Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Director: John McNaughton, John McNaughton

1986 / 83min / DCP

Silence of the Lambs lent the serial killer a gruesome glamor, but before that, McNaughton’s Henry—a dour, no-budget Chicago-shot quickie loosely based on the exploits of murderers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole—depicted the dreary reality of the habitual predator’s dull, dingy existence. Michael Rooker, in the film’s title role, is the portrait of a clock-punching, almost begrudgingly violent blue-collar maniac. There’s nothing sensationalistic about Henry, which is perhaps part of what made it a flashpoint of controversy upon its release, and what makes it endlessly troubling rather than merely titillating.