THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (Full Sequence) – Fantastic Fest Review

WARNING: This review may contain “spoilers.”

Tom Six is definitely good at one thing; he can get a massive amount of attention — good and bad — for his films, and in show business, all publicity is good publicity, right? Written and directed by Tom Six, who first revealed himself to mass audiences in 2008 with THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (First Sequence), is clearly taking the path of William Castle, although his films more resemble the work of Uwe Boll. Castle’s films were fun and had redeeming qualities. I wish I could say that about THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (Full Sequence) but, it’s not in me to tell such a bald-faced lie.

Let’s talk about THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (First Sequence) just for a moment… In the original film, Tom Six had actually created a fun, weird little story — the key here being the presence of a story — with some character development. He was able to pull a creepy, cool performance from Dieter Lasser as Dr. Heiter. Where the first film succeeded at producing a memorable lead character with cult classic potential, the sequel fails on almost every level to follow up with an equally unique character.

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (Full Sequence) takes place in London and follows a short, tubby man-child named Martin (Laurence R. Harvey) that still lives at home with his depressed mother and works as a parking garage attendant. Martin never speaks a word throughout the entire film, only making occasional awkward noises and giggles, repeatedly sticking his fingers in his mouth like a toddler that needs constantly be told “don’t put that in your mouth.” Admittedly, there are moments in the first half of the film where this shtick produces some laughs, but the gimmick eventually gets old, especially in the second half when it’s overshadowed by the graphic carnival of pointless carnage.

Tom Six chose to film HC2 entirely in black and white, and with that the cinematography is accomplished, not spectacular, but gives the film a different look. Part of me feels like the choice to film in black and white was to reduce the cost of post-production, but that’s nothing more than speculation. If Tom Six was shooting for creating an over-the-top, gut-emptying shockfest of a film, sticking to color would have made more sense. What the black and white does is to quell (ever-so-slightly) the magnitude of the imagery he captures on film.

What is so “bad” about THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (Full Sequence) you ask? I have to bring up John Waters. Sorry, John. I love you. Waters folded the shock value into his films, while still making them fun and giving them purpose. Where THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE came close to accomplishing this, its as though Tom Six through the rule book out the window for HC2. Finding any way to empathize with Martin is an exercise in futility. His character serves more as a slasher character than anything, wielding a crowbar to repeatedly take out his victims, but only to render them unconscious, whereas Dr. Heiter used anesthesia to subdue his victims.

The general story of HC2 is as follows: Martin is haunted by his father’s voice, who psychologically and sexually abused him as a child. He lives with his verbally abusive, mentally disconnected mother who forces him to have sessions with an older, bearded shrink who actually wants to molest Martin himself. Martin watches THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE repeatedly and pieces together a scrapbook of the film. Martin is obsessed with recreating Dr. Heiter’s work, but longs to take the project to its full sequence of twelve human beings. The primary catch is, Martin is not a surgeon and has no clue what he’s doing. He gradually builds his inventory of human specimens, stashing them in an old, filthy warehouse space. This activity occupies a good chunk of the middle of the film, which gets to be a bit tedious a bit quick.

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (Full Sequence) is at least inclusive and mindful of diversity, as Martin’s collection of human “segments” span a wide array of characters, including a pregnant woman and the female star of THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE Ashlynn Yennie, who plays herself. Randomly selecting most of his victims from the garage in which he works, Martin employs his crowbar and occasionally a handgun. His tools include duct tape and a plethora of knives and other kitchen utensils… oh yeah, and the all-important staple gun. I need not describe this image further. I am sure you can put the pieces together.

By the time Martin gets around to constructing his “centipede” the film has not lived up to it’s hype as being unbearably brutal. Tom Six clearly attempts to change that in the later half of the film, doing exactly what everyone would expect, going to extremes with the gore (although subdued in black and white and not nearly as graphic as it could have been) but, more significantly, exceeds expectations int he realm of shocking acts portrayed on film. HC2 was banned in the UK for scenes of forced ingestion of diarrhea, spontaneous child birth in a car followed by the baby’s head being crushed by its frantic mother, and even a scene in which Martin rapes one of his victims with barbed wire wrapped around his unit… no, believe it or not, none of this compels me to go out and protest. However, all of this serves absolutely no purpose when you factor in the complete lack of any actual story. All of this occurs on screen simply for its own, sensational satisfaction.

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (Full Sequence) has nothing to spoil, so before some of you decide to chastise me for giving away some of the more shocking bits, let me just say this… those who planned to see the film will still go see it, while those who had not, will not. It’s as simple as that. On the contrary, I will not reveal the ending, as I felt the final scene was a completely pointless, slightly confusing choice. Consider this my public service message. I will never outright tell anyone not to see a movie, but the closest I have come is with HC2.

Writer & director Tom Six with the cast of THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (Full Sequence) in a Q&A session following the screening on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011.