Movies
Tom Six’s ‘Human Centipede’ Interview Blows My Mind: Chair Rape and Torture Porn
I’ve never met Tom Six, and haven’t really conversed with him at all. To be frank, I don’t even know what to make of him. Is he arrogant? Is he a sociopath? Is he one of those directors who only cares about shocking his audience? I’ve been in the dark ever since his The Human Centipede (First Sequence) blew my mind back in 2009. Being that I’m the kind of guy who likes to stare you right in the eye and see what makes you tick, the shroud of mystery around Six has literally drove me insane. Up until today, I’ve had no actual opinion on the Euro director.
But now, with The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) premiering at the Fantastic Fest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, the director has opened up with an absolutely mind blowing interview with the NY Times where he talks about making his new villain rape a chair, and how he’s comfortable having his films tagged as “torture porn.”
Read on for some choice segments.
My personal favorite part of the interview is where Six talks about his approach to the first film, and then upping the ante for Full Sequence. This is the answer of a true film fan who understands what he’s doing. It reminds me of what James Cameron said about both T2 and Aliens.
“I made ‘Part I’ very much psychological. A lot of things happen in your head and you don’t actually see it on the screen,” he explains. “In ‘Part II,’ I really wanted to make it more graphic, show everything that I didn’t show in ‘Part I.’ Because I see so many horror films that have a sequel, then the sequel fails because it’s like a copy of the first one. Most of the time it’s not better, or it’s not original, and then it fails. When I was doing promotion for ‘Part I’ and starting to write ‘Part II,’ so many people at festivals all over the world, they said, “What if some maniac out there tries to copy your idea?” And then I knew that’s exactly the idea I must pursue.”
The most random portion of the feature is where Six explains that he forced Laurence R. Harvey to rape a chair in order to land the role of the new villain, Martin.
“The villain was more difficult [to cast], because people who’ve seen ‘Part I’ really admire Dr. Heiter, and that’s what I really didn’t want. I want the complete opposite of Dr. Heiter. I had this very specific character in my mind for the Martin character, and I saw a lot of people but none of them made it. And when Laurence came in, I thought, my God, that’s him, that’s him. He looks amazing. And then I asked him to rape a chair.”
He continues explaining “why” he made him perform that bizarre act: “I wanted to see, is he capable of giving it all as an actor? That’s very important for me. And he did it, and he did it so convincingly and he had no shame whatsoever. And I thought, that’s it, that’s the guy.”
This brief interview tells me a lot about Six as a person and a director. Most of all it has made me respect him more as a person and a director. You can read the entire interview by clicking below. What do you think of Mr. Six after reading?
Recent comments from producer Jason Blum suggested that a retool was in order when last year’s The Exorcist: Believer wasn’t as successful as Blumhouse and Universal hoped. That certainly seems to be the case, as Deadline reports tonight that Mike Flanagan is in talks to direct the next Exorcist movie.
Director David Gordon Green was initially on board to direct an entire trilogy of new movies in the franchise, with The Exorcist: Believer intended to be only the first film in that three-film sequel series. Originally set to hit theaters on April 18, 2025, sequel The Exorcist: Deceiver was delayed when Green left the project.
If talks come to fruition, Flanagan will take over, likely steering the franchise in a new direction.
The first film in the trilogy was released theatrically on October 13, 2023, with Leslie Odom Jr. starring alongside a returning Ellen Burstyn from the original classic.
In Believer, “Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) has raised their daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) on his own.
“But when Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before.”
The final moments of The Exorcist: Believer brought Linda Blair’s Regan MacNeil back into the fold, seeming to suggest that the legacy character could return in future installments.
As for Flanagan, the horror filmmaker has Life of Chuck on the way. Flanagan previously helmed Stephen King adaptations Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game, and he’s also known for titles including Ouija: Origin of Evil and Oculus, along with the Netflix horror shows The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
Stay tuned for more as we learn it.
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