Henry Lee Lucas

Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer Description
HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, loosely based on the case of Henry Lee Lucas, a confessed serial killer, is a terrifyingly intimate journey into the twisted life of a murderous psychotic. As the blank-eyed Henry (Michael Rooker) drifts from place to place, he selects victims at random, slaughters them, and captures the brutality on videotape. When he is joined by his deranged roommate, a loudmouthed ex-convict named Otis (Tom Towles), the almost unfathomably malevolent acts multiply.

John McNaughton's film, in the tradition of such classic studies of homicidal personality as PEEPING TOM and TAXI DRIVER, goes further than both of these movies in its flat refusal to tell the killer's story on anything other than the killer's terms. McNaughton is able to present the world Henry aimlessly traverses as Henry sees it--almost unendurably bleak and meaningless--and in doing so he allows his film to go as deep into the nightmarish mind of a killer as anything ever committed to celluloid.

"You want some fries?"--Henry (Michael Rooker) to his shaken pal Otis (Tom Towles) after he kills two prostitutes in front of Otis

"The moose is loose."--bumper sticker on the back of Henry's car

HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER was originally rated X by the MPAA. The film's distributors chose to release the film without a rating instead.

"It's probably too bloody for the art crowd and too arty for the blood crowd."--director-cowriter John McNaughton, discussing HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER

An assault on the sensibilities of a sane person, this film coldly observes the horrendous actions of a serial killer who executes random victims in various ways.

"...Spare, intelligent and thought provoking....This film gives off a dark chill that follows you all the way home..."

"...Exceptionally well-acted....[A] challenging, uncomfortable and honourable approach to real-life horrors..."

"...A more explicit PSYCHO made with Hitchcock's integrity..." -- 4 out of 4 stars

"...Profoundly disturbing....[McNaughton's] artistic control of the camera and narrative is evident from the start..."

"...Rooker captures a psychopath's charisma in a film as raw as a fresh blade wound." -- Rating: B+

"...As fine a film as it is a brutally disturbing one..."