Review: The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence)
VOD: The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence) (2015)
Writer/Director Tom Six came to prominence with the movie watching public when The Human Centipede (First Sequence) came crawling and gagging onto our screens in 2009. He followed this up in 2011 with The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) which took a darker (in both visuals and narrative) look at the human psyche…while still involving sowing mouths to bums.
Six has long promised that the final part of the trilogy would be the sickest and most disturbing yet, so has he delivered on those promises?
The movie begins (much like the 2nd one did) with the previous movie(s) being referenced as existing as a piece of art within that world. Only this time Six takes it to the next level and uses the leads from the two previous movies (Dieter Laser and Laurence R Harvey) as the leads in this, but playing different characters. This is just the first inclination that Tom Six had his tongue stuck firmly into his cheek while writing and directing this, and by the time the end credits role it would be no surprise if his tongue had punctured through his cheek and disappeared up into his own arsehole…life imitating art! He even appears in the movie as himself! If you want some meta moments, then this movie has enough for a drinking game.
Bill Boss (Dieter Laser) is the mentally unstable warden of a maximum security prison, and accompanied by accountant Dwight Butler (Laurence R Harvey) they plan on both calming the prisoners and saving prison costs in an increasingly bizarre manner of ways; castrating them all being an early idea, which is of course shown in glorious close-up on the first inmate (Robert LaSardo) before Boss has the balls cooked and served on a plate for him to eat…as you would!
Bree Olsen plays Daisy; the submissive receptionist who is in debt to Boss for him releasing her father from prison. Boss makes the most of this debt by continually sexually abusing her, which ranges from a ‘casual fingering’ in his office, to regular fellatio (‘I want my balls emptying before I have my lunch‘) and culminates in him raping her while she’s in a coma (I’ll make you squirt, even when you’re in a coma‘). If that makes you squirm with discomfort, it is NOTHING compared to the faces and noises Dieter Laser makes during the fellatio scene. His tongue has a life of its own and his ‘O-Face’ will haunt your wildest wet dreams. It is Dieter who steals the movie for me; his performance being only comparable to as if he was birthed from a DNA cloning experiment from the cells of Tommy Wiseau, Gary Busey and Udo Kier…while completely off his tits on cocaine…and drinking copious amounts of Jack Daniels. It’s a performance that was initially annoying, but morphed into being both comical and entertaining. He shouts the majority of his dialogue while elongating at least one word per sentence, and all the while his blood vessels are at bursting point across his neck and shaved head. I can easily see how this performance would split viewers opinions, but put me firmly in the camp of ‘so over the top, you got me hooked’.
The whole of the movie is based in the prison and is shot in a visual style that does a complete 180° from part 2. Each frame is bathed in an orange glow that gives the feeling of an eternal sunset; the end of the day? The end of the prisoners normal existence? The end of the wardens sanity? The end of the trilogy? Read into the visual style what you want, in all probability it boiled down to Tom Six thought it looked good.
The prison inmates (who include an always watchable Tommy ‘ Tiny’ Lister) are subjected to a series of physical and mental attacks, before Dwight finally convinces Boss that the only way they can control the prisoners AND save money is by copying the procedure shown in Human Centipede 1&2 (which both get their DVD covers shown numerous times for maximum marketing effect). This is where they call upon Tom Six (as himself) for confirmation that it is indeed ‘100% medically accurate’. Why ask a professional for medical advice when you can ask a writer/director!?
Six stops just short of winking to the camera during his scenes and he plays the part with a confidence that would naturally come from being the writer/director. The performances across the full running time are a mixed bag, though for my money you can never go wrong with putting Eric Roberts in a movie. Yes, that’s right, the (as always) smartly coiffured Eric Roberts plays the prison Governor who has to be convinced that this crazy ‘human centipede’ plan is the way forward for the American judicial procedure. His role is minimal and he was probably only on set for 1 day, but it was good to see him on screen.
A lot of the pre-release publicity was made of this ramping everything up to the maximum and having a 500 person human centipede in it, which it does, but sadly this is reserved for almost the end of the movie. That’s not to say that all the ‘gorehounds’ out there won’t get their blood stained eye candy, the aforementioned castration scene will have all males crossing their legs, plus other ‘highlights’ include a male rape scene that redefines the term ‘any hole’s a goal‘, a water boarding with boiling water and numerous shootings, bone breaks, stabbings and torture. Add to that a jar (that 3 people eat from) that contains dried clitoris’ (clitori!?) and you have quite a few of those ‘EWWWW’ moments. That’s not to say that this movie is all one big gore scene (as a lot of people expected), there is a lot of dialogue (mostly shouted by Dieter) and the brightly coloured, minimal location, tongue in cheek, self-parody mise-en-scène will probably alienate a lot of its potential fans.
I for one found that the film grew on me more the longer it went on, though once again the total opposite could easily apply and you’ll find yourself switching off before the first lips have touched anus.
Tom Six has stated that this is the end of The Human Centipede (hence the ‘The Final Sequence’ in the title) though he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of returning to it 10 years or so down the line. I look forward to what his mind concocts post-centipede, and whether you enjoy his work or not, he’s here to stay and will do all that he can not to be ignored.
Review by Dave (host of 60 Minutes With)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhI64Dk-c7o
