After seeing the encyclopedic acts of horror on display in “The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence),” it’s hard to imagine that there’s too much more to do with the concept, short of capturing an actual rape or murder on camera. But writer-director Tom Six, who premiered his sequel at Austin’s Fantastic Fest last week, said he has plenty more ideas where those for the first two films came from. “When I was writing the first script, I had so many ideas that I couldn’t put them in one film,” Six explained in a recent interview with The Playlist.
“I knew I wanted to make three films, and I wanted to start with the psychological horror because I wanted the audience to first get used to that sick idea. I knew in part two, I’d go full force and show everything — and that’s what people wanted, also. But each film is very different, and the third film is a very different film, again, and there I will use my final ideas. It’s called ‘The Final Sequence,’ and so I used up all of my ideas in three films.”
Notwithstanding one’s appetite for the “ideas” that he put into the first two films, Six indicated that he would approach ‘Final Sequence’ in the same way he did the second film, by starting with its predecessor and then taking the story in an entirely different direction. “Like One and Two are really different concepts, Part Three is going to be a totally different concept again,” Six said. “The thing is that like Part Two started with the end of Part One, Part Three will start with the ending of Part Two, and I did that because in the end, all of the films can literally be connected, like a centipede. So you have one four-and-a-half hour film, and I love that idea, even though all of the films are so different.”
After Six shot the first “The Human Centipede” in the Netherlands, he moved production of Part Two to England. For ‘Final Sequence,’ he said he plans to come stateside. “We’re going to shoot the beginning of next year, so we’re going to shoot here in America. The script is practically finished, and the financing is ready. I have a few actors, and I’m just fine-tuning exactly where I’m going to shoot in America. But I can’t wait to start.” Six said the reason for the change is to use more American actors, who he hopes will give him different ideas and inspiration than the international cast and crew members he worked with in the past.
“It’s very important,” he insisted. “Because first of all, when I start shooting in America, I love American culture and American films of course, so I really can’t wait to work with an American crew and American actors. Because they have a different perspective than, say, German actors or Dutch actors, and I really want to learn from their talent and be surprised by it.”
Although it wasn’t a huge commercial success, the first “The Human Centipede” became an instant sensation among film fans, albeit as much to its title as its actual story. But even with two films in the series down and another one on the way, Six said he’s not concerned about being pigeonholed as a purveyor of gore. “I want to make only the things I want to make, and they are really crazy, controversial things, so all of my life I will be making things that are controversial,” he confessed. “So I never worry about what the audience thinks about what I shoot; I just do what I want to do. But it will always be in that line, so if people want to see a film by me, they’ll always see something different, original and crazy. So I’m not really afraid of that.”
“After the success of the first one, as a writer or filmmaker, your second book or film, that’s really the hardest thing,” he observed. “Because if your first thing is a success, everybody wants to know what you’ll do next. And that’s why I made it so very different, and I think hopefully that succeeded.”
“The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)” lands on October 7th.