‘The Human Centipede”s ‘Hangover’ Problem
Grierson did an excellent job yesterday detailing the ridiculousness of both "The Human Centipede [Full Sequence]" and the British Board of Film Classification's banning of it. But we're not done talking about it. Not the ban: The ban is stupid, and is almost certainly what director Tom Six and the "Centipede" folks (whoever they are) would want to happen. Which is sort of a shame.
When we first saw "The Human Centipede (First Sequence)" last year, we were repulsed, like any non-sociopathic person would be, but we were also quietly impressed. The film wasn't good, exactly, but it was certainly original, in both concept (in the history of humankind, no one had thought to make a movie in which a mad scientists sewed people's mouths to other people's anuses) and in execution (as Roger Ebert pointed out, the film looks sort of terrific, and Dieter Laser gives as solid a performance as anyone named Dieter Laser is ever going to give). Whether or not you think Six is a sicko, you can't deny that he captured something in the Zeitgeist. "South Park" doesn't devote parodies to just anybody.
We'd never seen in of Tom Six's movies before, so we were legitimately surprised that he was considered such a hack. (His other movies, "Honeyz" and "Gay In Amsterdam," were universally panned.) It's not that "Human Centipede" heralded some major talent, but Six wasn't the next Uwe Boll either.
And then we saw this, Six's "teaser" for "Human Centipede (Full Sequence)," released last year.
Yeah, it's pretty difficult not to want to slap that smug grin off his face, isn't it?
Thus, "Human Centipede (Full Sequence)" isn't Six making another movie with the sort of crazed originality of the first film; it's just him fully giving himself over to the "oooh, how GROSS!" midnight movie crowd. Which is fine, we guess: Everybody's gotta make a living. But it essentially turns Six into the blood-schlock version of Todd Phillips, rushing out a hacky sequel whose only reason for existence is to "top" the first one, to take everything interesting about the first one and repeat it, only More So. Thus, the sequel features a man masturbating with sandpaper. Charming. And only shocking in theory; in reality, only derivative.
We hammer Phillips for that. But it's cute when Six does it? This might be when we get off the "Human Centipede" train.
Come to think of it, "Human Centipede (Train Sequence)" might be ... naw, forget it.
'Human Centipede' Sequel Already Succeeding in Offending People [The Projector]
