Audio By Carbonatix
Two thousand ten’s midnight-movie sensation The Human Centipede (First Sequence), in which a diabolical doctor surgically connects three tourists to form one monstrous beast with a single digestive system, was — “100 percent medically accurate” gimmick aside — stylistically austere, its scat-porn horrors never graphic, but rather almost entirely psychological. Director Tom Six’s sequel is an intentionally meta about-face. Mute protag Martin (Laurence R. Harvey) — fat, filthy, rendered “retarded” by sexual and emotional abuse — is a fanboy of the first film who methodically stages a copycat crime, even luring the actress who played the “final girl” of the First Sequence (Ashlynn Yennie as “herself”) to the dank London warehouse where he has already stockpiled nearly a dozen demographically diverse victims. Yennie was left harrowingly suspended between life and death at the end of the first movie; one of the sequel’s “jokes” is that amateur surgeon Martin — who “operates” with staple guns and duct tape, without anesthesia — accidentally kills a few of his captives, frustrating him by putting them out of their misery. More than self-aware, Full Sequence is self-aggrandizing, suggesting the first film not only captured the Zeitgeist (Martin’s victims know what they’re in for because they’ve seen the first movie) but also created a new sexual fetish. A smug fuck-you to Human Centipede fans, it’s perhaps the sequel we deserve. But that doesn’t mean this dumb, blunt followup — both more unspeakably grotesque and less scary than the first film — is worth sitting through. Once Six’s conceptual project becomes clear, his escalating audience-mocking torture is increasingly pointless.
When news happens, Miami New Times is there —
Your support strengthens our coverage.
We’re aiming to raise $30,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to you. If Miami New Times matters to you, please take action and contribute today, so when news happens, our reporters can be there.
