The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) is a 2015 English-language Dutch body horror black comedy film written and directed by Tom Six. It is the conclusion to Six's The Human Centipede trilogy.[4] Starring Dieter Laser and Laurence R. Harvey, the leading actors from the first two films, in new roles, The Human Centipede 3 was released both theatrically and on video on demand on 22 May 2015.[1] The film was slammed with negative reviews from critics.

The Human Centipede 3
(Final Sequence)
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTom Six
Produced by
  • Tom Six
  • Ilona Six
Written byTom Six
Starring
Music byMisha Segal
CinematographyDavid Meadows
Edited byNigel de Hond
Production
company
Distributed byIFC Midnight
Release date
  • 22 May 2015 (2015-05-22) (United States)[1]
Running time
102 minutes[2]
CountryNetherlands
LanguageEnglish
Box office$16,184[3]

Plot

At George W. Bush State Prison in Texas, William “Bill” Boss (Dieter Laser), a cigar-smoking, chauvinistic, arrogant, psychopathic warden, watches the end of The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) with his accountant, Dwight Butler (Laurence R. Harvey). Dwight explains his pitch of a "brilliant idea" to fix the prison's horrible retention and violence rates, but he is interrupted by a phone call.

Back in the Warden's office, Bill receives a mysterious package, which is revealed to contain a jar of specially imported, dried African clitorises which he eats "for strength." After eating a few, he receives a threatening prank phone call from one of the inmates (Jay Tavare), Bill waterboards him with three buckets of boiling water, horribly disfiguring him. Governor Hughes (Eric Roberts) arrives immediately afterwards, ordering Bill and Dwight to put a stop to the violence and promising that they will both be fired otherwise. In anger and retaliation, Bill orders a 'mass castration' of the inmates, and castrates one of the prisoners (Robert LaSardo) himself, then cooking and eating the testicles for "Energy food."

Finally, Dwight is able to pitch his idea to Bill, where he suggests that all of the inmates are sutured together mouth-to-anus, forming a giant human centipede, which would deter anyone considering a life of crime. Bill is skeptical and opposed to the idea. Bill then has a nightmare about being attacked by inmates, and being raped in the kidney by the inmate he castrated. Bill then summons the director himself, Tom Six, to the prison. Bill is assured that the films are "100% medically accurate." Six gives the prison permission to use his Centipede idea, provided that he is permitted to witness the operation. The first two films are then shown to the inmates as a display of their future. This causes a riot, which allows inmates to chase Bill and Dwight to the wardens office, where they beat his assistant Daisy (Bree Olson) unconscious.

Bill then goes around each cell and shoots every inmate with tranquilizers, readying them for the operation. Incompatible inmates, such as one with a stoma, and one with a disability are shot and killed. They also discover an inmate with Crohn's disease, who suffers from severe diarrhea. Bill orders the man who raped him in a dream to be attached to him as an added punishment. Daisy is revealed to be in a coma, where she is raped by Bill. Six returns to the prison, where he is met by Bill and Dwight. After touring the cells, they discover a mentally unstable inmate eating his own feces wanting to be sewn to the centipede. In response, Bill shoots and kills the inmate. Death row inmates are discovered being dismembered for a "special project."

Upon the centipede's completion, Governor Hughes arrives disgusted at what he sees. In addition to the centipede, a 'Human Caterpillar,' has been created for inmates serving life sentences. It is also revealed that Daisy has accidentally been sewn into the Centipede. Hughes leaves the prison, telling Dwight and Bill they should receive the death sentence.

Hughes then returns to prison with a sudden change of heart, stating that the Centipede punishment is "exactly what America needs." The film ends with Dwight and Bill celebrating their success. Dwight is then shot and killed for trying to take credit for the idea. The final scene is of Bill screaming with joy overlooking the centipede while "The Star-Spangled Banner" plays.

Cast

Production

Six noted that casting for the third film was much easier than the first, as more people were familiar with the concept and wanted to appear in the film.[6] To this end, Eric Roberts was easier to attract to the film, because according to Six, he was a fan of the original.[7] Six decided to cast porn actress Bree Olson because he wanted a female character, even though the movie was set in an all-male prison, and wanted "the ultimate American female," which he believed to be a porn actress.[7] Both Laser and Harvey had starred in previous entries as the main antagonists, Dr. Josef Heiter and Martin, respectively.[7]

Six chose a prison setting to bring back the theme of "punishment" that generated the idea for the series, although Six admits that "I totally ignored [it] in the first two films."[7] Six filmed the movie in the style of "a Hollywood film," which according to him meant shooting "everything widescreen with over-the-top color grading and big Hollywood music," after receiving encouragement to do so from film festivals audiences [7] Six noted that this helped bring out how "ridiculous" the concept was.[7]

Six has stated that some of the crew members did not agree to put their full names in the credits, and adding these same members did not have such reservations about the second part.[8] In order to promote the film, Six distributed 250 hand-signed prints of the film in March 2015.[9]

Release

On 7 April 2015, Entertainment Weekly announced the film's theatrical and video on demand release date to be 22 May 2015.[1]

The film passed uncut in Australia on 6 May, with an R18+ rating, and screened in a national tour throughout June, with Harvey appearing as a special guest. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Australia on 22 July 2015.[10][11]

Despite controversy over the second film in the franchise,[12] the film passed uncut in the UK with an 18 certificate and in New Zealand with an R18 certificate. It was released in the UK on 20 July.[2]

Critical reception

The Human Centipede 3 has received generally negative reviews from critics. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 17% rating based on 46 reviews with an average rating of 2.2/10. The site's critical consensus states that "Human Centipede fans may find enough extreme body horror in the third installment to satisfy, but filmgoers of every other persuasion are strongly advised to stay far, far away from Final Sequence."[13] Metacritic reports an average score of 5 out of 100, indicating "overwhelming dislike" from 15 critics.[14]

Entertainment Weekly ranked the film as the second worst movie of 2015, specifying, "sleazy sadism served with a wink and a smile, Six’s anus-to-mouth trilogy is a satire without any clue of what it’s satirizing."[15] Additionally, The A.V. Club also ranked the film as the second worst of 2015, declaring, "Writer-director Tom Six lives for disapproval, and he’s finally made a movie that basically no one—not even those amused or unnerved by the past two installments—could possibly enjoy."[16]

In his review for Variety, Dennis Harvey noted, "As with earlier chapters, the packaging is as competent (if not particularly inspired) as the content is remedial. Indeed, perhaps the series’ only really good joke has been the inherent absurdism of seeing an ever-rising level of expense, polish and now “name” actors applied to something so fundamentally dumb."[17] Eddie Goldberger of New York Daily News concluded his review with, "The movie passes time until it can get to the centipeding. Even the big namesake event, when it finally arrives, is ho-hum. Turns out, whether it’s three people stuck together or 500, if you’ve seen one human centipede, you’ve seen them all."[18]

The New York Times critic Jeannette Catsoulis said of the film, "An ugly, claustrophobic celebration of sexual violence that’s anchored by one of the most repellent characters ever to appear on screen: the prison warden Bill Boss. Portrayed by Dieter Laser, Boss is a capering obscenity whose oft-protruding tongue deserves its own agent."[19]

Greg Cwik of Indiewire gave the film a C- and said: "Final Sequence is too self-serious to be camp, but too silly to be scary, so Six just settles for gross."[20]

Home media

The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 27 October 2015 in the United States. Additionally, a Blu-ray box set containing all of the films was released on the same day.[21]

Accolades
Award Category Nominee Result
Golden Raspberry Award[22][23] Worst Director Tom Six Nominated
Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) Nominated

Parody

Bree Olson starred in a parody of the feature that was directed by Graham Rich and shot in Hollywood, California.[24]

References
  1. "'Human Centipede Part 3': Exclusive release date and synopsis details". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. 7 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  2. "THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE III (FINAL SEQUENCE) (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 14 May 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  3. "The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
  4. Child, Ben (30 May 2013). "Eric Roberts to star in The Human Centipede 3". Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  5. "Eric Roberts, Tiny Lister, and Bree Olson Added to The Human Centipede 3: Final Sequence". Dread Central. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  6. Hanley, Ken W. "Q&A: Director Tom Six on "THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 3: FINAL SEQUENCE"". Fangoria. Archived from the original on 24 January 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  7. Snieder, Jeff. "'Human Centipede' Director Tom Six Takes on Censorship, Critics: 'I Like the People Who Hate It' -". The Wrap. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  8. Siclen, Alison Van. "Tom Six, the 'Human Centipede' Director, Is 'Very Proud' of His Work". Vice. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  9. Rigney, Todd (7 November 2013). "The Human Centipede – Tom Six Offers Extremely Limited Number of Hand-Signed Prints". DC. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  10. "THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 3 (FINAL SEQUENCE) To Tour Australia With Laurence R. Harvey In Attendance". Horrorcultfilms.com.
  11. "Human Centipede 3, The: Final Sequence". JB Hi-Fi. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  12. "BBFC rejects THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE II (FULL SEQUENCE)". British Board of Film Classification. 6 June 2011.
  13. "The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  14. "The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  15. "10 Best (And 5 Worst!) Movies of 2015". Entertainment Weekly. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  16. "The 20 worst films of 2015". The A.V. Club. 16 December 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  17. "'The Human Centipede III' Review: Tom Six's Latest Offense". Variety. 20 May 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  18. "'The Human Centipede 3' review: Rear end, finally". New York Daily News. 20 May 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  19. Catsoulis, Jeannette (22 May 2015). "Review: In 'Human Centipede 3' There's No Humanity Left". The New York Times.
  20. "Review: 'The Human Centipede: Part III (Final Sequence)'". Indiewire. 19 May 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  21. "The Human Centipede 3 DVD Release Date October 27, 2015". DVDsReleaseDates. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  22. "Razzies nominations 2016: Fifty Shades of Grey, Pixels lead pack of year's worst". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  23. "Razzie Awards 2016: The Complete List of Nominations". ABC News. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  24. "Human Centipede 3 Parody with Bree Olson from tmihollywood, Graham Rich, and Jason Mimms". Funny or Die. 22 October 2014.
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