Rob Zombie, photo: Michael Moriatis / ©AMC / Courtesy Everett Collection
Rob Zombie is no stranger to shock value. He’s made a career out of pushing boundaries in both his music and his movies. His albums reliably come with an explicit content warning, and he’s often had to make significant cuts to his feature films just to secure an R-rating from the MPAA. With a track record like that, I took it as a foregone conclusion that he must be a fan of The Human Centipede. As it turns out, he isn’t all that taken with it. When Zombie sat down with Vice to offer his two cents on a sampling of popular horror films, the shock rocker admitted that he finds the original “unpleasant” but “effective” and made it clear that he’s in no rush to watch it again. With that said, the second series installment, The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), struck a chord with him.
Zombie holds the second film in higher regard than the first thanks to its unorthodox approach. “Human Centipede 2, I actually thought that was a pretty brilliant idea, because the idea is there’s a character emulating the first movie,” Zombie explains. “Like he’s watching the first movie and is trying to copy the movie, and that’s the sequel. I actually like the second one better.”
The second series installment, which puts a meta spin on the setup, plays out like this:
Inspired by the fictional Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser), disturbed loner Martin (Laurence R. Harvey) dreams of creating a 12-person centipede and sets out to realize his sick fantasy.
For most, the second picture in the trilogy is even more disturbing than the first. Now that I think about it, that’s probably why Zombie prefers it. The original feels like a movie. The sequel really blurs the line between fiction and reality by openly referencing the first picture as a film. That raises the stakes and gives the sequel an untethered quality.
Distributor IFC Films welcomed the controversy the picture stirred up and leaned into the picture’s reputation by giving audience members complimentary barf bags when the flick staged its US premiere at Fantastic Fest in 2011. Kind of a brilliant marketing move if you ask me.
Although The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) has at least one high-profile admirer in Zombie, it is far from universally beloved. The flick holds a 28% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a user score that sits even lower at 23%. On IMDb, the picture holds a score of just 3.8/10. Yikes!
If you’re curious to see whether you concur with Zombie’s assessment or side more closely with critics and the majority of movie lovers, you can find the film streaming on Shudder. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. This sequel ups the ante in almost every possible way. It’s a sickening experience that will stick with you indefinitely.
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