The Onania Club: A Controversial Horror Film by Tom Six
The director of The Human Centipede has filmed and wrapped another shocking horror film but reckons it will never be released because it’s so extreme. Filmmaker Tom Six’s disturbing 2009 film, which became a trilogy, sees a mad scientist kidnap and mutilate tourists, reassembling them into a literal human centipede by sewing them mouth-to-anus. However, his new film that’s yet to been seen by audiences – despite being finished in 2020 – is even more jaw-dropping in its dark nature.
The Plot
The Onania Club’s trailer has been released, and the movie even boats a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes thanks to critics who have been able to screen it so far – but Six’s fans are giving up hope that this new movie will ever hit their screens. This is due to its taboo central premise, which is women who masturbate to the suffering and pain of others, taking the idea of ‘torture porn’ to a new, sickening level.
The Characters
Hanna (Jessica Morris) is seen in the trailer confessing to a ‘terrible secret’ before she joins a private group called The Onania Club. Its members, strong independent women based in Los Angeles, get aroused by the misery of others, with Hanna rushing to the bathroom to relieve her sexual urge when a friend tearfully tells her that her boyfriend lost his legs in a car accident.
The Controversy
After she drives to the club’s base in a luxury mansion, its members are seen masturbating together to videos of migrants drowning, poverty, a frightening robbery and even what appears to be footage from 9/11. Then, in its most shocking sequence, the female club members gather around the sickbed of a dying cancer patient, which allows them all to moan their way to sexual release. As The Onania Club’s synopsis then warns: ‘Hanna meets more misery than she could ever hope for and in the process loses everything she cares for.’
The Reception
Director Six has been unable to ‘find a distributor to bring it to the public’ according to Hollywood in Toto, which adds that Six is not interested in self-producing and releasing. He’s also pinned filmmaker John Waters’ ranking of The Onania Club as one of the 10 best films of 2021.
In a YouTube video explaining why the film was yet to be released back in 2021, Six complained: ‘No serious distributor in the Western world has the vision and the balls to release it. Apparently it’s too original, too provocative and too challenging for mature audiences.’ He went on to describe The Onania Club as ‘art’ and a ‘pitch-black satire of the world we live in today’. ‘With film, you have to be able to challenge morality.’
Fan Reactions
One critic admitted The Onania Club ‘leaves us unsure whether we are meant to be excited or appalled by all the film’s controversy-courting comings and goings’ in their certified ‘fresh’, a.k.a. positive overall, review of the movie. During a recent discussion on Reddit, fans discussed a release for the movie, with @ReclaimerCube posting: ‘Will forever hold out hope for this movie one day seeing the light of day.’ It’s so weird that the world where we get two human centipede movies this one is too controversial to release,’ added @kingcolbe, while @spookysquishh called it ‘a fantastic premise’ for a movie.