Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer (20th Anniversary)

HENRY! This folks is a HORROR movie! In every sense
of the word. Michael Rooker is Henry a psycho-killer
who,aided by roommate Towles,videotapes various murders until
the friends are pulled apart by Otis's sister. This is a
brilliant documentary-style SHOCKER that has BRILLIANT
acting from Tom Towles,Tracy Arnold and in a role that
like Anthony Perkins 20yrs. prior was made for only
him Mr. Michael Rooker! This also has fine Directing,
Music(always a PLUS!) and a screenplay full of more
heartbreakingly true moments than in a dozen more
pretentious "straight" features. Would like to point
out that this is really not a movie about the serial
killer Henry Lee Lucas. Michael Rooker looks nothing
nor acts like the real WEASEL like Lucas. I recommend
1987's CONFESSIONS of a SERIAL KILLER. In that movie
you have a actor playing Henry Lee Lucas that looks like the
135pd Henry. They should have called this movie MICHAEL
or something else. For with the exception of names has
nothing to do with Henry Lee Lucas. BE WARNED! This movie
is 2nd only to Ruggero's cannibal holoCAUST for me on
SCARE factor. The 2nd act HOME INVASION scene being
video taped from Henry I put right there with The
Exorcist and Texas Chainsaw on FRIGHT meter! This is
bar-none one of the most unsettling movies you're
ever going to see,with GRIM atmosphere that clings
to you like moss on a rock!

Viewing Henry in the theatre upon it's release was something to behold. There were maybe five people present, one in a soiled raincoat in the back row (no joke.) I recall the visceral reaction we had, the realization that Henry might be sitting there among us, a stone's throw away. This is what is so disturbing about HPSK, that true horror is real: he may be dating your daughter, be your cousin, uncle or neighbor. I visited one of these people on death row a few years back out of curiosity, and what was so disconcerting about him was his ordinariness. This is what is frightening about Henry, you have probably passed by someone just like him today at the grocery store or on the street, and won't ever know how close to death you actually came. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer created a new cinematic genre: real life horror.

This is probably one of the most honest films you will ever see. Forget the brilliant mind of Hannibal Lector or the 'Shape' from Halloween, this is one of the most real portrayals of a serial killer you will ever see.

Based on the real case of Henry Lee Lucas, Michael Rooker steals the film with a stunning performance in the title role. Given that the film was at least partially made as an exploitation piece, the quality of the acting is much higher than you might expect. As the DVD box says this is the uncut version that we wern't allowed to see when it was first released on video. So the attack on the family is shown in full without the cut-aways back to Henry and Otis watching the video tape they made. This is probably the most disturbing scene in the film and some will find this hard to take, so be warned.

The film is relentlessly violent, downbeat, gritty and just occasionally there is a touch of black comedy. Its very well done, but its not a 'Hollywood' serial killer film!

I first saw this movie about 10 years ago and I remember being impressed with the sheer audacity and outrageousness of it. Now, though "Henry" is certainly brutal and bloody, the tone of it is definitely warmer, mellower (decidedly, this may have more to do with me and my current state of mind as compared with 10 years ago...but be that as it may) and Michael Rooker (as Henry) is not only a vessel of depravity and feral misanthropy, he is also a fully rounded, though warped for sure, human being. In fact Rooker's performance is so thoughtful, his motives for murder so crystal clear that Henry is somehow transformed into a classical tragic hero: we can actually understand him....even empathize with him and this is a major feat on the part of both Rooker and director John Naughton. How do you turn a monster into a living, breathing human being? You write and perform him as if he is those very things. You give him a back-story that could plausibly bring him to unrepentant murder and you plot him on a course that naturally flows out of that back-story: very simple in theory but not often witnessed on the screen.
"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" is a masterpiece of condensed, concise, spare and unrepentant mayhem. That it also has it's head on straight and it's motivations, though bloody and graphic, clear and motivated by natural common sense, only make it more of a revelation than it already is.

This film is brilliant. Its subject matter is unnerving, but it is presented in a way that draws one in and never lets the viewer go.

The violence in this film is done in a why that makes the view imagine what is going on. The scene of a murder of a family as seen through a view finder is both amazing and shocking.

I am amazed that this film is not on more top best films of all time.