Tom Six is doing a sequel to The Human Centipede. I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed or bored. Maybe it's the boredom that is causing my annoyance. Or maybe I'm annoyed because the whole concept fails to deliver.
If you didn't know, the first movie is about this crazy German surgeon who specialized in separating conjoined twins. At some point, his brain switched from Normal to Crazy with a Deep Side Dish of Sociopath and he became obsessed with sewing people together. In fact, he decided the best way to do this was via a continual digestive track. I'll let you work out in your head what this would involve. Yes, it's a deeply disturbing concept.
When I first heard about this movie, the idea of it revolted me and truly offended me. Both of these things happening at the same time is rare, so I knew I had to see it. The problem is, the idea of the movie was far better than the actual movie. I came away bored, annoyed, and found myself making parody songs about it with my best friend.
The problem is, life is far more shocking that fiction. It's far more nasty and scary and horrifying. And no matter how hard we try to provoke, in most cases, our efforts pale in comparison to reality.
I saw this play out on an episode of the reality show about artists. They were supposed to make "shocking art." Most of them really struggled with this concept. Though, to be honest, many of them struggle enough. A lot of people defaulted to the usual (sex, religion, gender images) and didn't really live up to the challenge.
It's not that they didn't try, it's just that shock is very subjective and most of us find less and less about unreal situations that troubling. We know the situation is created; that very fact makes it far more safe.
Reading the book Alive was disturbing. I can read about fictional cannibalism all day long and not bat an eye. However, knowing that people were, in real life, stuck in a situation where they were forced to eat human disturbed me deeply. I had nightmares for weeks. Even now it's quite unsettling.
As I've mentioned before, watching my grandmother die was shocking and disturbing. No matter how right it was that I was there and no matter how appropriate the situation, I still touched on something quite taboo. Even to this day, I have trouble with it.
However, to try and capture these levels of disturbance on canvas or in a movie . . . I'm just not sure it would have the same effect. The movie about the situation in Alive wasn't as horrific as the novel. The movie had just enough separation to sooth the horror. By the same token, if some crazy person actually started sewing people together for real, yeah, I would be freaked out about it. But as fiction, it just doesn't mess with me so much.
Is it necessary that we have things that shock and disturb us in art? Clearly. The idea of catharsis via art is ancient. Art can tackle subjects many people fear to experience in their real lives. The problem is, I think for a lot of us, the mundane tasks of living have somehow become so disturbing and stressful as to eclipse the frightening aspect of what lurks in the dark places, even in the dark places of ourselves.
I think given the choice between death by a serial killer and facing looming dept we can't pay off, more and more of us would opt for the killer.
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