Things That Were Not Meant To Be

[naomi_jay]

Guys, I'm really worried about The Human Centipede.

See, I saw this article on the BBC news website today and was all "really? People want to kill him? No way!" So I went and read the synopsis for the film and now I can't stop thinking about it. Mostly I can't stop thinking about how that sounds like a pretty flimsy premise for a film. It's like, he does his crazy experiment, it fails, everyone dies, the end. I can't see that taking more than half an hour, frankly.

But generally I am just too freaked out by the concept. It's quite nauseatingly gross and I can't imagine any enjoyment, even visceral, being derived from watching it. A good number of horror films rely on people being willing to watch horrible things happen to horrible people, but this kind of pushes it in my opinion.

I had a bit of a rant on Twitter earlier about how, for me, horror stories work best when they're also morality tales (bear with me here; my favourite horror films are the Friday 13th series, so...). Way back when, fairy tales were dark and twisted and served to impart a moral, social lessons. The original version of Red Riding Hood was a warning against predatory men in French court, for example, which can still be seen in the more well-known versions today. Even the crudest of slashy horror flicks, at their heart, generally have a cultural message to impart, even if that message is "don't smoke pot or Jason will gut you with his machete." Same with urban legends, which I see as updated fairy tales - they fall apart on close inspection, but they impart the same moral messages: "Don't go parking with your boyfriend and have premartial sex because escaped maniacs with hooks for hands* will kill him." (God, if anyone wants to hear the full version of my horror/morality/urban legend/fairy tale theory, let me know and I'll arrange a seminar, okay?)

I hate torture porn films like Saw and Hostel because they skip the morality tale and plunge straight into violence-as-sex: they're titilating, gratuituous, and sadistic, and rarely even have decent character development to make up for the lack of plot. I'm quite happy to watch Michael Myers chase his sister around and her try to escape, because I believe that (consciously or not) the filmmakers are (or are trying to) explore psychological themes in their slasher flicks, like the effect of fear on the human mind, family ties, nature v nurture, etc (please, nobody mention Cube to me**). And yes, the classic slasher flicks get progressively more ludicrous and move further and further way from that initial exploration, but we all want to pretend Jason X never happened anyway, right?

In contrast, the Saw films and films like them strike me as a nihilistic kick in the teeth, an attempt to sicken the audience and somehow make the audience complicit in the torture simply by keeping them watching. It's a way of making the audience say not "what would I do in this situation?" but "I enjoy watching these situations."***

The Human Centipede appears to fall into that last category. It's not a commentary on anything, it's not even a good old-fashioned splatter-fest that gives you a few cheap thrills before you forget it entirely. It's just ... nasty stuff for the sake of nasty stuff, and personally I don't see what enjoyment could be derived from that kind of film. And yes, I was ranting just the other day about how I disliked the AVP films because there was too much human interest, and I just wanted to see Predators kill things. I reserve the right to shout but that's different! loudly and frequently. Even Predators was an exploration of human psychology and invasion paranoia, and ultimately, it was fun. The Human Centipede just sounds like something filmed entirely to revolt and provoke reaction for the sake of being revolting and provocative. Maybe there's merit in that; I don't know. All I know is I now can't help thinking of the toilet as some kind of mouth, and it's very disturbing.

*Seriously? He's killer locked up in a mental home but they let him keep his hook? I call foul.
**Cube is a stupid film and it should feel stupid. Don't even get me started. I cannot express in polite language what I think of that film, and my dad will be upset if I use impolite language.
***I'm not saying people who enjoy torture-porn are serial killer sadists in the making, but I do believe there is a deliberate attempt to put the audience in the mind of the killer with these films, and make them cheer the killer on. I've no idea what that's supposed to prove, except that underneath the veil of civilisation we are all just brutal animals, and you can explore that far more entertainingly and thoughtfully with a good werewolf film. *ahem* Or book.

Comments

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I think it's just nastiness for the sake of nastiness, and the fact that people think it's cool or edgy or funny is good evidence for the doctrine of original sin. Namely that something is seriously wrong with the entire human race.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Word! I'm all for the "it's just a film" mentality in some cases, but this just sounds like some sick person's private joke, and it should have stayed that way.