Britain Bans HUMAN CENTIPEDE II, Looks Into Whether It Breaks Obscenity Laws
You know your movie is pretty hardcore when the BBFC (British Board of Film Certification) not only bans it in the UK but actually looks into whether or not the film breaches the Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964. Congrats, Tom Six, Human Centipede II has really arrived.
What’s wrong with the film? Here are some highlights from the press release from the BBFC explaining. Warning: spoilers.
The principal focus of The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is the sexual arousal of the central character at both the idea and the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture, and murder of his naked victims. Examples of this include a scene early in the film in which he masturbates whilst he watches a DVD of the original Human Centipede film, with sandpaper wrapped around his penis, and a sequence later in the film in which he becomes aroused at the sight of the members of the ‘centipede’ being forced to defecate into one another’s mouths, culminating in sight of the man wrapping barbed wire around his penis and raping the woman at the rear of the ‘centipede’. There is little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film 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. There is a strong focus throughout on the link between sexual arousal and sexual violence and a clear association between pain, perversity and sexual pleasure.
The press release reveals that the film is actually a meta sequel to the original, with The Human Centipede compelling the main character to do this horrible stuff. It sounds like the movie is trying to say something about how films impact viewers, and is probably weighing in on the argument that violent movies provoke violence. But the BBFC wasn’t taking that into account.
And now, more than ever, I can’t wait to see this insane thing.
Read the whole press release here.
