they can handle something innovative.
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