In a move that will only have helped drum up a huge amount of publicity, and eventual viewers for the film, the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) placed a total ban on Tom Six’s sequel to The Human Centipede (the gross-out horror about a mad scientist who stitches a number of unwilling victims together); The Human Centipede 2, stating that it posed “a real risk that harm was likely to be caused to potential viewers.”
The BBFC’s previous statement (which can be found here) stated that the film was so “sexually violent and potentially obscene” that it was impossible to be fixed with cuts, however The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence (to give the film its full title) has now managed to pass the classification board, and gain an 18-rating, with nothin more than a few cuts.
It’s taken “nearly four months of detailed discussion and debate” according to Ian Sadler (Eureka’s sales director), but the BBFC have now agreed to releasing a cut of the film which Sadler believes will “both excite and challenge its fans”, and although they are “disappointed we have had to make cuts” still “feel that the storyline has not been compromised, and that the level of horror has been sustained.”
While a total of 32 cuts have been made to the film, those cuts only amount to approximately 2 minutes 37 seconds for the film’s runtime, and are apparently enough to ensure that The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence no longer falls under the Obscene Publications Act, and can now be released in the UK; increasing the chances that Tom Six’s planned third movie (The Human Centipede III: Final Sequence) may eventually receive a UK release as well.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Eureka Entertainment via Empire.
