“Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence” (2011)

I was one of those left unimpressed by Tom Six’s first installment of the “Human Centipede” franchise. I just found it non-eventful and somewhat poorly acted. The concept was cool, but I couldn’t understand the hype.

That said, I was intrigued by the second installment long before it came out. Six went on so much before the film was even close to be released about the increase in violence and shock value, that I wanted to see if it lived up to the hype. So then stories of sandpaper masturbation and barbed-wire rape began making its rounds on the web. I was further intrigued.

So the film finally gets an American premiere, and 90% of the reviews I read go on about how miserable and punishing an experience the movie is. That it is so cruel, Tom Six must hate us to force his audience to witness such atrocities on-screen.

Here is my take:

I enjoyed the film. It was methodically paced, but moved along well enough to keep me interested the entire time. Laurence R. Harvey does an AMAZING job as Martin. As vicious as his character is, he is really loveable (perhaps, in part due to his stature). He steals the show without saying a word.

As for all the meanness I have read about, this movie really strikes me as a work of satire more than anything. I can’t know the inner workings of Six’s mind, but every cruel act is so hilariously over-the-top, that I don’t see how any adult could possibly take it seriously. This seems especially obvious to me, considering that the entire movie is black and white… Except for poo. Which is shown in all its vibrant, brown glory.

Six’s “Human Centipede 2″ is to horror what “Airplane!” is to comedy. It’s slapstick torture porn, not only daring, but trying to smash through boundaries and dive off of the edge at every single turn. And if this is what the makers of “Full Sequence” are trying to achieve, then they have been successful.

Like the first film, the acting is spotty. Luckily, Laurence R. Harvey is with us to save the show in that regard. Though it should be noted that Harvey has no decipherable dialogue in the picture, which may contribute to his performance. All of the other actors / actresses sway from very natural to “acting too hard”.

It is a fun movie that I think is intended to entertain audiences that don’t take themselves (or their films) so seriously, while simultaneously pissing off those that do. In my humble opinion, it is worlds better than the first, and I look forward to seeing what Six plans to do next.