Movies
Tom Six Talks ‘Human Centipede’ Sequels
With The Human Centipede: First Sequence being parodied by the likes of South Park and Funny or Die, it’s pretty obvious that Tom Six’s strangely crude horror film has become part of our pop culture. The sequel – The Human Centipede: Full Sequence – is set for release after the summer, but it won’t be the last of the NSFW concept.
The director recently sat down with EW to chat about sequels, parodies, and how Dr. Heiter has changed his life for better or worse.
Deets inside!
Even amidst death threats(!), Sixx moved forward with his sequel which has gotten a great reaction from those who have seen it. “… Not many people have seen it. Only the distributor and the people who worked in post production. They think it’s really crazy. I made this joke about Part 1 being My Little Pony compared to Part 2. People at the distribution company (IFC), at the first screening they had, some people walked away because they couldn’t handle the things they are seeing. But they absolutely love it. They think it’s going to explode because of what’s happening with Part 1 and South Park and stuff. Part 2 is really something else.”
With a recent date mere months away, Six is still trying to keep the plot under wraps, giving away as little as possible. “I can say it has a centipede of 12 people. I want to keep it a surprise. Dieter [Laser, who plays Dr. Heiter] or one of the people of the centipede comes back.”
The plan was always for three films, and Sixx is still dedicated to bringing that vision to life. Truly, it will be the fullest sequence imaginable. “Yeah, yeah, definitely. Three films makes a Human Centipede for me. Three can be the combination. What I want to do is make Human Centipede III: Final Sequence. And then I don’t want to make any Human Centipedes again. I’ve a terrific idea for it that’s completely different than 1 and 2 again. I think Part 3 will make Part 2 look like a Disney film.”
No date is set for Full Sequence yet, but look for festival screenings later this year.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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