'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer' is directed by John McNaughton and stars Michael Rooker as the titular killer and is loosely based upon the real events of Henry Lee Lucas, who admitted to over 200 murders but only convicted for 11. The film has had quite a long history, from censorship to production troubles that would take the 1987 film three years before a limited release and a cult following on home video. The film is shot in a documentary style, giving it a raw and realistic look that just adds to the overall dread and discomfort one feels when giving this one a watch.
Michael Rooker, who has gone on to big roles in films such as 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and even television with 'The Walking Dead' does his best even here in his first role. He really gives that creep vibe off well and his performance is stronger than that in many high end productions with similar themes, and I'm dead serious in saying that he deserved some kind of award for this role. Now, let's be real here this is not the type of film you sit through on a weekly or even a monthly basis. It's very gruesome, depressing, and overly downbeat but it's a required viewing at least once.
The new 4K video transfer on this new 30th anniversary edition is a drastic improvement from the previous Dark Sky release. The film isn't going to look like 'Avatar' but it's clearly been cleaned up while retaining that grainy documentary feeling and overall, there are very little inconsistencies in this transfer. With a spot or two occasionally looking overly soft or out of focus it isn't perfect, but this is definitely the best 'Henry' has looked yet.
The audio has been remixed in 5.1 from the previous Blu-Ray release, though no huge improvement is really noticeable here. Dialogue is more clear for sure, however overall we get a rather mediocre sound here, but it's hard to fault it when the film wasn't exactly going for a brilliant mix either. Overall, it's OK not great.
Special Features include 'Henry vs. The MPAA' a documentary about the various troubles with censorship in America when the film was released back in 1990. On the other side of the pond, we get 'Henry at the BFCC' about the film's troubles overseas due to its heavy content. The 'Making-Of' documentary has been carried over and is one of the big standouts of this disc. At about an hour or so, it goes into the film rather extensively given that short time and is worth a watch as much as the film itself. Other features include Deleted Scenes, Trailers, and an Audio Commentary from director John McNaughton. Nice package here folks.
'Henry' is not a film for everyone, and it's not strictly for horror fans either. It's an important film to the history of the medium and if you believe you can take it, then by all means you need to see this film. The new 30th anniversary edition is a loving restoration featuring some of the best looking picture and the best special features carried over to bring you a set worth placing on your shelf.
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