Can't Pull Your Eyes Away

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Director- John McNaughton
Starring- Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles

Ex-stripper Becky (Arnold) shacks up with her brother Otis (Towles) to escape a bad home situation and ends up meeting his roommate, Henry (Rooker). They hit it off, but there's tension with Otis in the home. Otis makes some innappropriate advances toward his own sister, and Henry is quick to defend her. In an effort to make up and blow off some steam, The two get a couple hookers. Otis witnesses Henry choke one of them to death, then break the other's neck, and is horrified.

As he learns more about Henry, however, Otis becomes curious himself about what it feels like and is recruited into serial killer training. They use their sadistic hobby to obtain some nicer things for themselves like a television and video camera. Unfortunately for Henry, tensions flare up again when Otis starts becoming sexually obsessed with his victims. Things come to a head as Henry catches Otis attempting to rape his own sister, and knows he must get her out of there, even if he still sees her as a potential victim.

This movie was incredible to watch, and VERY well-written. Henry doesn't give much of himself away through words, but shows a lot through actions and reactions. When the three are dancing around for their new video camera, Henry is instructed by Otis to watch Becky dance. This brings on some bad memories of his mother, and Henry quietly pleads for Otis to stop, and seems on the verge of tears. This particular scene is so out of regular character for Henry, which makes it all the more disturbing, since it lays bare one of the troubled corners of his mind.


It's interesting to note some sympathy with Henry throughout th movie, while at the same time, he is a sick serial killer. He becomes both the villian and the hero, and then the villian again, as the movie progresses. The ending is great. For such a simple ending, I didn't really see it coming. Who knew he'd "take one for the road"?

Rating: 5/5 Bonedaddies.

The Last Horror Movie (2003)

The Last Horror Movie

Director- Julian Richards

Starring- Kevin Howarth, Mark Stevenson

Warning: Some spoilers.

A serial killer, Max, who works as a wedding videographer by day decides to make a little documentary of his "work". He records it onto a tape from a local video rental and stalks who ever rents it.

The part about the rental is a little bit of a surprise, so I apologize for spilling the beans, but it made sense to add it into the description. Although it's a decent plot device, it feels like it was put in as an afterthought, and to me raises questions of behavioral patterns that would help get the guy caught.

Other than that, the movie was surprisingly excellent. I had my doubts during the intro until I realized it was actually the movie he taped over. Once Max introduces himself, the movie takes a much better road from there. His little soliloquies run on at length and get boring, but it's interesting to see the rising conflict between him the camera man, who seems at first to be a fan but becomes uneasy about killing after having actually seen it.

The disturbing part comes when you see Max disposing of his bodies by cooking them and serving it up to his friends (who obviously have no idea what he does to people). The acting is beyond great, and not because of overemotional interactions or action sequences. The killing scenes become completely human--nothing is overdone, the pain in the victims' faces looks like any documentary or Faces of Death film I've ever seen and at times actually left me speechless due to its realism.

Good concept for a film, maybe not the most original, and even though boring and speechy at times, impresses the feeling of paranoia well and is acted superiorally.

Rating: 4.5/5 Bonedaddies.