Be sure to watch it until the end. It’s much better than Clive Owen’s Burger King commercial. (via Dread Central)

There are a few differences this time around. For instance, the antagonist isn’t a surgeon. He’s just a super-fan who resorts to using plastic tubing, rusty tools, and a staple gun. Also, there are a lot more mouths to feed now. But perhaps the biggest change is the decision to film in black and white. It creates a much more intimate feel to intensify the general feeling of claustrophobia. Seems like they’re saving 3D for the next sequel.

It’s really hard to talk about Human Centipede (First Sequence) in an intelligent manner, which isn’t that surprising since most of the controversy surrounding its predecessor focused on audiences’ visceral reaction to the concept of ass-to-mouth horror. The sequel Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) is no different (the tagline is “The Deuce Is Loose!” speaks for itself) but I’ll try.

Dutch director Tom Six‘s follow-up to his 2010 meme of a film (yes, in South Park spoofs you, you’re a meme) opened up the 2011 edition on Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in North America, and I was there to witness it. The first thing that greeted me when I got to my seat was a barf bag filled with a mint and a staple remover. The former was there for more than obvious reason, whereas the stapler remover was there alluding to what I was about to watch.

Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) opens quite literally where the last one left off: the final scene from the first movie and its closing credits. The camera then zooms out to reveal Martin (Laurence Harvey), a short, mentally challenged, grotesque-looking garage attendant. Soon after, we learn that our protagonist–much like the film’s director– is obsessed with the Human Centipede (First Sequence), so much so that his plan is to recreate the fictional Dr. Heiter’s monstrous creation. There’s a catch, though. Martin won’t be happy with three people being stitched together ass-to-mouth. He wants to turn it up to eleven. Well, twelve, to be more precise. A dozen victims instead of the pedestrian three.

And so the film’s very simplistic plot begins to unravel. Martin uses his place of work to pick off his victims, clubbing all but two of them at the parking garage and dragging them to an abandoned warehouse. The two other are the skinhead neighbor who lives above his flat and Ashlynn Yennie– an actress in the first one who plays herself in this one (we told you that Tom Six is obsessed with his own work).

Once he has his twelve parts for his centipede, Martin rolls up his sleeves (by which we mean “takes off his pants and puts on a surgical coat”) and begins to work. What follows next is a bombardment of repulsion and the grotesque. There’s more blood splattered, more open wound shown, and more consumption of fecal matter than the first one. And yet, the film failed to make me feel sick. Going in, I had psychologically prepared myself to see the worst. It turns out my idea of “the worst” is more disgusting (or original) than what Tom Six imagined. Yes, I was partially grossed out, but more than anything I was bored. It was as if a previously hilarious joke stopped being sudden all of a sudden. It’s as if the meme had reached a point of over-saturation and exhaustion.

If I wanted to give the film more credit than it deserves, I’d call it a schlockier, gorier, and less entertaining version of Eraserhead. Tom Six opted to shoot his sequel in black and white instead of color to create a contrast between his two films (sterile in the first one vs. disgust and dirtiness in this one). Whether intentionally or not, David Lynch‘s experimental came to mind.

If I wanted to be honest about HC2, I’d call it a boring film that’s done in by its own hype and the director’s shortcomings as a filmmaker.

Fidel Martinez is the Managing Editor of Tu Vez. You can check out his vile rants on twitter.

Also, kudos on casting another eery-looking actor who will ruin my sleep patterns. I’m pretty sure that’s the kid from The Sandlot. Child actors, man. They can’t be trusted.

In all fairness, these viewers don’t seem genuinely scared or upset and could be watching a flicker for all we know. Or The Zookeeper. But, for their sake, I’m hoping it’s the flicker.

Human Centipede II: Full Sequence is coming to American theaters on October 7th, and there’s nothing that you or I or anyone else can do about it. It’s happening, so just make your peace with it. Also, if you thought the new film wasn’t going to be self-referential, nodding to the big fuss the first installment caused, you’d be wrong. There’s TOTALLY a scene in the sequel in which the villain watches the first movie while masturbating. How postmodern.

If you’re somehow on the fence about this film after reading that, let me offer up this additional nugget: He masturbates with sandpaper. There ya go. That should push you one way or another.

'Kidnapped' Might Be The Most Disturbing Film You See This Decade

IFC is releasing the movie in the US later this year. Spoilers After The Picture… (TheWrap)

Here’s exactly what the BBFC said about the film and their decision:

“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,” the BBFC wrote.

“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 screengrab above may look like something from "Mythbusters" but it’s actually a shot from the new teaser trailer for gory sequel The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence). The teaser features Tom Six, the blood-spattered director, walking through a parking garage while his voice-over prepares us for a film far more shocking than the original.

We’re then introduced to one of the film’s lead actors — dude with a box on his head. Good to see that guy making a comeback.

Check out the trailer after the jump…