The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), 2011

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), 2011, directed by Tom Six, 1 star

For the sake of completion, I decided to watch “The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence).”  After agonizing over my viewing of its predecessor, “The Human Centipede (First Sequence),” I had no doubt that doing this was a bad idea.  Nevertheless, what drove me to watching the sequel through to the end was an unrelenting curiosity to know just how bad it could get.  I found out, and I got what I deserved.

Martin is a car park attendant.  He is also a mute, asthmatic, dwarfish, balding, morbidly obese, and socially inept monster.  How anyone could have hired this guy is beyond my understanding.  He never actually does a lick of work.  All he does in the car park office is repeatedly watch the earlier film.  I imagine that director/writer/producer, Tom Six, who honchoed both projects, must have thought this plot point terribly clever.  Well, maybe it is, but one idea does not sustain a 90 minute film.  So here’s another.  What if Martin is able to entice one of the actresses in the original film to play a part in this one by pretending to be an agent for Quentin Tarantino?  Not bad.  But I think I like best the idea that a fictional character is probably the original film’s biggest fan, and it makes sense that anyone imagined in that way would also be imagined as a repugnant, psycho, copycat killer just waiting to take his obsession to the next level.

For a while, the high contrast, black & white, cinematography, the gritty sets, and a menagerie of menacing characters who share screen space with an unusual looking, sociopathic protagonist, reminded me of the films of David Lynch.  But once the first head got smashed by a tire iron, I changed my mind.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the director chose black & white to reduce the impact of all of the subsequent bloodshed.  This film is nothing like its predecessor with respect to exercising restraint.  Quite to the contrary, it oozes and spews gratuitous violence.  Bodies are beaten, teeth are extracted, muscle sinews are sliced, cheeks are stapled, and more—all with a set of filthy tools and no anesthesia.  Martin may not be a meticulous surgeon or have access to the latest technology like Dr. Heiter from the earlier film, but his creation certainly outdoes that of his mentor.

Although I believe there are some films with nothing at all to recommend them—and if this isn’t one of them, I’m not sure what is—there are always those who disagree.  As evidence, I offer this sampling of user review titles from IMDB:  “Surprisingly it works,” “Shock cinema at its finest,” “Much better than the first,” and, the one I like best, “Tom Six is a genius.”  There must be a sufficiently large, like-minded constituency out there, because I understand that there’s a third “Human Centipede” in the works.


Note to self:  I was force to wait a bit before being able to watch the final half hour of the film.  The Netflix site was partially down as a result of a denial of service attack launched by the "hacktivist" group Anonymous, this in response to the company's creation of a political action committee (FLIXPAC) that allegedly supports SOPA legislation.  Netflix has denied the charge.