Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer

Starring: Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles

Synopsis:

Henry is an irredeemable psychopathic killer, a faceless, random murderer who targets mainly women. He ends up living with Otis, an ex-con acquaintance, and Otis’ young sister Becky, who’s just moved out to the city herself. In the course of his murder spree, he ends up taking Otis under his wing, while Becky becomes ever more enamoured with Henry’s stories of violence. Meanwhile, Otis’ lustful feelings for his sister start to become more apparent...

When I mentioned to my friend and co-contributor Wayfarer that I would be reviewing Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, he joked that I was going to need a shower afterwards...he wasn’t far wrong.

Henry starts with a series of vignettes which set about giving us a glimpse into Henry’s mindset. After showing us a dead woman in a field, we see Henry finishing a breakfast in a small diner, paying with a smile to the waitress and leaving. Or did he? Or, did he in fact kill the waitress, and the cook, before calmly going on his merry way? Henry has a habit of making up stories, even to himself, and it’s possible this is an example of that – Henry’s reality, and the horrific truth.

Henry is smart, or at least cunning. He understands what a Modus Operandi is and makes sure he uses different ways to kill his victims. He has no fear of the police being on his tail and, considering this was made in the mid-80s (released in 1990), there’s no fear of CSI being on the case, or DNA evidence.

The film centres on the relationships between Henry, his room-mate Otis and Becky, Otis’ younger sister on the run from her husband. A night out with Otis and a couple of prostitutes sets Henry off, killing his girl, and forcing Otis to kill his for fear of her calling for help. Their post-murder conversation is darkly comic because it almost reads as if they are talking about Otiz’ virginity (“are you telling me you’ve never killed anyone before?” Henry asks incredulously). Henry finds it quite easy to push Otiz’ buttons, to the point that he becomes Henry’s protégé. You get the feeling that Henry is kind of amused by the situation.

Henry’s relationship with Becky is much more complex. Every time she is alone with Henry, you’re afraid for her safety, but it would appear that he has genuine affection for her. She is aware he’s a killer – Otiz told her that he’d killed his own mother – but she’s fascinated by him. The story of Henry killing his mother is a good showcase for Michael Rooker’s intensity but also illustrates again this idea that Henry’s view of reality is a bit skewed, as he gives two different accounts of how he killed his mother in the same story (and both versions differ from what Becky has already been told).

The film is notorious for a home invasion sequence in which Henry and Otiz assault and kill a woman, her husband and son. What makes it even more disturbing is that we’re watching it on videotape, along with Henry and Otiz, who filmed the whole ordeal. The knowledge that it’s on tape means that it’s already happened, and the outcome is an inevitability. We can only watch, knowing that these people die. And then, Otiz decides to watch it again...

What disturbed the censors at the time, other than the exploitative nature of the film, is that it seems to have no moral compass at all. Henry is a serial killer, but he’s unknown to the police. There is no come-uppance for his crimes. He just slips along the anonymous back-roads of America discriminately killing at random. You never see so much as a police car.

Henry the film isn’t as gratuitous or violent as it’s reputation would suggest. For the first half of the film, you don’t see Henry kill any one – you just see the corpses. It’s only when he’s with Otiz do we see him actually murder anyone. However the level of violence continues to escalate and culminates in a nasty confrontation between the trio after Otiz tries to rape (and kill) his sister.

The ending of the film is very bleak and upsetting but completely in keeping with Henry’s character in particular and the film in general. It’s rough, and twenty odd years later, still pretty unique. An ending like that takes balls.

Verdict:

Even on blu-ray, Henry is a murky sleazy affair, set in the seedier side of Chicago and surrounding area. The film mark’s the feature debut of Michael Rooker, who has carved out a career as a sterling genre character actor. It still remains a shocking, especially that ending.

8 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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