Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) - A deeply unsettling portrait

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A chilling, blood-smeared poster for John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Inspired by real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, who confessed to 300 killings, was convicted of 11 and died of heart failure in a Texas jail in 2001, this is the low-budget fiction debut of co-writer/co-producer/director John McNaughton (Mad Dog and Glory (1993)).

The film is not a regular horror ride, but truly a portrait of a modern, urban serial killer, made in a gritty, realistic, cinema verité-inspired style. It is therefore not a film that technically resembles past greats in the serial killer sub-genre such as Fritz Lang's M (1931) (about a child-murderer), Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) or Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991). It is closer to Patty Jenkins' true-crime portrait Monster (2003), about prostitute and serial killer Aileen Wuornos, although Henry is more chilling and exciting to watch I think. McNaughton co-wrote it with Richard Fire (Bleacher Bums (1979), TV movie).
The film features many grisly murders, (including chillingly realistic 'neck snappings'), but has a rather flat narrative structure that doesn't loan it lots of suspense, but which on the other hand adds to its realistic quality. SPOILER The most disturbing of the murders in the film is videotaped by Henry and his accomplice Otis and played back afterwards for their enjoyment. Watching this scene and other outpourings of horrors in Henry, you may well get the feeling that life is not very precious in a big, modern city. The real world's authorities have denied the real Henry's claims of some 300 killings, but I wonder; could it simply be an assertion that's so unbearably awful (not to say shameful and embarrassing) and revealing of human neglect in a big metropolis of calamitous proportions that denial was simply what they chose to go with in order to maintain some sense of a desirable self-image? - A nomadic serial killer in the US killing around 300 people over a long period of time, true or not, is indeed a very disconcerting idea.
Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)) is really good as Henry. And all the other performances are equally solid. There seems to be no moral center in these callous fringe characters. Yet Henry is able to talk about love at one point. At another point he and Otis discuss how to be a "successful" serial killer. Understood as one who can carry on his deeds forever without getting caught. This very intimate portrait of such a killer, without any moral alternatives being offered, really, is in itself a conception that treads the absolute knife's edge of what is morally sound to present to the world. Henry therefore is truly a film that's only appropriate for adult and morally firm-rooted audiences.
It does has a few technical detractors:
The film was originally planned as an early straight-to-video release and only raised to cinema potential while in production. And while the cinematography is done with skill, the image quality isn't quite up to snuff. Also, the music in the first act of the film, especially, doesn't really fit its general style, and it made me doubt whether the movie would be as powerful as I'd heard it is. The choice of music in the beginning seems passé, regrettably.
Despite these minor misgivings, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is an uncommon and uncommonly dark gem that deserves its reputation as a great serial killer film.

Related posts:

John McNaughton: Haeckel's Tale (2006, TV movie) - Another bland Masters entry

Top 10: Best horror movies 
Top 10: Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Here's a Q&A with Rooker from the Puerto Rico Comic Con 2014, where he talks of, among lots of other things, Henry

Cost: 0.1 mil. $

Box office: 0.6 mil. $ (US only)

= Huge hit (returned at least 6 times the cost)

[Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer premiered 24 September (Chicago International Film Festival) and runs 83 minutes. Shooting took place in October 1985 in Illinois, including in Chicago. The film spent 3 years on the shelf with its initial X rating before a distributor dared release it unrated, and it continued to get released in foreign markets in '90, '91, '92 and '93. Foreign box office numbers are not available, but it is reported that almost 100,000 people paid admission to see it in Spain, which indicates that the final world gross may be double the number indicated above. The film was nominated for 6 Independent Spirit awards. McNaughton returned with The Borrower (1991). Rooker returned in Light of Day (1987). Henry has an unofficial sequel called Henry II: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1996), not by the original cast or crew and seemingly not worth checking out. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is certified fresh at 90% at Rotten Tomatoes.]

  

What do you think of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer?