Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
November 1, 2007
"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"
1986, directed by John McNaughton
It's strange to me that horror films are viewed by some people as being a lot of fun to watch. I'm not saying that I disagree with the sentiment, as many of them are highly entertaining, but it is peculiar that this reaction is elicited by a genre that is, by design, aiming to be unpleasant. It doesn't help that there are plenty of films that are classified as horror despite the fact that they aren't aiming to frighten or disturb ("Dead Alive," "Re-Animator" and "Evil Dead 2" all come to mind), but are more in line with black comedies that are using the genre's tropes to express their own ideas. "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" is a horror film that isn't trying to entertain, or make you laugh, or lighten the scares with comic moments of levity. It follows a brief period in the life of Henry, an ex-con currently residing in Chicago who, in a spooky opening montage, is shown to be an n expert at murdering women. Yet all of this is under the veneer of a pleasant enough man who is happy to sleep on the coach when his roommate's sister comes to visit and needs a room. Henry manages to escape detection because his murders are so random, never following a specific pattern. The film is a portrait, as the title states. Henry doesn't grow or change in any way during the film, remaining a static force. Much like the serial killers in "Psycho" and "Silence of the Lambs," (two films that are distant relatives of this one) Henry has been damaged by childhood trauma to such an extent that his humanity has been retarded, and his murders are like the acts of a programmed machine. The film, with its gritty, unadorned style, is a frightening, nihilistic pit and becomes more frightening the more you think about it. It's a classic, but in no way is it fun.
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