Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a gritty, bleak, and uncomfortably realistic portrayal of a serial killer's exploits in 1980s Chicago. Directed by John Mcnaughton and starring Michael Rooker as Henry, it was controversial upon release in 1986 and maintains cult status to this day.
The film follows Henry as he takes his oafish roommate Otis under his sinister wing, all the while unwittingly attracting the affection of Otis' sister Becky. The three act out a tragic melodrama of abuse, incest, and murder. Despite the exploitative subject matter it is a tastefully executed production. It's reminiscent of the bleak, painful sadness of Buffalo 66 or even a lower-budget Requiem for a Dream. Much of the dialogue has a poignant, stage-play feel to it. The scene where Becky and Henry exchange stories of their abused childhood is especially tense and even tender.
The film is taken to the level of the surreal once Otis and Henry steal a video camera from a murder victim and start filming their further exploits. At one point we are simply played back videotape footage of the pair murdering a family in their home. And oh boy, this is one scene you won't be forgetting any time soon.
We've all witnessed thousands of scripted on-camera deaths, beyond the point of banality. But this one (these three) feel like you just might be watching the real thing.
It calls to mind the infamous rape-murder early on in A Clockwork Orange.
As difficult to watch as that scene is, it comes to us firmly established in the framework of 'The Cinema'. It's Stanley Kubrick, it's Hollywood, it looks like a movie.
But this shit is shot on videotape.
I wonder if this comes across nowadays as even more ghastly than Mcnaughton intended, given the arcane 'found-footage' feel of videotape in the 21st century.
This scene is absolute nightmare fuel, worst-case-scenario anxious ruminative fantasy kindling. The violence is brutal, senseless, and anonymous - we don't know who any of the victims are. It's happening only because Otis and Henry just want to kill people. Otis viciously beats and molests a woman as Henry tapes it and kicks at a bound, beaten man wailing on the floor. The two have a grand old time until until a teenage boy suddenly enters - only to be immediately wrestled to the ground and killed by Henry. It's absolute chaos, a nightmare brought to grainy, lurching, unholy life. There are few scenes like this one.
I'm siiiiingin' in the rain!
