When movies go too far for Trent Storm

In recent weeks, it has come to my attention that the UK has banned The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) because of the content featured. I won't lie, this is a tricky issue for me. One in which I will try to jam so much into one article as briefly as I can. I've read about the fine lines between obscenity and artistic freedom before, I've studied the works of Robert Mapplethorpe and the infamous "Piss Christ" photograph. Although I had been perplexed by the subject matter, I reluctantly understood the arguments.

Moving onto the subject of film (which is another form of art), I've made several observations of blurring the line between obscenity and art. I've seen many controversial movies that featured disturbing scenes, and yet, they had some kind of meaning. Case in point, my first time dealing with this was the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. It took me 3 times to move past the "Singin' in the Rain" scene to understand where Stanley Kubrick was taking me. Since then, I've seen equally disturbing scenes and content, such as Deliverance, Pulp Fiction and Irreversible. Those movies were hard to watch at times, and yet, I understood the plot and message each film presented.

I take most controversial films with a grain of salt, and for those who fiercely oppose it, I often tell them, "If you don't want to see the movie, then just don't go into the theater!" and I stand by that. It's what I'll say when asked about Saw and Hostel.

That being said, I move onto a film I stumbled across last year, The Human Centipede (First Sequence). It is a 2010 Dutch body horror movie directed and written by Tom Six. I will let you click on the link to read the full plot, but from what I will divulge here (spoiler free) is that an evil surgeon takes three captives and performs a very horrific procedure on them. I did read the full plot and had been sickened by it and vowed to never see it. Then, a few months went by where I began to laugh about it and my curiosity eventually got the best of me. I read the behind-the-scenes of the movie, the technical aspect and through an online streaming site (the one time I didn't mind resorting to piracy to avoid paying for a movie), I watched it with a friend.

I was disturbed, but not offended. It was not the worst movie experience I ever had. Definitely not the best either, but not the worst! I even saw a little World War II reference and maybe even a statement on how Hollywood business is conducted. It is not among my favorite movies, I will never hold the DVD in my hands nor will I recommend anyone see this film on a full stomach. But, I saw a tiny shred of a message in the movie.

Then, Tom Six decided that he was going to make the first movie look like My Little Pony. I get that he wanted to push the envelope and go over the limit. And well, he did. He did more than that. He outdid himself, and not in a good way. Click on this link to read why.

And here is where my own point truly begins. Those films that I mentioned above, were violent, brutal, yet honest and held substance. Tom Six argues that all he did was make a film and it was nothing more than art. No, it wasn't. If I were to address Six now, I would tell him that what he had produced is anything but art. Six is not Robert Mapplethorpe. He is not Stanley Kubrick. He is a man who has insulted me as a horror movie fan by just throwing together this hash piece like a college student writing a term paper the night before it's due. There was almost no real attempt to create a plot nor was there any attempt to make a slightly coherent statement like the first movie. I could have written a screenplay for Tom Six, it would have been very disturbing but it still would have had meaning.

What this movie has, there is nothing. The only thing that upsets me more then the subject matter is that he has done nothing with it. What good is pushing the limits when there is nothing to push?

Not all films are meant to be entertaining. But Six is a director. He is a storyteller. He is supposed to be giving the audience a story. A very dark and disturbing story, but a story nonetheless. If he wants me to even consider this movie, he would have to shoot the film all over again, with an actual plot in mind. But I won't see this movie. Nor should any other fan of horror movies. We deserve better.