Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
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| Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | John McNaughton |
| Produced by | Malik B. Ali, Waleed B. Ali, Lisa Dedmond, Steven A. Jones, John McNaughton |
| Written by | Richard Fire, John McNaughton |
| Starring | Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, Tracy Arnold |
| Music by | itsy bitsy |
| Cinematography | Charlie Lieberman |
| Editing by | Elena Maganini |
| Distributed by | Greycat films |
| Release date(s) | 1986 |
| Running time | 83 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Part 2 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 film directed by John McNaughton.
The film stars Michael Rooker as Henry, a nomadic serial killer. Henry meets up with an old friend from prison named Otis in Chicago, who he introduces to the delights of random murder.
Shot in less than a month on a budget of about $110,000, it was not released until 1989 due to repeated disagreements with the MPAA over the movie's violent content. The film was ultimately released without a rating.
It was not released in the United Kingdom until 1993 and even then two minutes of the movie's violent content were ordered to be removed by the BBFC. An uncut version of the movie was eventually allowed for release in 2003.[1][2]
Contents |
[edit] Influences
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (often just referred to as Henry) is influenced by the case of the convicted murderer Henry Lee Lucas.
However, as the opening statement makes clear, the film is based on Lucas' violent, passionate love and sexual fantasies he has rather than the crimes he was convicted of, and this distinction is important. Most of Lucas' more than 3,000 murder confessions turned out to be false, and he later recanted those that had been tentatively verified. Some even doubt that Lucas even was a serial killer, but merely a pathological liar who murdered his mother and perhaps one or two acquaintances during domestic arguments. Even those who uphold the belief that Lucas was a serial killer do not go so far as to believe his original claims of hundreds of victims. The opening statement to Henry claims that the characters of Otis and Becky are fictional.
The real Henry Lee Lucas was acquainted with a fellow convicted killer named Ottis Toole and Toole's pubescent niece, Frieda Powell, who often went under the pseudonym of "Becky" (although in the movie, "Becky" is portrayed as Toole's sister, rather than his niece, and is somewhat older, in her mid-twenties.) Also, Henry, Otis, and Becky's surnames are never given in the film.
[edit] Sequels
In 2005, a special edition two-disc DVD release was announced for release later that year. It includes two differently-edited versions of the film, a director commentary, "making of" featurettes, and a documentary on Henry Lee Lucas among other features.
A sequel was made in 1998, with Neil Giuntoli playing Henry.
[edit] Plot summary
The start of the film shows Henry going about his business (finishing a greasy meal in a cafe, driving aimlessly along highways and working in menial jobs), occasionally interspersed with views of murdered people. Although none of these first killings are actually shown, the camera pans across their corpses accompanied by the sound of their dying screams. The obvious implication is that Henry is responsible for their deaths. Among the victims in this first segment is a young woman lying in a ditch disembowelled, another woman dumped naked in a river, a housewife sprawled dead on a sofa, and two people shot to death in a shop.
Henry drifts into Chicago where he meets up with Otis, whom he met in prison a number of years earlier. Henry was serving a sentence for murdering his abusive mother, and Otis had killed someone during a robbery. Henry moves in to the grimy apartment that Otis shares with his recently divorced younger sister, Becky, and from the start there is some sexual tension between Henry and Becky. The pair find they have a common hatred for their parents; Henry was abused, beaten, and humiliated by his mother, while Becky was molested by her father during her teenage years. Otis also has incestuous feelings for Becky, and regularly attempts to molest her.
One evening, Henry and Otis engage two prostitutes. Henry kills both women without provocation, with Otis largely uninvolved in these homicides save for trying to muffle the screams of the second victim before Henry abruptly breaks her neck. Then, after dumping the bodies in an alleyway, Henry drives to a fast food restaurant with Otis and casually buys some french fries. Otis is shocked by what happened; he feels no remorse, but worries about the police catching them. Henry reassures him that everything will be okay, and the pair soon develop a taste for murder.
Otis loses his temper and damages the television one night, so they go to a fence who trades in stolen electrical goods. When they are told they don't have enough money for anything other than a black and white television, Henry and Otis kill the fence by stabbing him repeatedly with a soldering iron and smashing the TV over his head. Then they take several items, including a video camera which they later use to film one of the most controversial scenes in the film, the murder of an entire family. The pair later watch the recording at home at their leisure. Another controversial scene occurs when Otis shoots a man at random, after which Henry asks him "Feel better?" and Otis nods and laughs. Henry lectures his accomplice on the art of serial murder, explaining that it is best to keep moving from place to place and murdering people by different methods; stabbing, strangulation, shooting. "That way they might never catch you," he explains.
One night, Henry comes home to find Otis raping Becky (who is unaware of the killings her brother and Henry have committed). Henry drags Otis off Becky and a fight ensues, which ends when Becky stabs Otis in the eyeball with a comb handle. Henry then kills Otis and hacks his body apart in the bathtub.
After dumping the remains of his former friend in a river, Henry drives off with Becky after they pack their bags. Henry suggests that they go to his sister's ranch and lay low for a while. In the car, Becky confesses that she loves Henry. "I guess I love you too," Henry admits, unemotionally.
The two of them book into a motel that night. The next morning, Henry leaves the motel alone, gets into the car and cruises away. He stops at the side of the road a little later to dump a suitcase in a ditch before driving off again. The film ends with a lingering shot of the suitcase, which has blood seeping out of it; it is implied that it contains Becky's remains.
[edit] Response
Henry turned a profit, making over $600,000 from a budget of about $110,000. One of the reasons for its low budget was its creative use of actors. For example, Mary Demas played three different murder victims, a trick accomplished by her face only being clearly shown in one instance (the opening shot of a woman in a ditch.) Some of the crew also doubled as the cast, such as Rick Paul (art direction), who played a young man shot dead in a layby; Brian Graham, a grip, who played the husband in the family-massacre scene; and Waleed Ali, one of the executive producers, who appeared in front of the camera towards the end of the film, serving a bad-tempered Henry a pack of cigarettes ("How about them Bears?").
Critical responses were mixed, and many critics were bothered by the film's graphic violence. Rooker's performance — his debut in a feature film — received generally high marks.
Film critic Roger Ebert called Henry "a very good film," a "low-budget tour de force," and writes that the film attempts to deal "honestly with its subject matter, instead of trying to sugar-coat violence as most 'slasher' films do."
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Rooker unofficially reprised his Henry role for the music video All Wrapped Up by American Head Charge. [3]
- Some shots from the film are shown in Nanni Moretti's 'Caro diario'.
- Lines of dialogue from this movie can be heard in 2 songs on Boys Night Out's EP "Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses. Also the industrial-rock band PIGFACE uses samples from the film that appear in the song simply entitled 'Henry' on their live 1993 cd 'Truth Will Out'. Additionally, excerpts from Henry are found in the Mortician album "Chainsaw Dismemberment" on the fourth track "Mass Mutilation"
- The 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD has a reversible cover featuring banned original poster art by Joe Coleman.
- Nailbomb use dialogue from the film in the song Cockroaches
- This film is sampled twice in the Giant Robot NTT cut of the Buckethead song "Scapula". A sound clip of one of the murders at the very beginning of the film is used as the intro to the song, and Henry's later line "That's right, blame it on me," is used as part of the refrain.
[edit] References
- ^ HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER rated 18 by the BBFC
- ^ Video Hits: H
- ^ American Head Charge - All Wrapped Up
[edit] External links
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer at the Internet Movie Database
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Part 2 at the Internet Movie Database
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer at Allmovie
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer at HouseofHorrors.com
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer at RogerEbert.com
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer at Bloody-Disgusting.com
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Part 2 at ForteanTimes.com
