The BBFC Spoiled The Human Centipede 2
About two weeks ago, Empire (Don’t read that link yet, I’ll explain in a minute) reported that the wonderful people of the British Board of Film Classification have gotten together and voted that The Human Centipede 2 “poses a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused by potential viewers”. This means that theBBFC believes that if you watch the upcoming Human Centipede 2, there is a chance that you will either be psychologically harmed from the experience or be compelled to physically harm others. Now, if you are anything like me, that just became the biggest endorsement for the film that it could possibly attain. It has gone from a horror film to a cultural rite of passage for horror fans to bear the burden of watching the film if for nothing else to say “I survived it.” If I were Tom Six, I would be extremely excited that “The Man” just shot down my horror film because they thought it was too intense, however the reality of the situation is a bit… different.
As with any decision from the BBFC, they decided to explain why they felt that the film should be banned in all of the land. The problem is that they used way too much specificity in exactly what rubbed them the wrong way. The BBFC mentions very specific scenes and moments in the film that were from what I can tell, meant to be shocking and scary to the viewer on their initial screening, not to be spoiled by some other third party months before the film even came out. Tom Six responded with his own comment which I will post here in case you don’t want to walk into a massive BBFC spoiler:
“Thank you BBFC for putting spoilers of my movie on your website and thank you for banning my film in this exceptional way. Apparently I made an horrific horror-film, but shouldn’t a good horror film be horrific? My dear people it is a f****cking MOVIE. It is all fictional. Not real. It is all make-belief. It is art. Give people their own choice to watch it or not. If people can’t handle or like my movies they just don’t watch them. If people like my movies they have to be able to see it any time, anywhere also in the UK.”
Considering that the movie itself will most likely be marketed behind a serious amount of hype, it can’t be anything but a blow to their bottom line that the movie was completely spoiled for the audience by the same Classification Board that saw fit to ban it completely. Instead of just dropping the ban on the film and waiting until if fell into obscurity, the BBFC must have felt that wasn’t enough. They needed to ruin the shock and awe for people that actually wanted to see the film. For those of you not familiar with the proper show biz lingo, this would be officially called “A Dick Move”.
I’m not saying that this is definitely the intention of the BBFC but it really looks like this was a completely thought out move in order to turn as many people away from the film as possible. The BBFC simply could have just banned the film win some kind of false moniker like “extreme violence and sexual crimes” which would have convinced the public enough as far as explanations go. Film goers who are already in the know that there is going to be a Human Centipede 2 and they already know that it is going to try and trump the first film in every respect. However, the BBFC knew that already and that there was an audience for this.
For the BBFC, it wasn’t enough to make the film unavailable, but they felt as though they needed to ruin it as well. Think of it this way, if you heard of a horror film that was so intense and disgusting that the government sought to ban the film, what would be your first reaction? Mine would be to get my hands on the copy of that film as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter if the subject matter is so psychologically disturbing that I will hate myself for watching the film, I will do it anyway (and maybe regret it later). The buzz from banning the film was a huge leg up for marketing in other countries since the BBFC realizes that other countries dare let their citizens make up their own minds on what films they are capable of handling and that simply wasn’t acceptable. The only acceptable response was to completely ruin the film for excited movie goers in hopes that they wouldn’t want to go see it anymore. The rational is that if the moment is explained to you in writing before you see the film, then the anticipation will be curbed and you will be less likely to see it.
I’m glad that I live in a country where censorship of art isn’t nearly as strict (somehow?) as to leave one organization in charge of telling me what is acceptable for me to view. Sure the MPAA can always slap an NC-17 rating on a film and thusly condemn it to a small release and monetary failure, but that doesn’t mean that the film will land me in jail or a fine if I someday posses it. I openly oppose censorship in forums where it’s appropriate, but that is an argument for another day. This is about the BBFC and their inability to even attempt to not spoil the film for everyone who actually wanted to see it. If you feel like you can’t take not knowing what was in that Empire article, here is the link again.
But don’t say Poppascotch didn’t warn you….
