Mark Hamill recalls being offered a role in an infamous horror movie with a 27% RT score, but turning it down when he learned what the film was about.
Hamill’s latest project takes him to the universe of Stephen King with the dystopian The Long Walk. It’s a rare sojourn to the dark side for the actor best-known as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga. Indeed, the highlight of Hamill’s horror filmography isn’t even a movie, it’s the 2023 streaming series The Fall of the House of Usher.
The largely horror-averse Hamill could have starred in a particularly infamous genre offering had he wanted, but the chance to appear in 2011’s The Human Centipede II did nothing for him, as the actor revealed in a recent interview, detailing his response to being told what the disgusting sequel was all about (via EW):
Someone said, ‘They want you to be in The Human Centipede Part 2.’ And I said, ‘What’s The Human Centipede?’ They explained the premise to me, and I went, ‘Oh my God! Thank you for putting those images in my head, and I’ll never forgive you for doing so.’
But that was an easy one. I said, ‘No, don’t send the script.’ The premise alone — I’ll never see one, and I really resent the fact that some human being thought of that concept of sewing people together, mouth to anus. Goodbye, and never enter my life again.”
What This Means For Hamill’s Horror Legacy
2011’s body horror offering The Human Centipede II took a turn into the meta, telling the story of an obsessed fan of the first Human Centipede, who is inspired by the film to create his own medical monstrosity. The sequel’s poor critical reception is reflected in its 27% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Securing Hamill as a star may or may not have helped The Human Centipede II with critics, but at any rate, the actor was not interested in helping the film’s notorious director Tom Six in realizing his vision.
Doing horror as extreme as Six’s deeply disturbing exercise in medical mayhem would indeed have been a mᴀssive departure for Hamill, whose fright-film legacy is almost non-existent. Who knows what Hamill would have been asked to do in the movie, but it’s clear he can pull off a darker performance, as he proved in Fall of the House of Usher.
Our Take On Hamill Turning Down The Human Centipede II
Hamill’s lack of horror movie experience indicates he’s generally not keen on the genre, so making The Human Centipede II would likely have been a miserable experience for the actor. When it comes to doing horror, it’s better to work with people like Usher’s Mike Flanagan, or take on roles in meaningful stories like King’s The Long Walk.
The Human Centipede II managed to slither its way into theaters without Hamill’s participation, going on to gross $170,000 in a handful of midnight showings before taking its place as the infamous-but-little-seen gross-out film it was always intended to be.
