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.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990)
Tomatometer
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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
John McNaughton's haunting film is a grim journey into the life of its twisted subject that refuses to moralise or judge.
Henry Lee Lucas was mostly a liar in real life, but that doesn't stop the movie from being one truly disturbing journey/
It relies not upon visceral depictions of graphic violence but the sporadic, lifeless motivations of the killer – an established, sympathetic, and ultimately humanistic 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.
Part of the time it's art house cinema, the rest of the time its horror schlock.
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.
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.
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