Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer *** (1986, Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles) – Classic Movie Review 2091

Co-writer/director John McNaughton’s 1990 psychological crime drama is a horrifying true story case study, loosely based on the real life story of yet another American psycho, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas and his random killing spree.

It is cheaply filmed in less than a month for around $110,000 in Chicago on grainy 16mm, but with convincing acting and strikingly stark, documentary-style direction by McNaughton. Costs were cut by casting family and friends and with participants using their own possessions, and local passers-by as unpaid extras.

Michael Rooker is impressive in the difficult circumstances as the nomadic killer Henry, who seemingly operates with impunity. Rooker remained in character for the duration of the shoot, both and off set, not socialising with any of the cast or crew. It also stars Tom Towles as Otis (loosely based on real life killer Ottis Toole), a prison buddy with whom Henry is living, and Tracy Arnold as Becky, Otis’s sister. 

There is a grisly body count, buckets of blood in the infamous videotaped scene, and an ugly threat to women, though the random killings are not sexually motivated. This extremely worrying and upsetting film needs to be approached with great caution, but it certainly holds the attention as a study of a man struggling between his humanity and his psychosis, and as a look at the desperate squalor of some corners of American life.

Although filmed in 1985 and ready for release in 1986 when it was shown at the Chicago International Film Festival, the film didn’t get theatrical distribution until 1990. This was partly because of disagreements with the MPAA over the movie’s violent content and partly because of the executive producers’ uncertainty over its quality and how to market it. Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs up as ‘a powerful and important film, brilliantly acted and directed’.

In the UK, distributor Electric Pictures submitted the film for classification in 1991 with 38 seconds already removed. Unexpectedly, perhaps, the British censors passed it 18 certificate for theatrical release in April 1991 with only 24 more seconds of cuts, all from the family massacre scene. 

In 2003 Optimum Releasing submitted a fully uncut version of the film for classification for a UK cinema release, and later for a home video release. In February 2003, the BBFC passed the film completely uncut, and in March 2003 the uncut version of the film was officially released in the UK for the first time.

McNaughton’s co-writer is Richard Fire. The running time is 83 minutes with the edited for TV version running just 75 minutes. The Director’s Edition is totally uncut and uncensored.

Lucas was convicted of 11 murders and sentenced to death for the murder of an unidentified female victim known only as Orange Socks. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Texas Governor George W. Bush in 1998. Lucas died in prison of heart failure on March 13 2001.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2091

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