{"id":5580,"date":"2015-07-08T23:39:14","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T22:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=5580"},"modified":"2015-07-08T23:44:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-08T22:44:00","slug":"the-human-centipede-3-final-sequence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/07\/08\/the-human-centipede-3-final-sequence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nRelease date:<\/B> 10 July 2015

\nDistributor:<\/B> Eureka Entertainment\/ Monster Pictures

\nDirector:<\/B> Tom Six

\nWriter:<\/B> Tom Six

\nCast:<\/B> Dieter Laser, Laurence R. Harvey, Eric Roberts, Bree Olsen, Tom Six

\nUSA 2015

\n100 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

So farewell then, the Human Centipede, our time together was brief, yet far too long, and frankly I wish we hadn\u2019t gotten quite so intimate. The THC trilogy are\/were a perfectly perfect modern phenomenon, in that they were so successful as an internet meme and clickbait talking point that the actual films themselves seem surplus to requirements. The central idea broke through into comedians\u2019 routines, spawned a South Park<\/i> episode and a porn parody, and weaved its way into pub (if not dinner party) conversation and water cooler chatter. In short, it became a thing<\/i>, and a thing that even people who don\u2019t like that sort of thing became aware of. That three features have been whipped up from an idea you could explain during a one-stop bus ride is some kind of malign miracle.<\/p>\n

If you must catch up with the actual series, part three is set in an American prison, being run, badly, by Warden Bill Boss and his accountant Dwight Butler, played by Dieter Laser and Lawrence R. Harvey, the stars of the first and second films. Given a deadline to improve matters by Governor Hughes (Eric Roberts) Boss is eventually convinced by Butler that they should take inspiration from the Human Centipede films and convert the riotous prisoners into one long alimentary canal. The plot takes a good while to get to where it\u2019s clearly getting to, and is, in any case, mainly there to provide a series of depravities along the way before we get to the 500-person\u2019 \u2019pede final act. So we get a pen-knife castration, a boiling water-boarding, a gunshot execution via a stoma hole, some light cannibalism and the various indignities inflicted upon the warden\u2019s secretary Daisy (Bree Olsen), all of which would be a lot more offensive if it weren\u2019t carried out by Dieter Laser as Boss in probably the most grotesquely mannered scenery-gargling performance ever committed to film. His stratospherically over-the-top gurning ensures that we can\u2019t take any of this gleeful obscenity remotely seriously, and his mangled German\/American syntax makes much of his gratuitously profane dialogue indecipherable. Anybody sharing screen time with him is left the quandary of whether to follow his lead or to go low key and restrained in order to effect some kind of balance; mostly they look a little startled that he\u2019s doing whatever he\u2019s doing. <\/p>\n

But the idea that anybody so clearly eye-rolling bugfuck insane and obnoxiously undiplomatic would be put in charge of anything<\/i> is absurd from the outset, and we are clearly in the realm of the absurd here. If the Final Sequence<\/i> has any ambition beyond making you want to toss your cookies it\u2019s as a sledgehammer satire on the politics of the U.S. of A.: the prison is named after Dubya, there is lots of business with flags and eagles, the suffering detainees prominently feature Muslims, Blacks and Native Americans, and there are plentiful shots of orange jumpsuit-clad prisoners being tortured, all with the take-home message being that any atrocity is permissible here as long as it upholds the bottom line. It\u2019s not subtle.<\/p>\n

The other theme taking up a lot of screen time in the third Human Centipede<\/i> film is, um, The Human Centipede. The second film had Harvey\u2019s nebbishy Martin Lomax becoming inspired by the first film to create his own monster, this one opens with Boss and Butler watching the first two. Thereafter most of the characters are required to voice an opinion on the THC films, generally positive, though another screening to the inmates is clearly regarded by them as cruel and unusual punishment and results in a riot. It\u2019s as if Tom Six can\u2019t imagine a viewing of his films as anything other than a life-changing obsessive experience or at least provoking strong reactions for or against. This strain peaks in this film with a cameo by Mr Six, playing himself, in arsehole uniform of mirror shades and linen suit, approving Mr Butler\u2019s proposal as long as he can watch. Six has enough self-awareness to depict himself throwing up when confronted with the reality of his ideas, and I\u2019m sure there are some who\u2019ll find all this meta business playful and diverting. But the net result is that you have a 102-minute film written by, and starring, Tom Six, in which everybody onscreen keeps banging on about the work of Tom Six. I think the phrase I\u2019m looking for is \u2018Christ, dude, get over yourself\u2019.<\/p>\n

Where Six is going to go after this is anybody\u2019s guess, there\u2019s a peculiar European flavour and sensibility to the trilogy that might develop into something, though it\u2019s often buried beneath the other business. The film kinda works on its own terms, it sets out to be disgusting and succeeds, and to criticise it along those lines would be a fruitless endeavour. It seems more valid to point out that it is oddly paced, stilted and set-bound, that Laser should have been reined in, and that we spend an awful lot of time in Boss\u2019s office and not much with the prisoners. I can\u2019t help wishing the dialogue was better, and with the meat and potatoes set-ups here I\u2019m not entirely convinced he knows what he\u2019s doing behind a camera. But hey, it pulls itself together a bit for the last act, and delivers what anybody renting, streaming or buying something called The Human Centipede 3<\/i> would want to see. He clearly has no problem coming up with foul ideas, his main claim to fame is that he has come up with an idea that\u2019s just that bit more repellent than everybody else\u2019s. The problem being that, like the human centipedes in all three films, once created they don\u2019t actually go anywhere or do much other than die. I\u2019m pretty sure that a fair proportion of the audience want to see the group creature go on a rampage that just never happens, damnit. Ah well, in my review of the first outing I voiced my regret that the creators didn\u2019t break out the spangly top hats and canes for an unforgettable musical finale. This time I couldn\u2019t help wishing that, in collision with another internet meme set in a prison yard, we could have had a synchronised routine to Michael Jackson\u2019s \u2018Thriller\u2019. If you\u2019re listening, Tom, that\u2019s not a call for part four.<\/p>\n

The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)<\/i> is released in the UK on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD on 20 July 2015 by Monster Pictures<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Mark Stafford<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

Watch the trailer:<\/B><\/p>\n