Review of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) by Iowa B — 28 Feb 2014

When John McNaughton showed Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer to the films executive producer, he was apparently shocked. He expected a teen slasher and was shocked when he got a real slasher.

That really explains the film. Instead of creating a fun, campy slasher type film where everything is sugar coated, Henry is real. Based on the apparent confessions of real killer Henry Lee Lucas, the film is shot in such a way it feels like we could be watching a documentary and everything we are seeing could be real. This is helped by the simplicity. For example when a TV salesman is killed, it is done in such a simple yet realistic way, the scene feels far more disturbing than most of the usual over the top horror we see today. McNaughton seemed to realise that over the top blood didn't necessarily equal scary (although a low budget did help).

The star of the show is obviously Michael Rooker, who plays Henry in such a real way. Apparently during the whole shoot, Rooker stayed in character, and with the end result, I'm not surprised. Rooker has created a killer far more scarier than anything else seen before because of how real he seems. He could be someone you know, a next door neighbor for example and that's far more scarier to me than any freddy kruger.