THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2

US, 2011, 88 minutes, Black and white/Colour.
Laurence R. Harvey.
Directed by Tom Six.

If audiences found the original film repellent in its conception and in its execution, there will be more horror in this sequel. If it is watched on television or DVD, the fast forward might be well in action.

The basic concept is fairly repellent in itself, the making of a human centipede with 12 persons. The central character is a short and fat scientist who admires the first film and imagines going further. He lives with his mother who finds his work repellent, attacks her and he kills her. In fact, he goes around searching for people to kill, especially in car parks, and assembles them in a warehouse he hires (after murdering the owner) and stores the people there.

As in the first film, there is surgery which links each character mouth to anus for one digestive system. Some of the black and white photography is murky and, perhaps with some censorship, there is very little detail of his disgusting surgery. However, there are glimpses of the victims, their torture, their suffering.

The film uses the old horror motif of the mad scientist and his creating a monster. But this central character is repellent, in appearance, in manner, in behaviour, in cruelty. He spends a lot of time at his computer looking at the earlier film as well as scientific investigation. He is shown as the victim of abuse by his father and attacked by his mother, which is meant to explain his brutality. He is also linked with a pharmacist who supplies him with some breathing apparatus – and later encounters him with a prostitute in the car and disposes of him.

These comments give an indication of the theme of the film, as well as an indication of the way in which the theme is communicated. Perhaps the black-and-white photography lessons the graphic impact because it is not in full colour.

While it may be of interest in the history of horror cinema, it is a fairly repellent cinema experience.