The Human Centipede II banned from Australian screens
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Norwegian director Tom Six’s throat-clogging horror film The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) has been slapped with a Refused Classification rating by the Australian Classification Review Board (ACRB), effectively banning it from distribution in Australia.
The film has been KBed from local screens despite being green-lit in May, when it was given an R rating. The Human Centipede II opened at select cinemas a fortnight ago, including Melbourne’s Cinema Nova, which advertised the film with a prophetic “see it before it’s banned” motto.
This marks the second instance this year of a feature film being approved and then banned in a matter of weeks. It follows in the grisly footsteps of A Serbian Film, which was OK’ed for release earlier this year but re-reviewed and banned in July. A review of The Human Centipede II was requested by NSW Attorney General, Greg Smith.
It is becoming a disconcerting habit for Australian classification boards to issue embarrassing about-faces, potentially damaging not only to distribution and exhibition companies but to the integrity of the classification system itself.
Here’s a snippet from the ACRB’s official press statement:
A three member panel of the Classification Review Board (the Review Board) has by unanimous decision determined that the film The Human Centipede II (full sequence) is classified RC (Refused Classification).
In the Review Board’s opinion, The Human Centipede II (full sequence) could not be accommodated within the R 18+ classification as the level of depictions of violence in the film has an impact which is very high.
In addition, the film must be refused classification because it contains gratuitous, exploitative or offensive depictions of violence with a very high degree of impact and cruelty which has a high impact.
Films classified RC cannot be sold, hired, or advertised in Australia.
Read my review of the film here.
When news broke, the Twitterverse exploded. Here’s a snapshot of what Twitter users had to say:
@RichOnFilm: Totally not surprised HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 was banned upon review. Our system is clearly broken. Should it have received a R in the 1st place?
@cinemanova: #HumanCentipede2 is now BANNED! bit.ly/rVxQJi NSW Attorney General doesn’t think you’re capable of understanding it’s just a movie!
@BernardKeane: I wish I could muster my free speech outrage about the banning ofHuman Centipede II but, really, I just can’t.
@dandotmoss: Human Centipede 2 refused classification for screening! Holy crapola!
@leezachariah: And now HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 has been banned in Australia. Upside: as a boy, I always thought it would be cool to live in the Middle Ages.
@MelbourneBitter: Just got an email from some Christian group who are thrilled Human Centipede 2 has been banned.
@MJCrompton1: I wonder how many people are now going to goto bit torrents to get their human centipede 2 fix as it is now banned in this country?
@aussexparty: HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 & @MonsterPics the latest victims of our broken censorship scheme. When will gov’t protect the rights of artists/adults?
@dougladbot: They refuse classification on Human Centipede II but let Jack and Jill through? Questions ASKED!
@martynpedler Picture a human centipede-friendly Hollywood at last. “I Don’t Know How She Does It”? Maybe it’s all those extra arms!
@AdemWithanE: Well done to the Australian Classification Review Board; thanks to them we’ll all just have to download The Human Centipede 2 illegally.
@MichaelByrnes: I didn’t want to see #HumanCentipede2, but it’s disgraceful that those who do won’t get to exercise that choice.
@stalepopcorn: Why is the frothy romcom antics of HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2banned and the similarly-themed THE IRON LADY is not? Disgraceful.
@LNPinsider: Trying to download a copy of The Human Centipede 2 now that it’s been banned in Australia.
@CarolineNorma: #Shame on @cinemanova for showing the Human Centipede II, which has now been banned
@var0sha: The Human Centipede II banned from Australian screens. Kinda pointless nowadays to ban stuff.
@TV-Rev: The Human Centipede 2 has been refused classification in Australia. Watch as sandpaper sales & downloads skyrocket.
@Christoph_Elena: The Human Centipede 2’s been banned yet Jack & Jill is being released this Thursday.
@ruminksi: Family First supports the banning of HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2. That’s all you need to know, really. Greens, ALP, Coalition: still silent. Family First supports the banning of HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2. That’s all you need to know, really. Greens, ALP, Coalition: still silent.
@TheJenHansen: Probably a good thing that Human Centipede 2 has been banned from future screenings in Australia. No more poopies on cinema floors!!
@RobertCettk: first A Serbian movie and now this – this country is film-censor crazy: the worst record of any democracy in film bans
@ScottFitzG: One less chick flick to see this summer
see it
skip it
don't rush
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All the same I want to prevent myself seeing this shocker because I make the judgement. Not some stiff in a suit who thinks he’s up to date by wearing his hair in a pony tail.
Hello channel BitTorrent
I have a very dissapointed 14 year old at home who was looking forward to the sequel. On the violence front I watched a doco the other night that had images of the end of Saipan – talk about your high level violence! Whole families with their chest blow up, bodies of children floating in the sea. Glad someone is keeping the kids safe from fake violence
Oh hello! The conservative stuffed shirts to the rescue once again.
The ACRB just gave the movie the stamp of approval!
I will meet this film in the Pirate Bay.
If we’re banning any films in this country, then its hard to argue this one deserved to be spared. With the qualifier of course that I havent actually seen the film.
Its quite simple. If a film is not to my taste it should be banned. Why can’t you all understand that ?
the Blu Ray rip is all over the web…a meaningless and pointless classification.
btw Luke where’s your glowing Attack The Block review? SMH completely blew their cred with their lame review…easily one of the best genre films of the year.
I have no interest in seeing this movie, but it’s times like this when the hypocrisy of conservatism is laid bare.
Where are the cries of “nanny state” and “political correctness” from the News Corp rags on this one?
The idea our government still maintains at great expense to us all. Is that this classification process is still relevant. The idea that a classification still matters a whole lot when access to everything by anyone with basic computer literacy world wide is beyond our governments ability to control has become a joke. I say if it is refused classification that should be another category for hard core consumers of everything. Those with more chaste perhaps delectate interlectual sensibilities can simply ignore all the stuff which is refused clasification. After all the board is only their to advise people about the products, they are not their to block acccess compleatly as this line from above makes clear. Films classified RC cannot be sold, hired, or advertised in Australia.
Edward James
The purpose of censoring this film is probably not to stop you from seeing it, any more than cigarette plain-packaging and advertisement bans will stop you from smoking. You’re much too rational and independent-minded and resourceful to be stopped.
But moreover no government really cares if you do either of those things. What they do care about, or should, is the rate of smoking among the whole population, and the costs in medicine and public amenity it incurs. No, it won’t affect you. But it is statistically assured to affect everybody else.
ok, I’m not going to finish the analogy, but it was about what kind of impact on violent crime and sexual offence rates and the fraying social fabric you might get by allowing certain films to be easily disseminated beyond a small, sufficiently motivated group of downloaders who were going to see it no matter what; specifically hyper-violent films about 100 people being surgically attached mouth-to-anus.
Alex – all well and good, but then why did they let it through in the first place? If a film is rated RC first up, OK. But if it’s let through as R and THEN within a matter of a few months rated RC my bullsh*t detector starts working overtime. Has the film changed in those few months? Have the guidelines for the ACRB changed? Has Australian society changed significantly? No to all three…
So why the change? I can only assume the usual “moral” groups (yes, that includes you ACL) have been putting on the pressure behind the scenes. Which means that the classification process is no longer transparent.
You won’t hear it because censorship is all about pandering to religious lobby groups.
Malcolm, you may be right about the pressure. But they had to initially form a subjective opinion on whether the violence met the guidelines’ definition of “gratuitous, excessive, etc”, which opinion-forming can’t ever be totally transparent or rigorous. Isn’t the simplest explanation that they later revised that opinion?
Please sign the petition to un-ban HC2 –
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-australian-classification-review-board-unban-the-human-centipede-in-australia-by-giving-it-a-rating
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