Human Centipede II banned in Australia

A film that was screened with an R18+ certificate in Adelaide has now been banned throughout Australia. The Human Centipede II is a horror sequel from the Netherlands and was shown 8 times at the Mercury cinema to approximately 2000 people before the Attorney General of NSW, Greg Smith, called for its classification to be re-reviewed.

The director himself, Tom Six, described it as the sickest movie ever, and is the second part of a proposed series revolving around kidnap victims who are then sewn together to create a hideous human centipede that has a continuous digestive tract.  It’s prequel had a limited worldwide release and in response to this ban the national research officer for Christian lobby group FamilyVoiceAustralia, Ros Phillips, called it ‘torture porn’.

Neil Foley from Monster Pictures, the movie’s Australian distributor, in planning to submit a modified version to the Classification Board, and brought the lead actor Laurence Harvey from the UK to Australia for some question and answer sessions which took place after the screenings. Foley has said that Monster Pictures are very disappointed at the decision taken to ban the movie completely.

The company has now produced evidence which include submissions from film experts who back their claims that the film was produced with many significant artistic credentials and that its contentious elements were justified within the context of both the story and the genre.

The Classification Review Board inAustraliarefused the classification on the grounds that the film, shot in black and white, contained exploitative, offensive or gratuitous acts of violence which had an extremely high degree of cruelty and impact. Monster Pictures has rejected these notions.