My reaction to the news that The Human Centipede: Full Sequence has been banned in my country

(Contains comical images throughout that don't fit the tone of the blog lol)

If you are not aware and have been living under a rock recently, the sequel to the shocking Human Centipede has been outright banned in the United Kingdom by the BBFC (ratings board) from release on DVD, Download or in theaters for being "sexually violent and potentially obscene". This means EVEN ADULTS cannot see this film.



Firstly, let me point out that whether you hate these type of movies or not, we are supposed to be living in a democracy (so they say), but it's apparent that we are now in a society where an unjustified authority board is banning a person's artistic expression, -(no matter what you call it extreme horror it is still an art form). -The BBFC are no different than the censorship culture in the Nazi regime, omitting what they don't want the public to see. Ironicall the Nazi's were the very skum who actually did sexually abuse, torture and do mad experiments on innocents just like in the movie. Now I thought we were past banning films, I thought that it was an outdated over-reaction buried in the past when the Conservative party was in power in the 1980s/90s, but I guess I was completely wrong. We haven't moved on. Maybe it's a coincidence that A Serbian Film got banned from frightfest last August, and now this movie gets banned outright not long after the Conservatives are back in power... this theory is not the issue though, although I do suspect a snobbish Eton-twat style influence in the BBFC.



Secondly, it's ONLY A MOVIE, there is NO EVIDENCE that horror films have ever turned anyone into a psychopath, there is no evidence disney films have made psychos normal either! On a sidenot, there is evidence however that the establishments stupid one sided propaganda news (ITV, BBC, SKY NEWS, CNN, FOX NEWS, ABC NEWS etc.) influences 1000s upon 1000s of citizens to join up to risk their lives to foolishly fight wars to kill others brutally, and by the way, ALL WARS ARE UNJUSTIFIED, and are all based on lies by Politicians (the same class of people who like banning films in there little censorship boards). The main reasons war happens is because of profit, power and religion. Very rarely is it self defense, and never should it be supported in any way. Nobody seems to care about how damaging the news can be in influencing negative decisions. Some people would rather blame movies for the horrors of the world.. If people listened and tolerated everyone's different view/religions/ideologies, then war wouldn't exist. "War is over!...... if you want it" -John Lennon. No one on this planet has a natural right to control you! So how can it be justified for a small group of people to CONTROL what the majority can or cannot see?



Thirdly the horror genre, like many other genres needs to transcend or push the boundaries in order for the genre to survive, otherwise it will go the way of the dinosaurs or the Western, in filmic terms. The Human Centipede film series is an example of the bar being raised, expanding the genre a little bit further. Therefore I have always been open to films which offer something new or different from current trends that end up transforming the genre, be it the the Blair Witch Project, Last House on the Left, or Psycho. These films massively shaped the modern and postmodern horror genre. Without these films which pushed the boundaries in their own way, the genre wouldn't look the same. Imagine if Hitchcock never made Psycho, you know, the film which has transgressive scenes such as a cross dressing murderer, voyeurism, a thieving protagonist who unexpectedly gets killed half way in the movie, a twist ending, an unsubtle music score. Without Psycho, there would be no Black Christmas (1974) which inspired Halloween (1978), which in turn inspired Friday the 13th and the entire slasher genre. Additionally filmmakers whose careers are outside the horror genre were also inspired by Hitchcock's work in Psycho. Without Psycho, the horror genre could have possibly died back in the late 60s, sticking to the old Universal horror style formula and got boring to people, dying like the Western genre has. We would have been stuck with Hammer horror, (the Universal studios formula but with colour), which pretty much died in the late 60s.. Colour didn't save the Western genre either. And if you think the western genre is still alive, name another movie other than True Grit that came out in the past 3 years. It's no longer an existant genre. It is a one off thing now. Anyways going back to the horror genre, without Last House on the left, we wouldn't have extreme exploitation horror movies such as I Spit on your grave, Cannibal Holocaust, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc.. Without Cannibal Holocaust, we wouldn't have the plot for the Blair Witch Project, and without Blair Witch Project, we wouldn't have REC, Cloverfield, Paranormal Actiity, and The Last Exorcism. Without the post-modern Scream, there wouldn't be I Know What you did last summer, Urban Legend, Halloween H20, Cherry falls etc.. And without Saw you wouldn't have Hostel, the torture genre, and the Human Centipede.



Now you may be thinking, how can he compare the masterpiece that is Psycho, to a piece of trash like the Human Centipede 2? If you are still asking this question, you obviously haven't understood the last extensive paragraph... Horror is meant to be transgressive and at times original. Horror is meant to scare the viewer, not just be entertaining. You know films have muliple purposes and the unique thing about one spectrum of the horror genre is that it has a different purpose from the other 85% of genre cinema. In that sense and i've always thought this, original groundbreaking horror is close to art films, as art films are an expression of an idea that is not necessarily meant to entertain the viewer, but to express something through a medium. Art is also challenging at times at what it puts accross. So are Horror films. which are not necessarily meant to entertain the viewer. Horror films CAN (but not always) have the sole purpose of scaring the viewer in one way or the other, deliberately making them feel uneasy for 90 minutes. There are 3 different modes which define the horror genre, that scare the audience:

-Creeping them out (the feeling of goosebumps you get in presence of the unknown)
-Digust - feeling sick and uneasy from something gory or implied gore through editing and sound
-Shocking your audience - putting something on screen that society hides away from - a graphic rape for instance.

A pure horror film will include 1, 2 or all of these 3 elements. Human Centipede mostly falls into the shock mode of horror. However, if you are lucky you come accross a film which does the following:

-An Original Ideology or idea/or subplot running in the background that is in itself scary (e.g. 'Martyrs', 'The Human Centipede')
-Raw ingredients the filmmaker skillfully places within the film that the audience uses their imaginations to create fear within themselves without much effort



There are more techniques that can be listed, (not including the multiple subgenres with horror, or the crossing of different genres) but to list all of this and it's intended purpose would sidetrack my main argument too much.



What I am saying is the horror genre has multiple purposes for it's audience, and needs to transcend itself into something new every once in a while for it to survive as a filmic genre for the coming years. For this reason alone, the Human Centipede franchise needs to be embraced by horror fans, at least given a watch. It should not be banned. We are responsible adults. Your not gonna let your kid watch something that extreme because it will frighten them way too much. It doesn't make sense why you should you be treated like your kid by the BBFC, them acting as father/mother figure dictating and teaching you that this film is too bad for you to watch.


Do you like being treated as a child? Do you like being asked to have your chewing gum taken out your mouth?

I haven't seen this movie yet, and thanks to the BBFC, it will be a bit of an inconvenience now to watch it. I predict some other countries will also ban the film as humans like to jump on a bandwagon. If you truly want to see this film, you will find a way: either by a torrent download or a foreign import..

In the meantime, keep an open mind and don't believe everything you read, see, or hear

-John Mitchison

May update

Once again it's been a while since our last update.

Because of technical issues, the animated film has been delayed for months up until recently. We are now completely able to shoot and edit in 1920 X1080i HD.

However everyone knows May is a busy month full of activities from every direction, and the same applies to my life and the people around me whether I choose it or not. As a result filming will most likely take place in June and/or July. But I will make it my goal to release this animated film before the end of the summer.

In the meantime, we currently have 2 new videos of re-edited and improved versions of our 2 biggest short films:

Red Handed followed by Grave Danger. Recently, original rushes for both movies were discovered to be completely intact, and since I was never 100% happy with both films, I thought they needed touching up in different ways. They are the same movies, but with some needed improvements.



With Red Handed, I deliberately made it look older than it already feels- in the vein of an intense 70s exploitation movie. This includes scratches, burnt frames and film distortions, some older sounding music tracks, and a re-design of the titles. Additionally, we surrounded the movie with these cool old theater adverts, and previews of coming attractions, 2 are for films yet to come out..




Regarding Grave Danger, this re-edit was much more straight forward and involved creative touch up work mainly on the 3rd act of the movie which I had been dying to do since it's rushed release back in 2008. The subliminal "color code" meaning in the movie is now complete. Additionally the ratio will be 16x9 full screen, with no black bars or stretching of any kind. However, the best imptrovement to this re-release will actually be the upload quality. Youtube users will be able to select the quality they want to watch it in at rates which are 10 times higher than the pixelated version that was released in 2008.

So all of this news may raise the question.. Will Horrorville Productions actually film a short or feature length movie with humans, rather than animated shorts and re-releases??

Yes. This year. Not sure when exactly though!

February update - the return

-The Sony PMW EX1 camera arrived in late December, the necessary accessories that we needed for it arrived by mid January, spurring me on to write a new short film.

-I am currently filming our next project: the third entry to our animated VS series and the follow up to Freddy vs Jason vs Leatherface 70s style.. This short will be different in the way it looks visually but will be just as fun to watch and have some unexpected twists like the last short, but should be in the same vein as the others with more work put into it than the last two. I'm looking forward to filming the rest of it and finally uploading it on youtube after almost a year of absence on there.

Hopefully this short will mark the return of Slashville Entertainment, as I plan to produce, write and direct new films to be released this year onwards..

As far as Jag goes, he told me he is too busy at the moment to make films, we shall see what we shall see..

-John

Winter Update - bad news

It's been a long time since the last post but we figured that because the blog has no followers, then it's unlikely that anyone is reading. A lot of set backs have happened since the last post, most of it not great.

In late September after our break, Jag and I came to terms with reality and decided the film had to be cancelled until further notice because of financial issues. It was impossible for us to go ahead with the movie that was written because at or current budget, we could only afford a decent camera, when to complete the movie decently, we also need lights, advanced make-up, special effects, food and other expenses we can't afford. Now since we have no experience or clue with raising money via investment, the only other way to get money is from the work savings... which is not enough quite frankly..

We may or may not go back to the project in 2011, if we don't we are likely to make a short film or something similar to test any new equipment we acquire.

If you have read this then thanks, you may be the only one.

More updates shortly...

Mid -August update

We apologize for the delay in updating the blog, but we have been doing a lot these past few months Yes the film is still happening we even have a rough schedule for the first bunch of days of shooting -the last 2 weeks of september. We have our two lead characters cast and are about to do auditions for all the other roles. Things seem to be happening pretty fast.

We will keep you updated with more blogs and photos, meanwhile keep it gory and hope you had a happy Friday the 13th



John Mitchison -Producer

Mid - April Update

Things have been moving slowly but surely since the last update, Jag and I have just finished the 4th draft of the script and we've come up with a possible title, also our budget is looking better than expected. We've yet to start casting for crew, actors or extras but we have a very rough schedule based from the 4th draft. I am personally pleased with what Jag and I have accomplished in the script, it expresses our fears, our anger, our imaginations and our knowledge and in my opinion is the best script we've ever written, because not only is it personal it's both a scary , shocking and violent film which deals with the extremes of human emotion. We will try our very best to put what we write on screen and maybe even make it better.

The downside is there have been a few issues with finding 2 of the locations but I'm sure we will figure this out before the shoot.


Also we have deliberately been doing less horror shows simply because it was getting too difficult to do that, work and also plan the film at the same time especially when we had a lot of negative feedback from viewers on our last review of the Nightmare on elm street 2010 trailer, but that wasn't the sole reason we stopped, it was more of a discouragement because I realized what's the point in spending time doing this if most people don't like it?? I realize it's good for us as horror fans to have an opinion, however it got to a point where our opinion was completely disrespected and patronized over the past 4 weeks, so why should i waste my time on editing and filming something which only a few people would slightly appreciate, when Jag and I are working on an original film?? So yeah this and a few other things have knocked us a bit, but we will prevail only to prove to people that personal films can be made from people frustrated about the current state of the horror genre.

A bit of a rant there. We probably will do another show at some point but we don't know when. I still think the most important thing is to focus on making this film a reality, and if the horror show prevents this then this then we'll have to leave it to written blogs and small random vlogs..

If you've read this... then thanks

Until next time,

Rot slowly


-John

March Update

A quick update on the upcoming horror film from me and John.
Still in the script stage but i'm working now on it and have just finished doing half a 3rd draft, its starting to take shape but still along way to go, oooo its getting fun and im getting happy that we are gonna make another film.

peace

Jag