07/06/2011

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has rejected certification for Dutch director Tom Six’s horror sequel The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) .

The film is a Netherlands-UK co-production. Because of the BBFC’s rejection, the film cannot be legally supplied in any form in the UK, whether it is theatrical, home video or download.

The first film, 2010’s The Human Centipede (First Sequence) had a scientist stitching together kidnap victims. The sequel has a protagonist who replicates the horror.

“Unlike the first film, the sequel presents graphic images of sexual violence, forced defecation, and mutilation, and the viewer is invited to witness events from the perspective of the protagonist,” the BBFC said about the film.

The BBFC said that the film could be in contravention of the UK’s Obscene Publications Act. “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. It is the Board’s conclusion that the explicit presentation of the central character’s obsessive sexually violent fantasies is in breach of its Classification Guidelines and poses a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers,” the BBFC stated.

The BBFC has been in existence for 99 years and thus far only 11 films have suffered an outright ban at its hands, eight of which were later passed uncut as society’s mores changed with time.