Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Arriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a genuinely unsettling and distinctive piece of American independent cinema. John McNaughton's film earns its reputation through its cold, documentarian refusal to glamorize or moralize — it simply observes Henry with a chilling detachment that was radical for its era. Michael Rooker's lead performance is exceptional, delivering a portrait of banality-of-evil menace that anchors the entire film. The acting across the board is rawly effective. Novelty is high: the film's fly-on-the-wall aesthetic, its de-dramatized approach to violence (especially the home invasion sequence played on a TV monitor), and its refusal of conventional horror structure made it genuinely unlike anything else of the period. Cinematography is functional and deliberately unglamorous — effective but not distinguished. The plot is lean to the point of threadbareness, more mood piece than structured narrative, which is a creative choice but limits its score. The ending is bleak and abrupt in a way that is thematically consistent but not particularly resonant beyond its nihilism.