Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer: 20 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen

Yes, there are classic films I've never seen.  In fact, there are classic films that plenty of people haven't seen.  I'm willing to bet that the majority of people reading this right now have never seen Made in USA, but that doesn't make me think that they're uncultured, just that they missed something I particularly enjoyed.  So yeah, I've never seen Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer until today.

How do I make a synopsis of a film that is a cult classic?  The title pretty much says it all.  The film examines a sociopath character in an attempt to portray the inner workings of the Serial Killer.  This is where the film is actually pretty accurate.  Henry is played as a REAL sociopath.  Even when we, the audience, begin to believe that maybe there's something sympathetic about Henry, the film is quick to remind us that there is no empathy in any serial killer.

Shot with an obviously small budget, Henry uses it's surroundings as a metaphor for the bleak viewpoints of the lead characters.  There is nothing but a visceral hatred present in Henry and his room mate Ottis, and when Ottis' sister Becky joins the fray the film makers are careful to disguise this hatred, as a sociopath would disguise it to any authoritarian figure, but once the net drops, it drops hard.

The film makes due with it's low budget by being inventive.  This may be one of the earliest examples of using VHS as a medium to aid the story telling process.  The filmmakers utilized this medium within context of the story, being watching by the characters on a color set they obtained via nefarious (murder) means, as a plot device, but by using it to actually tell the story as well, a method that is more prevalent now with the craze of Found Footage style horror films in the wake of The Blair Witch Project and in more recent films like the anthology V/H/S series and The Sacrament.

Another thing that I found particularly delightful about my experience watching the film was the discovery that the titular character of Henry was played by Michael Rooker, who I previously discovered as "The psycho dad from Mallrats."  I'm rather fond of Rooker's work following his relationship with director James Gunn and even his work in The Walking Dead (which I'm otherwise not particularly fond of) so you can probably imagine my gleeful realization that it was him when I finally got a good close up.

Most of my friends, who watch horror movies, have probably seen this film before me.  I like to think that I'm fairly transparent about the fact that there are many "cult classics" that I haven't seen due to my own tastes at the time, but sometimes I guess I'm not.  Anyway, if you're like me and haven't taken the time to check this one out, there's a streaming HD transfer on Netflix, or you can just rent the Bluray/DVD.  Be warned though: As enjoyable as the music is, it's mixed much louder than the rest of the sound in the film.

4 out of 5 skulls.

"Do you ever die in your own dream?": Shunji Iwai's Vampire

Often when a director comes from abroad to North America to make a film, the result is lackluster, panned by critics who previously screamed with praise, or misses out on wide release because distributors fear anything that smells remotely of monetary loss.  It's the age old battle of art versus product and Shunji Iwai's newest film is an English language piece that falls into the sad latter of the three.

Vampire opens with two people, a man and woman, meeting up in an undisclosed location with the express intention of committing suicide together.  They drive through the rainy Canadian weather talking about their reasons and their disconnects with life trying to have a good final day before ending it all.  It becomes apparent, however, that one of them has an ulterior motive.  The woman doesn't want to feel any pain so the man suggests blood draining.  He offers to assist in her death first before doing himself in.  Obviously we wouldn't have a film if they both die, so it's safe to assume that he's not going to kill himself.  Rather, he lives up to the title of the story.  Simon (the protagonist of the story) drains Jellyfish (her online name) of her blood via needs and bottles, and when the process is complete he gorges himself upon one of the bottles.

So is Vampire a horror movie?  No.  At least, not in the typical archetype of horror.  Is it then a story about a serial killer?  Perhaps, but the film is more than even that.  Any good film is multifaceted.  Rather than shoving meaning or ideology in your face, a truly good film with allow you to follow it on a journey and give you an idea to ponder.  It will inspire thought.  Everything else is just surface value.  I could pontificate on the ideas of spiritual isolation and addiction that are present in the subtext of this story, but I would also be giving too much of it away in the process and since I want you all to go out and find this movie by whatever means necessary and WATCH it, I think I'll take a break from that.

What I do want to talk about is how this film is a rare example of a director being capable of maintaining his artistic sensibilities while filming outside of his country.  It's debatable whether or not any Hollywood studio would fund a film like Vampire (the film was produced and shot in Canada) given Iwai's body of work.  Iwai is not a throw it in your face kind of film maker.  Rather, he is an artist, a poet, and a painter with a camera for a brush.  His body of work includes Love Letter, PiCNiC, Swallowtail Butterfly, All About Lily Chou Chou, and Hana and Alice to name a few.  These films are known for their intense emotional honesty, creative camera and editing work, and experimental poetic story structures.  They do not play on our more visceral senses, but speak more to our hearts and minds.

By all rights, Simon should be looked at as a villain, and yet by the end of the film, you love him.  Iwai takes us on a journey side by side with Simon in which we see that his fragile state of being is something he is out of empathy rather than a sadistic desire to feed on the blood of others.  It dares to ask a difficult question about human connection.  Is it possible, as Iwai stated at Sundance, for a victim and perpetrator to see each other in the light of moral understanding and acceptance? Food for thought.

Throw in superb lighting and honest performances and you've got one hell of a film.  Another striking thing about the film is that none of the characters remotely resemble each other.  They're all uniquely played by the actors.  Look for a strangely obsessive performance by Rachel Leigh Cook and an understated brilliance from Amanda Plummer, the two bigger names on the film, but there is something so arresting about Kevin Zegers' performance of Simon that I just couldn't part from him.

This film is a hard one to find.  It is in English but currently there are no official channels to purchase the DVD in America or Canada.  The only way to currently purchase it is through the Pony Canyon Shopping Club, which is linked on the film's website.  While Navigating the Japanese site may be a semi-daunting task, it is a worthy one.  This film, is easily one of the better films I've seen in the last couple of months.  Not for those who just want mindless fun and entertainment.  Vampire is an intriguing and captivating story that begs the question, are we all just waiting to die?