Centipede sequel too boring to ban

We finally got round to seeing the most controversial movie of the year this week. 'The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)' was initially banned by the BBFC because of its "sexually violent and potentially obscene" content.

However, after four months of wrangling, and almost three minutes of cuts, the horror sequel has finally been passed by the BBFC with an 18 certificate. Their ruling was not unanimous though, one of the BBFC's vice presidents, Gerard Lemos, abstained from the board's collective decision.

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It will be released on November 4, then go straight to its natural home on DVD and (gulp) Blu-ray later on in the year.

The question is: did the BBFC make the right decision?

As most of you will know, the plot mirrors the original, with a madman stitching humans together to form a 'centipede'. This time said nutter is Martin (Lawrence R. Harvey), a short, fat car park attendant with an abusive past who is inspired by the original movie. There are more victims this time round, and, without going into details (we're a family site!), the violence and gore is taken up a notch.

Not only that, it's filmed in a grainy, high-contrast black and white that adds to the grubby sordidness of the whole affair.

It's depressing stuff but, bizarrely, often unintentionally hilarious. At the screening we attended, the audience was often in stitches. Firstly because some of the violence was so utterly over the top that the natural reaction was shake your head and laugh at how ridiculous it was.

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Also the often awful acting was hilarious. Vivien Bridson, who plays Martin's depressed mum, delivers bizarre lines like "I'm going to kill us both tonight" with the élan of a suburban pensioner having a go at am-dram. The film's attempts to shock and push boundaries with its hateful roster of characters, from Martin himself to a perverted shrink, feels hysterical and silly, rather than sinister or unsettling.

Quite simply, director Tom Six is trying too hard to shock.

The film does take a turn towards the seriously grim in the second half, when Martin has assembled his victims and begins torturing them in various vividly-realised ways. However, even then, the cuts made by the BBFC ensure that while the violence is sickening, it's no more so than other recent extreme horror films. Think the 'Hostel' films, 'Ils', and so on.

These cuts (it's ironic the sub-title is 'Full Sequence'), ensure that the one possible reason for this film's existence - the boundary-pushing, visceral horror - is neutered to the point of irrelevance. What's left is a film that is graphic, horrible and disgusting, but (thankfully) not uniquely so.

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There is little story to speak of and even less characterisation - only a couple of victims have any connection to Martin, the others are randomly assembled as they visit his car park. As such there is not that emotional connection to make their subsequent suffering especially upsetting.

The result is a film that, controversy apart, is just boring.

Those moments of unintentional comedy aside, 'The Human Centipede Part II' is a repetitive 88 minutes of misery and suffering; a monochromatic dirge with little going for it except the whiff of controversy generated by its BBFC ban.

So should it have been banned? Now it's been heavily cut, we think 'no', but it would be different if those scenes stayed in. But should you see it? Obviously not.