12/7/2023 0 Comments Henry portrait of a serial killer![]() ![]() The videotape scene appalls many viewers, but at least it shows "Henry" dealing honestly with its subject matter, instead of trying to sugar-coat violence as most "slasher" films do. Ottis, who may have a homosexual interest in Henry, eventually goes along with him in a series of brutal killings, including one where they pretend to have car trouble and then shoot a good samaritan, and another where they invade a home and videotape the murder of an entire family. She is fascinated by Henry's stories of violence. In the film, Henry becomes the roommate of Ottis, a parolee working in a gas station, and then the sister arrives from out of town and moves in. Organic Theater veteran Tom Towles plays the equally chilling role of "Ottis," a casual friend who drifts into murder, and Tracy Arnold is Ottis' sister, a teenage stripper who knows Henry killed his mother, and finds the fact intriguing. The title role in "Henry" is played with unrelenting power by Michael Rooker, who since has gone on to major Hollywood movies (he was the redneck who confronts Gene Hackman in " Mississippi Burning," and the killer in " Sea of Love"). It played at midnight screenings in New York (where the Village Voice's Elliott Stein called it one of the best American films of the year), but could not gain mass distribution without the R rating. "Henry" drifted in a cinematic no-man's-land after it was first seen publicly in a video version at the 1986 Chicago Film Festival. Your Ticket Confirmation is located under the header in your email that reads 'Your. The movie contains scenes of heartless and shocking violence, committed by characters who seem to lack the ordinary feelings of common humanity. The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. Filmed in the gray slush and wet winter nights of Chicago's back alleys, honky-tonk bars and drab apartments, it tells of a drifter who kills strangers, efficiently and without remorse. Unlike typical "slasher" movies, "Henry" does not employ humor, campy in-jokes or a colorful anti-hero. Loosely inspired by the confessions, since recanted, of a self-described mass murderer named Henry Lucas, the film uses a slice-of-life approach to create a docudrama of chilling horror. "Henry" was filmed during the winter of 1985-86 by a Chicago director named John McNaughton, on a budget of $125,000, using unknown actors from the free-wheeling Organic Theater Company. But it also is a very good film, 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. It is a chilling film that - fair warning - will horrify many viewers and is intended to illuminate, not entertain. The Honeymoon Killers is another film that I regret seeing.This is a movie that's an obvious candidate for the proposed A (for adult) rating. This speaks well of the directors skill at scaring movie-goers, but approach with caution please. ![]() This film was so powerfully unsettling for me, that I feel a need to warn others of the emotional impact. Some things are so emotionally damaging, that perhaps they should be left alone. I was sorry that I had seen the film, but it was too late to retract the terror that, even today, still remains in my memory. I was really shaken by the horrific realism of this cinematic event. He migrates to Chicago, where he stops at a diner, eats dinner and later murders the elderly proprietors of a liquor store and several women. Leaving the theater that day, I honestly felt as though I had actually witnessed several murders. Henry is a psychopathic drifter who murders scores of people men, women, and children as he travels throughout America. But the director takes us down the path of a man who is in many ways similar to the real deal. This man claimed to have killed hundreds of people, mostly women. It is possible to "see too much" in this life, and once seen, some sights remain trapped in your head FOREVER short of getting a lobotomy, or being hypnotized. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) is a film that is loosely based upon the exploits of notorious white trash serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. I can count on one hand the films that I have found to be so deeply disturbing, that I later regretted seeing them.This film is among them. I am not easily frightened or upset by movies. ![]()
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