Say what you will about director Tom Six, but he actually has a lot to say. The filmmaker behind the Human Centipede trilogy always ties social commentary to his films, even if he tends to go too far.
Seemingly taking inspiration from David Cronenberg’s 1996 thriller Crash (based on J. G. Ballard’s 1973 novel), Six is hoping to provoke and enrage with The Onania Club, which appears to be about elitists who take pleasure in the suffering of others.
In the film, a woman joins a secret group called “The Onania Club” where its members – all strong, independent L.A.-bound women – get aroused by the misery of others. She meets more misery than she could ever hope for and in the process loses everything she holds dear.
As we can see in the newly released trailer, Six is being quite literal in his commentary and it’s kinda, I dunno, gross? The footage looks like a bad soap opera – and it’s probably in bad taste – but at least he’s trying to say something? I guess…?
“The movie’s main theme is ‘Schadenfreude, which means taking pleasure out of other people’s misery,” Six explains. “It is a social commentary on the ever-growing political correctness in the privileged Western world and the hypocrisy of that.
“It is part ‘Sex and the City’ on evil steroids and part pure, pitch black, comedy.”
“In the movie, women are portrait as very powerful, self-made, independent characters. The women are strong and the men are weak, which is rarely seen in other features.”
The film will be for sale at the forthcoming AFM in Santa Monica, CA this coming November.
