Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

I haven’t seen Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in quite a long time; I was probably 13 the last time I saw it and it didn’t impact me the same way it did this time. It’s a rough film, extremely low-budget (costing around $110,000 to produce), and relies less on gore than malevolent motivation for its horror. Initially finished in 1986, Henry wasn’t released in theaters until four years later and supposedly the MPAA wouldn’t give it an R-rating – and it’s not because of the gore but because of the situations. Henry is rife with rape, incest, and brutal, sadistic murder which are not uncommon for the horror genre but there’s something particularly gruesome about this movie: a certain, grittiness which makes the film seem more like a documentary at times than a feature film.