"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" (1986) tells the chilling story of a socially dysfunctional mass murderer in boldly flat and straightforwardly unforgiving realism that’s tough to fathom. Rather than exploiting the murders seen in so many of those clichéd horror flicks we see almost every Halloween or summer’s eve, its intention is to illuminate, not proselytize, diseased minds that are way too lifelike to begin with. But it is very hard to not call this work of supremely raw, independently financed refulgence a searing look into rape and murder not as forms of crime, but simply as nonjudgmental ways in which one can pass time and relieve stress.
Loosely inspired by the renounced confessions of a self-proclaimed Texas serial killer named Henry Lee Lucas, the film uses a razor-sharp slice-of-life approach to create a docudrama that’s arguably the most terrifying and disturbing account of sociopathic behavior ever made.
Filmed in the slushy, bleak, and misty winter nights of Chicago's grittiest back alleys, honky-tonk bars and drabbest apartments during the winter of 1985-86, Henry depicts a rather “low” drifter (played with remorseless authority by character actor Michael Rooker) driving around in his green 1965 Chevy Impala who happens to kill strangers unapologetically with no preferred method or pattern. The movie opens with a deeply creepy montage of dead bodies. Nobody knows if this is the work of the protagonist, but being the film overall is too believable, we might as well have to say so.
Tom Towles plays the equally unnerving role of Otis, a casually degenerated friend of Henry who eventually drifts into murder sprees through Henry, and Tracy Arnold is Otis' sister, an unemployed teenage stripper who knows Henry killed his mother and ironically finds the fact to be very fascinating.
Henry becomes the roommate of Otis, a parolee working at a local gas station, and then the sister arrives from out of town and moves in with the externally cool yet internally bad-tempered mass murderer. Otis, who may have a homosexual interest in Henry from their days in prison (a scene showing them making love was cut out at the last minute of post-production!), eventually goes along with him in a series of brutal killings, including one where they pretend to have car trouble and then shoot a Good Samaritan on the highway, and another where they invade a suburban Chicago home and videotape the murder and rape of an innocent Midwestern-style family. The videotape scene has to be the most appalling of them all, but it does NOT sugarcoat the gory details the way Scream or other glossier “slashers” of recent vintage did.
Director John McNaughton, a former Chicago ad executive who dropped out for a few years to work in a traveling carnival, build sailboats in New Orleans, and then direct music videos during MTV’s heyday (i.e. the era before “reality” shows blossomed), is a master of potent precision and gut-wrenching invulnerability. This film portrays a world in which there’s no romanticized hero to defeat forces deemed to be evil and ultimately disgusting.
Not surprisingly, the filmmaker raised the $125,000 budget for his stunning debut from Waleed Ali, a Chicago home video executive, who wanted a horror film but reportedly was surprised when McNaughton gave him the real thing instead of a cheesy teen film that trivializes death itself. Ali's surprise was reflected wherever the film was shown in limited release, three years after sitting on the shelf that is…
More than twenty years after Henry was shot, there’s no denying its continuing visceral power for those valiant enough to see such demented minds run their course through uncompromisingly immoral territory.
Are YOU ready?
To read other stellar reviews of Henry, check out:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900914/REVIEWS/9140301/1023
http://www.tvguide.com/movies/henry-portrait-serial/127992
at your own risk...
If you’re brave enough to purchase this “real monsters” flick, shop at:
http://www.amazon.com/Henry-Portrait-Serial-Killer-Anniversary/dp/B0009OUBC4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-8528789-9748159?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1174948053&sr=1-1
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jamie_Quaranta
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