There are still some shocks.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990)
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Reviews Counted:41
Fresh:36
Rotten:5
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Henry is an effective, chilling profile of a killer that is sure to shock and disturb.
Runtime: 3 hrs 8 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, loosely based on the case of Henry Lee Lucas, a confessed serial killer, is a terrifyingly intimate journey into the twisted life of a murderous psychotic. As the... HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, loosely based on the case of Henry Lee Lucas, a confessed serial killer, is a terrifyingly intimate journey into the twisted life of a murderous psychotic. As the blank-eyed Henry (Michael Rooker) drifts from place to place, he selects victims at random, slaughters them, and captures the brutality on videotape. When he is joined by his deranged roommate, a loudmouthed ex-convict named Otis (Tom Towles), the almost unfathomably malevolent acts multiply. John McNaughton's film, in the tradition of such classic studies of homicidal personality as PEEPING TOM and TAXI DRIVER, goes further than both of these movies in its flat refusal to tell the killer's story on anything other than the killer's terms. McNaughton is able to present the world Henry aimlessly traverses as Henry sees it--almost unendurably bleak and meaningless--and in doing so he allows his film to go as deep into the nightmarish mind of a killer as anything ever committed to celluloid. [More]
Starring: Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, Tracy Arnold
Starring: Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, Tracy Arnold
Director: John McNaughton
Director: John McNaughton
Producer: John McNaughton, Lisa Dedmond, Steven A. Jones
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Reviews for Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
A low-budget tour de force that provides an unforgettable portrait of the pathology of a man for whom killing is not a crime but simply a way of passing time and relieving boredom.
I have some admiration for this film. But I also have no desire ever to see it again.
The emptiness in Henry seems like an artistic convenience or, worse, an evasion. What we suspect, finally, is that the deficiencies belong more to the artist than to his subject.
Mr. McNaughton's observations are so chilling and precise that they gain some artistic stature even when they cross the line that makes the audience voyeurs and accomplices.
Part of the time it's art house cinema, the rest of the time its horror schlock.
[T]his is a movie that will anger and frighten audiences... Many will also find this one of the most impressive film debuts of the '80s.
As an emotional map, Henry is decidedly raw, personal, and unrelenting.
McNughton's film has both suspense and graphic violence, combining a clinical approach with semi-documentary technique that result in genuinely disturbing horror, deepling upsetting look at a murderer; a highlight of indie cinema of the 1990s.
MacNaughton's direction is extremely bland, although I don't mean that negatively: he portrays Henry in a very realistic manner, not adding any wild directing techniques to what he does, and because of this digs deeper into the character.
Henry is a glimpse into the void that will chill, terrify and haunt you with the infinite evil in the hearts of ordinary people.
Certainly not for everyone, but if slasher movies are your cup of tea this is a lot better than most, and the use of Chicago locations is especially effective.
John McNaughton's haunting film is a grim journey into the life of its twisted subject that refuses to moralise or judge.
A brutally honest intimate portrait of a serial killer that makes you feel rotten inside.
It relies not upon visceral depictions of graphic violence but the sporadic, lifeless motivations of the killer – an established, sympathetic, and ultimately humanistic character.
McNaughton's compelling study of a blithe sociopath makes the flesh crawl and the mind reel.
McNaughton, co-writer Richard Fire and Rooker have pulled off an amazing feat -- a portrait of a damaged mind that refuses to explain, judge or glamorize psychopathic violence.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer surely ranks as one of the most frightening and disturbing films ever made.
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