HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
I attended a screening of "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" at a Times Square movie theater back in 1990, expecting to see what a New York Post critic regarded as "a real horror movie." I saw it and when it was over, I looked at every single pedestrian in the area, making sure I was not followed though that can be tough in a city as big as New York. I have only seen the film two more times since and I do regard it as a great film but not one I can revisit too often. "Henry" is the real deal, a completely riveting portrait of an actual serial killer from Texas, Henry Lee Lucas, who killed a lot less people than he claimed (600 was the total number at one time). The film is scary but only in the way in which it regards an average joe as completely banal who has no remorse for anyone he kills.
Michael Rooker is Henry, an exterminator living in the city of Chicago with his best friend, Otis (Tom Towles), a drug dealer. They live in extremely modest digs, to say the least, with no real regard for anything exciting in their lives. Otis' sister, Becky (Tracy Arnold), stays with them after she leaves her physically abusive husband. Becky develops an attraction to Henry but Henry is more interested in killing people. Otis becomes Henry's partner in crime as they kill prostitutes, random people in the streets and others who they deem as perhaps lower than dirt (some of the victims are reprehensible people, like a fence who has video cameras and TV's). One terrifying sequence shows the home invasion of a family who are systematically slaughtered, all from the point of a video camera. The sequence is doubly disturbing because we realize the footage is being watched by Otis and Henry in their living room! This takes voyeurism to a whole other level that not even Hitchcock or Brian De Palma have ever attempted.
"Henry" is directed with acute observation and near-documentary realism by John McNaughton, who was going to initially make a film about alien monsters. The film has a trifle few moments of gore, though mostly McNaughton relies on implication of violence rather than a slasher film mentality of monotonous carnage. The opening of the film shows a couple of dead prostitutes, one lying on a grassy field and another in a bathroom with a coke bottle in her mouth, and McNaughton slow zooms in and out of each victim while we hear their shrieking cries of help on the soundtrack. It is very effective and it also asks the viewer to sympathize with anonymous victims, even those considered deviants of society. The aforementioned nerve-jangling home invasion sequence will give you nightmares. There are also two magnificent scenes where the threat or actual act of violence is examined in an artful manner. One shows Henry sitting in his car at a shopping mall parking lot as he navigates his next victim. There is a woman he stares at intently and he follows her to her home only to find her being greeted by her husband or boyfriend. Henry drives away. Next is the guitar-carrying hitchhiker he picks up on the road. We do not see the outcome of the hitchhiker but we sense she is killed since Henry returns home with the guitar. It is scenes of this disturbing nature that will make you feel queasy and rightly horrified.
As for the actors, the steely-eyed Michael Rooker looks like an average joe as Henry and he is absolutely captivating to watch from first frame to last. When he tells the story of how he killed his mother, you will cringe. Tom Towles, who has since worked on many films as a supporting actor, is mean and nasty and completely unwatchable at times - he plays this role far too well. Tracy Arnold is the definition of banal, a sweet angel who is completely naive especially when she complements Henry on being a real gentleman!
"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" is not an entertainment (though there are touches of black humor) nor it is a thriller, nor is there any suspense. This film serves as a powerful document of poisonous, dangerous and deeply sickening minds who occupy our streets. They are anyone and anybody - there are no colorful aspects or any visible traits to make the killers identifiable as monsters. After you watch the film, you might check closely to make sure nobody is following you.
