Human Centipede 2 has been banned in the UK.
This month, the film was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification in order to receive a rating for a Direct-to-video release, however, while the BBFC had given the original, Human Centipede: First Sequence, an 18 rated certificate (the rough equivalent of an NC-17 certificate in the United States), the board rejected Full Sequence outright, saying its content was too extreme to give it an 18 rated certificate, reporting that the films content was “sexually violent and potentially obscene.”
The report heavily criticized the film as making “little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalized, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience.” In addition, the BBFC felt the film was potentially in breach of the Obscene Publications Act, meaning its distribution in the UK (either in physical or download format) would be illegal. The BBFC stated that they would not reclassify the film in future, as “no amount of cuts would allow them to give it a certificate.”
Director Tom Six responded to the BBFC’s decision in a statement released to next day to Empire Magazine. Six criticized the BBFC for including film spoilers in their report, and stated that the film was “…fictional. Not real. It is all make-belief. It is art…” and that viewers should be able to choose for themselves whether or not they decided to view the film. Six also referred to the banning of the film by the BBFC as “exceptional.”
The film is only the 11th to be banned from release in the UK in the 98 year history of the BBFC, of which only 4 – with Grotesque, Mikey and Visions of Ecstasy – remain legally prohibited from UK release.
Report courtesy of Wikipedia.
