Henry : Portrait of a Serial Killer
(1986) 83 Min.
Rated: Unrated (Gore, rape, corpse dismemberment)
Director: John McNaughton
Starring: Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★★☆
Drifter Henry meets up with his friend Otis to go on a killing spree.
Synopsis:
The film begins with scenes from murders as stills the camera pans over, juxtaposed with Henry (Rooker) driving around the country. Henry is headed to Chicago after murdering two waitresses.
Otis (Towles) is Henry’s friend and roommate in Chicago. Otis picks up his sister, Becky (Arnold), from the airport. Becky is escaping an abusive husband and she decides to live in Chicago with Otis and Henry while looking for a job and generally trying to get a steady life. Becky meets Henry and likes him. Otis tells Becky that he met Henry while the two were in prison and it was there that he learned Henry was in prison for murdering his own mother.
Later Otis leaves and Becky and Henry are alone together. Becky decides to play cards with Henry and they talk a little. She reveals she knows about his matricide. Henry explains that his mother was a prostitute who made him watch her have sex with her clients when he was young, forced him into dresses and also physically abused him. Becky also reveals that her father sexually abused her and she married her current husband as a way to flee the house.
Becky soon gets a job as a shampoo girl at a hair salon. Becky shows off a new shirt she bought and Otis tries to force her to kiss him, which Henry stops. Henry forces Otis to apologize.
Becky insists the two men go get a beer to cool off. Henry and Otis then go and get two prostitutes. Henry kills one of the girls and the other begins to scream. Henry breaks her neck, killing her. Otis is at first shocked, but Henry insists that he had to. Henry tells Otis that his philosophy is “it’s them or us”.
Otis breaks the TV out of anger one day and Henry and he go to a backdoor black market electronics shop. There they want to buy a new TV but instead decide to murder the shop owner and take a tv and a video recorder instead.
Otis sells a bag of marijuana to a high school boy and puts his hand on the teen’s leg. The teen punches Otis who drives off in a fit. Henry tells Otis that he can’t kill a kid since it alarms people too quickly and instead they decide to go and kill a stranger. They park their car in an underpass and flag down a random person pretending to need assistance. As soon as the man exits his car Otis shoots him several times killing him.
Henry talks to Otis and teaches him about changing each murder so they can’t be connected using a different weapon each time. He also mentions not staying in the same place for too long after committing the murders.
Henry and Otis take their camera and record themselves killing a family in their home. Otis tries to molest the wife and finally breaks her neck to kill her. Otis wants to have sex with the dead body, but Henry stops him and they leave the building quickly. The duo later rewatch the film.
Meanwhile, Becky decides to quit her job and go to live with her mother and her daughter. She asks if Henry would like to come with her and tells him to decide quickly as she’s leaving the next day. Henry is a bit unsure. Becky then tries to kiss Henry, but Otis interrupts and Henry leaves the building to get some cigarettes.
While Henry is gone Otis rapes Becky and tries to strangle her to death. Henry returns in time to beat Otis off her, stab him in the eye and eventually stab him to death. Henry then cuts up Otis body and dumps the pieces in garbage bags into the Chicago river.
Becky is taken aback but decides to flee with Henry. He tells her that they will go to his sister’s ranch. Becky tells Henry she loves him and Henry gives a flat terse “I guess I love you, too” response.
The pair arrive at a motel and stay for the night. In the morning Henry exits the room alone but is carrying Becky’s suitcase now smeared with blood. He drives off leaving the bloodied suitcase abandoned by the roadside.
Review:
Henry is a film that is very loosely based on the life of Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole. Despite the facts not being accurate, the story the film presents is one of a cold and calculating duo who kill on whims and generally terrorize their victims for their own pleasure.
There is a visceral response to the film’s soundtrack and dark themes. Watching the twisted friendship develop and flourish while on a killing spree is quite chilling. Henry is such a complex and calculating character, one the one hand can sympathize with a person who has suffered abuse, as Becky does in the film. But as the film shows, you can’t really trust a murderer and Becky pays for her trust with her life.
Despite the small budget, the film is effective in its story telling, acting and mood. Even the panning shots at the start of the film over the dead bodies is pretty haunting. The reality of people who murder without discretion and act without remorse is the true horror on display here.
Other films with similar serial killer themes are Man Bites Dog and Angst.