HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER

Brand-new 40th anniversary 35mm print! One of the most harrowing films of the 20th century, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER is right up there with key works by Haneke, Cronenberg, and Noé in its effortless ability to push the audience in directions it never thought it’d go. Presaging both our current true-crime obsession and the era of “elevated arthouse horror,” this shockingly audacious debut feature by John McNaughton (WILD THINGS, MAD DOG & GLORY), with its chilling, career-defining turn by Michael Rooker (AMC's THE WALKING DEAD, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY), has inspired multiple generations of filmmakers to go for the throat.

In a voyeuristic style that does not judge, McNaughton’s camera glides around a few short weeks in the life of a drifter psychopath (Rooker) operating with amoral lizard-brain impunity as he mass-murders on the streets of Chicago. For shelter, Henry exploits the already-toxic living situation of ex-cellmate Otis (Tom Towles), who eventually follows him in animalistic killing sprees with execution methods and victims chosen at random to avoid detection. Meanwhile, Otis’ unsuspecting sister Becky (Tracy Arnold) comes to visit and mysteriously falls in love with the distant Henry.

Amongst the gruesome, senseless violence, McNaughton fashions an impeccable three-hander hangout film: one of America’s greatest indies that also became a revolutionary genre-bender. HENRY is just as much in conversation with SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE as it is with THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE or DAWN OF THE DEAD, and the film’s shattering industrial music score sets the scene in its own incredible way. (BRET BERG)

Presented by Dark Sky Films & AGFA