The director of The Human Centipede has hit back at the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for banning the film's sequel in the UK. The BBFC refused to classify Dutch film-maker Tom Six's followup to last year's horror, about a scientist who grafts together kidnap victims mouth to anus, saying the film posed a "genuine risk" to viewers and could fall foul of obscenity laws.
The sequel, called The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), is the story of a man who becomes sexually obsessed by a DVD of the original Human Centipede film and decides to repeat the experiment.
In an email to Empire magazine, Six accused the BBFC of posting spoilers of his new film by revealing plot details in the course of explaining its decision. Six defended the film's artistic worth and said people ought to be able to make their own decision about whether or not to see it.
"Apparently, I made an horrific horror film, but shouldn't a good horror film be horrific?" Six wrote. "My dear people it is a f****cking [sic] MOVIE. It is all fictional. Not real. It is all make-belief [sic]. It is art. Give people their own choice to watch it or not. If people can't handle or like my movies they just don't watch them."
Six also questioned the practical efficacy of the BBFC's ban: "If people like my movies they have to be able to see it any time, anywhere also in the UK."
The BBFC's decision was rare in that the board refused outright to consider reclassification, no matter what edits were made, ruling that the premise and aesthetic of the film were of themselves offensive enough to pose a danger. It said: "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."
The BBFC's actions have met with a mixed reception, with some suggesting that they may have simply helped publicise Six's work. The film was the top trending topic on UK Twitter on Tuesday. Only three of the 11 films banned by the BBFC in its 98-year history remain legally unavailable in the UK, the others having been belatedly ruled eligible for release.
The sequel, called The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), is the story of a man who becomes sexually obsessed by a DVD of the original Human Centipede film and decides to repeat the experiment.
In an email to Empire magazine, Six accused the BBFC of posting spoilers of his new film by revealing plot details in the course of explaining its decision. Six defended the film's artistic worth and said people ought to be able to make their own decision about whether or not to see it.
"Apparently, I made an horrific horror film, but shouldn't a good horror film be horrific?" Six wrote. "My dear people it is a f****cking [sic] MOVIE. It is all fictional. Not real. It is all make-belief [sic]. It is art. Give people their own choice to watch it or not. If people can't handle or like my movies they just don't watch them."
Six also questioned the practical efficacy of the BBFC's ban: "If people like my movies they have to be able to see it any time, anywhere also in the UK."
The BBFC's actions have met with a mixed reception, with some suggesting that they may have simply helped publicise Six's work. The film was the top trending topic on UK Twitter on Tuesday. Only three of the 11 films banned by the BBFC in its 98-year history remain legally unavailable in the UK, the others having been belatedly ruled eligible for release.