Portraits from a Camcordered Past
Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Directed by John McNaughton
Starring Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold and Tom Towles
By Peter Cameron
When I told my friend, and fellow NadaMucho.com contributor, Tim Basaraba I was planning to watch Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, he said “That film’s a one and done.” And now that I’ve seen it once, I too am done.
Not because it’s a bad film. For how low budget Henry is, I was thoroughly impressed. Director John McNaughton and his crew MacGyvered indelible imagery. The lighting looks like the gaffer just flipped the switch in whichever room was being used. Even outside shots, like the night scenes in alleyways, are poorly lit. This lo-fi quality, however, only enhances the eerie feel of the film. Best gaffer gig ever. Most filmmakers forget this, but an actor’s face doesn’t need to be fully lit. It’s often best to leave a little to the imagination. Or in Henry’s case, to let our nightmares fill in the blanks. For 100K, McNaughton managed to slice together an astonishing portrait of an evil person, and my one viewing satisfied whatever dark corner of my soul was curious to see it.
I don’t want to get too much into the plot, but when Henry and his protege start using a stolen camcorder to record their killings, this film found another dark corner of my soul from which to unearth strange feelings. In fact, the film becomes far more interesting and disturbing once Henry enlist his trainee. At one point, teacher Henry and his student replay one of their recent home invasions, and we, the audience, watch a brutal, triple homicide filtered through grainy, VHS-quality images. These images felt, oddly enough, authentic. I’m not sure why that is. My best guess is that it soldered the murders to my own sense of nostalgia. Home footage from my childhood has the same granularity. Is that why I felt compelled to describe that scene as ‘authentic’? Will children growing up now have the same sense when, or if, they watch this Portrait? Footage of their childhood will have 1080 bits. The grainy VHS of my youth, to them, might feel like black and white.
Between Slumber Party Massacre and Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, the girl I was seeing at the time chose the latter for our date night. Not sure what that says about her, or me for that matter, but when given the two choices she said, and I quote, “I want to be really fucking scared.” Mission accomplished.
Regardless, I am glad we one and doned it. Almost zero chance I’ll choose to watch it again. Mostly because the scene I just described is still replaying in my mind. It was that traumatic. Shout out to John McNaughton for creating such a powerful film on such a low budget. And kudos to his gaffer. One alley scene in particular is so well lit precisely because it isn’t. So, with its brilliant murder scene stagings, use of VHS imagery, lo-fi lighting, and compelling dynamic between killer and padawan, John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer gets sandwiched in between my second and third highest ratings at a Somewhat Very Cinema. This film, if you really wanna turn down that dark alleyway, is definitely a one-and-doner.