April 30, 2016
Screengrab of 'Human Centipede 2' trailer/Via YouTube
A Tennessee high school teacher screened the 'torture porn' film 'Human Centipede 2' in class. It didn't go over very well with some parents.
A couple parenting-related stories that emerged from America’s societal morass caught my eye this week.
First, there was novelist Meghann Foye’s hot take that every woman deserves mandated “me time” and not just those ladies who recently gave birth and head out of the office for maternity leave.
As someone on the paternity side of that equation, I’m not going to weigh in on that one lest I run the risk of mansplaining the challenges of post child-birth life.
Rather, I’d like to talk about comes from Jackson (Tenn.) Central-Merry High School where a teacher saw fit to have the class watch “Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence).” I’ve not seen this shining example of “torture porn” that was banned from theaters in the United Kingdom, but you can check out the trailer below. The squeamish should just skip over it.:
Full disclosure: A fancy big-city high school teacher or filmmaker, I am not.
Still, I feel comfortable stating that a film capturing the act of sewing human beings together into a single digestive-system entity is not "Citizen Kane." Even a "South Park" take on said action is something I wouldn’t exactly recommend allowing children to watch.
Maybe you disagree. I certainly hope not.
It did get me thinking about other films that might draw a little bit of attention to a school district, though. Here are 10:
1. “Hostel” the day before an out-of-town overnight class trip.
2. “Children of the Corn” on the eve of student council elections. (Vote Malachi!)
3. “Deep Throat” and/or “Boogie Nights” to kick off the sex-ed curriculum.
4. “9½ Weeks” when the math curriculum gets into fractions.
5. “Hannibal” in the home ec class meal preparation segment. (Mmm, brains.)
6. “Rosemary’s Baby” or “The Exorcist” when discussing the impact of religion in society.
7. “Jacob’s Ladder” when exploring the aftermath of war.
8. “Carrie” the night before the prom.
9. “The Purge: Election Year” when discussing the potential effects of a Donald Trump presidency.
10. And, finally, "Poltergeist" before the circus comes to town. Because of that daggum clown doll. Dear Lord, that clown still haunts me a quarter century later.
Please share your suggested don't-show-at-school films in the comments.
