At the Q&A following the world premiere of Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) last night at Fantastic Fest, director Tom Six promised that the third installment would be “really sick.” How he could possibly up the vulgarity from Full Sequence is beyond me. The movie is a 90 minute anti-human sonic assault that almost caused me to throw up more than once. I can handle gore — I’m not a fan of it but I can stomach a lot — but never have I sat through such a relentless onslaught of realistic mutilations. After one particularly graphic scene, I couldn’t look at the screen for a good 5 minutes. I just stared at the empty beer bottle in front of me and took deep breaths. While the first Centipede was understated by most modern horror standards, Full Sequence is a shit-eating shock fest that has raised the bar for torture porn.

What thread of a narrative there is concerns Martin (newcomer Laurence R. Harvey), a mentally handicapped security guard whose fragile mind has been warped by Human Centipede: First Sequence. He has a Centipede scrapbook, jerks off while watching it on repeat, and licks his little sausage fingers during the fecal scenes. His dead dad molested him and his cliched, crotchety old mother wants to kill him. The only sensible escape for Martin is to create his own human centipede. He thinks bigger than Dr. Heiter though, and guns for a centipede 12 people long and strong — made up of unfortunate people who traversed through the parking garage where Martin guards.

It’s a neat premise and Tom Six has fun playing with the meta aspects, but in the end Full Sequence is a terrible movie. It’s completely empty. What little emotion we could possibly feel for the crippled psyche of Martin is lost after watching one scene of brutality after another. And honestly, after watching a woman be raped by a dick wrapped in barb-wire, watching subsequent acts of violence didn’t affect me. You just shrug your shoulders and say, “Why not?” Someone has all of their teeth removed by a hammer, “Why not?” Kill a baby, “Why not?” Sever the knee tendons, “Why not?”People who hated on the first Centipede for not being graphic enough — this is the movie you asked for. I hope you’re happy.

Technically it felt like a step backwards for Six. The choice to shoot it in monochrome gives it a dirty, sweating look, but seemed a bit contrary to Six upping the ante on graphic violence. Instead of pools of red blood, splatters of doo-doo brown hit the screen during the film’s climax — all while Martin makes fart noises and waves his arms like a conductor. Are we supposed to be disturbed by this or having a laugh? It just feels like hack filmmaking to me. There’s no doubt Tom Six is a showman and knows how to shock, but after so much, nothing’s really shocking.

The film was shot entirely in London, which is hilarious since it’s been banned in the UK as a Video Nasty. The film has been picked up by IFC Midnight in the States, meaning it’ll get a VOD release at some point.

- Oh Mars