Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: John McNaughton

Starring: Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, Tracy Arnold

From: Maljack Productions

F*** the Bears!

Despite knowing of this movie for decades, it wasn’t until last night that I finally pulled the trigger. Its status as a controversial movie that couldn’t find distribution for a few years due to content plus online reviews describing Henry as “a tough watch” meant that it was easy to put off this viewing until the right time.

This follows serial killers Henry and his lackey Otis; I’ve also known for ages that they were loosely based on real-life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole. Despite only listening to a few true crime podcasts & viewing a rare related show, it is common knowledge that while Lucas confessed to literally hundreds of murders, he was an attention-seeker once imprisoned and the vast majority of those proclamations were utter hogwash. No one knows for certain how many murders that A-hole actually committed—it might just be a few. Both Lucas and Toole are long since deceased; no tears should be shed for them.

Henry, Otis, and the sister of Otis are followed; all three live together and the trio are all messed-up characters due to the shocking way they were treated as children, told to the audience matter-of-factly as the three talk to each other. The first act, the aftermath of murders are shown, although the images are presented alongside the echoes of what happened—thus, still haunting. After that, the deaths are shown-they are graphic and due to realism, the kills will chill you to the bone.

The viewer is disturbed to see the killers otherwise act like normal human beings in society, whether it be working as an exterminator or eating a burger and fries minutes after snapping necks. This “real” aspect was advertised as being different from the Freddy and Jason films. Not to mention, there are other alarming moments I dare not spoil; one in particular made it clear why the movie was rated X at the time and had to be released unrated a few years after filming concluded. Portrait succeeds as an upsetting film with some horrifying moments; it is one of those that may never be seen again by me…

That said, I’m still glad Portrait was finally tackled by me. What a wild low-budget movie filmed in and around Chicago that was originally planned as a documentary about 1950’s wrestling in Chicago (!) that the producers the Ali brothers plus director John McNaughton couldn’t do after the owner of the wrestling footage suddenly doubled his price… instead the producers wanted a horror movie and instead of a stock slasher, McNaughton brought the documentary vibes and 16mm footage to present a blunt, realistic take on Lucas, who he saw a TV program on. Amazing yet true. The presumption is that that Chicago footage was the matches that were uploaded to YouTube by the Chicago Film Archives.

Of course, Michael Rooker and Tom Towles were great as the leads but Tracy Arnold deserves credit also as Becky, the sister of Otis. Despite only having a few acting credits, she nailed her role. The filmmaking is solid and the interesting score was effective. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a raw, visceral experience which won’t be for all viewers; on the other hand, for those that are able to handle such media, the movie is well worth watching… even if only once.

By the way, I saw this on Prime; the runtime listed in the description is incorrect. The print they have is the full movie, in other words.