07 December 2024
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
82 min.
Directed by John McNaughton.
With Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles, Ray Atherton, Kurt Naebig, Eric Young.
This overrated film is shot in a documentary style and details the exploits of the title character.

Inspired by the chilling confessions of real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, this one has some good moments, and lead Rooker gives a solid performance, but ultimately the whole thing proves too sleazy for our tastes.

We've said it before: we don't want to know the killers in these films THAT well. It's the fear, suspense and apprehension of the crimes themselves that can be cathartic. But the actual psychoses behind it all is rarely as interesting...or frightening.

For some reason, critics seem to love this movie. Oddly, it must be that they can only express their admiration for the genre when it's done in an "artful" way.

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