Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990)

Not Scary, But Very Disturbing

Henry is former convict who served in prison for killing his mother when he was just 14. A mother that abused and neglected him for years by forcing him to wear dresses and making him watch her have sex with strangers. We don't see this, it's merely implied by Henry when talking with the sister of his friend and roomate Otis, Becky who stops by live with the two for a while. This explains Henry's hatred for women and why most of his victims are such. He shows a genuine revulsion to any physical contact with women when he is seen killing a hooker in the backseat of Otis' car and when Becky kisses him during a home video session where he looks uncomfortable and wipes his mouth off.

Otis stands more as composite degenerate type with almost every type of sexual perversion that one can muster. He makes advances on young boys he sells drugs to, attempts necrophilia on a dead woman he just killed and is constantly making incestuous advances on his sister Becky only to be stopped by Henry who again shows revulsion to any kind of sex. However at first, he is not a killer until Henry shows him the way and enlightens him to the "rush" of the kill.

Under the "teachings" of Henry, the two go on a spree of killing random victims in different ways so not to leave a modis operande. A good samaritan is shot when fooled into thinking the two have car trouble. An illegal appliance salesman is stabbed with a soldering iron and having a TV smashed over his head. And in the most disturbing scene in the film, we see an entire family slaughtered in their own home as photographed from a video camcorder they stole from the murdered salesman. We then see them sitting on the sofa watching this video and drinking beer like they were watching the Super Bowl!

Sound powerful and disturbing? You bet! Writer/director John McNaughton holds nothing back in this realistic portrayal of diseased minds. Forget Jason, Michael and Freddy who are just fantasy killers with supernatural qualities that seemed to have just come out of adult comic books. This is loosly based on the exploits of real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas (who claimed to have killed over 300 people).

The film is made in a sort of quasi-documentary style reminiscent of William Freidken's style in The Exorcist, using hand-held cameras and minimal lighting to give it grit and realism. The opening shot is that of a naked woman lying somewhere in a field with blood on her. Then we switch over to Henry doing his day-to-day activities and as he does this, we see brief shots of other various mutilated female corpses juxaposed while hearing the sounds of the murders that took place earlier. I consider this to be the best sequence in the whole film.

McNaughton made this film in 1985 for a mere $100,000 in his hometown Chicago but was not released until four years later. The MPAA refused to give it an R rating due to it's disturbing content so the film was shelved. Like George A. Romero's 1977 classic Dawn of the Dead, it eventually got released as unrated with no one under 17 admitted. It was this film along with Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover that sparked the debate on a new rating that eventually brought in the NC-17 rating.

The acting is top notch, the then unknown Michael Rooker gives a real chilling performance as the title character along with Tom Towles as the goofy but sick Otis. Rooker went on to do several acclaimed films like Mississippi Burning and JFK. Towles moved on to mostly TV most notably with his recurring role as the internal affairs investigator in NYPD Blue.

Critical reaction was mixed when released, some critics like Ebert praised it for it's unflinching look into a killer's head. Others savaged it as exploitation gone way over the top. You be the judge. Scary? Not really, but very disturbing and it won't leave your head anytime soon after watching it. June 1, 2008

Horrible Movie

Im an avid Horror movie enthusiast and I was interested in this movie, but unfortunatly I was very disapointed. It's just a poorly put together film, with poor acting and I wouldnt recomend this to anyone. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY.

-Casey April 13, 2008

The most disturbing examination of a mass murderer ever filmed.

John Mac Naughton's cult low-budget film is beyond any fictional story about murder and sociopaths. Beyond any logic explanation about the behaviour or consequences of brutal, cruel and random violence. Beyond the self awareness of one-self in front of a mirror, beholding the remaining pieces of a shattered human soul and a deep buried self-estime.

This provoking and disturbing raw true-crime drama was based loosely on the story of the serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, portrayed with devastatingly insightful talent by Michael Rooker in a career performance, and considered back in 1986 as a response to the slasher genre ruling at the time, based on horror fantasy supernatural characters and socking gory visuals. I can affirm with fair arguments, this film is the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" of the 80's, because leaving beside the obvious astethics, style or generic differences between both masterpieces, they share the monumental task of disturbing the very essence of primal fear, the very core of insecurity and peace of mind, in the most macabre possible way: The de-humanization of the murderer who shows no passion, no reasons and no existential issues except for the haunting of the past that made him a monster.

Henry and his roommate Otis (Tom Towles) selects their innocent victims and torture them till the most brutal and violent deaths ever portrayed on film. The videotaping of the killings represented extreme sadism inside a crude sadistic story. The graphic violence of the film prevented the theatrical release untill 1990. By that time it was compared to masterpieces like "silence of the lambs" because of its lurid, grim and creepy atmosphere and a menacing but downbeat humor.

This movie was the first film that made me feel safe behind the screen and grateful for the life i had, after the first and almost unbearable viewing. Such crudety and menacing tension attacks with relentless strenght the very foundations of the meaning of life in this cruel world. The devastating effects of a traumatized life in the confessions of the killer don't mean nothing compared to his brutal actions. There's no possible sympathy for this human shell covering a rotten heart, hell awaits this inhuman tormentor.

My fair recomendation for fans of disturbing and violent crime-drama, who will found in "Henry: Portrait of a serial killer" a cult masterpiece with no paralel or possible accurate reference in film history because of the harsh atmosphere capted in this low-budget passionate work.

This 20th aniversary DVD edition is a must-have, i own a previous one but i look forward to watch the flawless remasterization and extras, including the interviews with John Mc Naughton, who owes me a couple of good night sleep and long hours trying to recover myself. April 4, 2008

Scary? Inaccurate and as scary as my cat

It is no surprise that Stephen "Who Hasn't Written A Decent Book 2 Decades" King would find this scary.

Personally, I kept waiting for the scary parts. And waiting. And... They never happened.

My cat is scarier than this miserable flick--my cat that died 3 years ago, that is, which, well... This flick just isn't scary. AT ALL.

It would have been nice had the movie at least conformed to the facts about Henry Lee Lucas. It doesn't, though.

I would recommend this flick to anyone that seeks to pay to be bored.

Too bad I don't have my $$ and amazon doesn't have the flick I wasted my money on.

March 4, 2008

TOPS!

SIMPLY...THIS HORROR FILM IS ONE OF THE MOST DISTURBING AND REAL-TIME FRIGHTENING MOVIES EVER MADE...EVER! THIS MOVIE WILL MAKE YOU LOOK AT YOUR NEIGHBORS IN A WHOLE NEW WORRISOME WAY. IF YOU WANT TO BE SCARED, THIS IS THE FILM FOR YOU!!! February 28, 2008

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