Director Tom Six

After his first instalment in the Human Centipede trilogy, Dutch
director Tom Six caused incredible controversy in the UK with The Centipede 2
becoming only the twelfth film to be banned by the BBFC. In a heated and colourful
debate, Six defends his creation in the face of the censorship and bad press
that has ensued.

Have you got anything
to say to the British censors?

Oh I’ve got lots to say. When I first heard I wanted to
thank them for their incredible publicity but now I’m really angry, they’re not
looking into the appeal, it’s not good. How can they say that you’re adults and
you can’t watch the film, it’s incredible. It makes me really sad because
Britain gives you black humour like Monty Python and in my films, in parts one
and two there’s a lot of dark humour. I’m so disappointed.

I think films like Harry Potter are much more damaging, I
think a child jumping off of a building thinking that they can fly is much more
reasonable than some nut job making his own human centipede.

If you had the
opportunity to go back and remake the film knowing that it would be banned
would you take out the scenes that got it forbidden?

No, they said no matter what I take out they can’t accept
it. The BBFC say it’s the story, they say that a man who is sexually obsessed
with a human centipede can’t be shown. They’ve blown it up to be huge though
and this is how people get it very wrong.

Is the ban also
something of a source of pride for you?

I am very proud; the film is up there with all of the films
that they have banned before like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But I’m still really
pissed.

The film is being
shown uncut in Australia, so what makes you think it’s ok for Australia but not
for the UK?

I don’t understand it at all, as I always used to think that
Australia was a lot stricter. So what’s happening? I don’t understand, the
distributers don’t understand. America is releasing two versions, the cut
version and the uncut version. It’s utterly crazy.

How interested are
you in creating a disturbance in British culture?

I love it, that’s why I make these kinds of films. I want
people to talk about it, I love the reactions and I play with it. I’d rather
make films the way I make them than those films that people forget about.

You say that that
Human Centipede Trilogy interconnects like a human centipede. Can you expand on
that?

Each film is different, that was my goal. I don’t want to
make a film that is a stupid rip off of the one that was before it. Part 3 will
also upset a lot of people but it’s a story told from a completely different
perspective.

Have you got
financing and a start date for Part 3?

We start filming in the beginning of next year.

You say that this
type of film won’t be imitated; do you think there’s more harm in films that
seem more realistic?

Yes, look at a film like Hostel. Some guy can go and get a
tool box and copy this film. If you look at a film like Irreversible, where a
guy rapes a woman, it’s so incredibly real that you cringe. In my film, the man
rapes the human centipede, and it’s so grotesque and it’s so strange. And they
don’t show that and yet you can buy [Irreversible] in stores.

Do you see the ban
being lifted any time soon?

I hope so, they rejected the appeal, and so now it has to go
to court. It doesn’t look good.