Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 American psychological horror crime. Film directed and co-written by John McNaughton about the random crime spree of a seral killer who seemly operates with impunity. The film stars Michael Rooker as Henry, Tom Towles as Otis a friend form prison who henry is living with and Tracy Arnold as Becky Otis’s sister. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a disturbing physiological portrayal into the inner mind of a killer and is just a fascinating as it is disturbing.
The film starts showing the aftermath of killing aa henry drives around as the audio for the murders is played over the footage. What is genially unnerving about the film is that Henry is at first portrayed as a very normal guy, there are glimpses into the phycology behind his killings such as him potently only targeting women however this turns out to be false as we never get a clear grasp of Henrys motives. The idea of a serial killer being part of a family-style unit living with a fiend and a friend’s sister is interesting and unique. What is both interesting and disturbing about Henry is how normal he is sometimes; he acts nice and polite to Becky and has a normal job doing pest control. When doing this job, he seems to be normal but ends up killing the woman of the house he was cleaning. There is some backstory given to Henry in how he killed his mum and her boyfriend with a baseball bat, and how Henry’s dad was a truck driver who got his legs cut off as well as henrys brother having a bone disorder who was deformed and ultimately died. The audience is giving these little snippets into the backstory of henry to better understand his phycology as a character. We also get backstory on Becky Otis’s sister in how she was molested by her dad.
Henry’s backstory however changes throughout the film with him saying he killed his mum by stabbing her. The story changes thorough the film with Henry’s mum being a wore who had affairs with lots of men who beat Henry and forced to cross-dress and was humiliated. On his 14th birthday she hit him with a whisky bottle, and he shot her again his story changes throughout the story. Through out the film Henry is shown to have some weird sense of a moral code as he stops Otis from touching his sister. Henry ends up killing two prostitutes with Otis, as Henry manipulates Otis to kill with him. Henry ultimately sees all killing to be the same either everyone dies, or you do. Henry ends up killing a TV salesman by stabbing him with a cable and smashes a TV on his head. They end up making home movies with serial killers have done. Within the film the camera becomes a perverse serial killer lens wielded by Otis with makes Henry and Alice angry. Henry ends up talking Otis out of seeking revenge again it seems like Henry has a weird set of rules. Henry stages a breakdown as Otis shoots a guy, Henry ultimately gives serial killer tips of the trade to Otis as they watch people killing each other. Henry again sems to give a code to what he does as eh seems to respect the act of killing as a craft witch Otis doesn’t respect. The film is very voyeuristic with Henry and Otis filming murder; however, Henry gets mad with Otis trying to have sex with a corpse again showing he has a twisted sense of morals.
A very disturbing part of the film is when Otis rewinds the tapes of there murders to see them again. Otis as opposed to Henry using the camera in a perverted way to look at women. Throughout the film we see glimpses of Henry’s humanity with Becky asking him about the idea of a normal life which is somewhat tempting to Henry, when they both go out to dinner Henry comes across as somewhat normal and seems to somewhat like her. Becky and Henry start making out, but Otis finds out. Otis starts raping and strangling Becky, as he and Henry get into a fight, as Becky stabs him in the eye leading to Henry killing him. Henry dismembers Otis in the bathtub, as they pack up., leave and dump the body. Becky ends up proclaiming her love for henry as he replies, “I guess I love you to”, hints to the idea that Henry is still at the ends of the day a crazy killer, the song “my mistake was loving you” playing on the radio linking to this. The film ends with Henry killing Becky and dismembering her, he puts her body in a suitcase and leaves it by the side of the road before driving off.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a fascinating depiction into a phycology of serial killer. The film showcases a truly disturbing portrait of deranged killer and the inner psychology of his broken mind.