Based on the true life serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas, who murders scores of people, men, women and children, as he travels through the country. The film is actually one of the most disturbing and terrifying examinations of mass murderers ever filmed.
11 August 1962, Austin, Texas, USA
4 January 1948
3 September 1953, Chicago, Illinois, USA
19 February 1950, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1949, Chicago, Illinois, USA
20 March 1950, Chicago, Illinois, USA
May 17, 2017
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer has a creepy, city-after-dark overtone, an existential chill. It carries a true grindhouse whiff while staking its claim as art.
August 12, 2013
The difference between John McNaughton's incredibly chilling film and the usual serving of screen carnage is the difference between the mind of a murderer and the cynical and manipulative depiction of mindless murder.
August 12, 2013
Sure, it's compelling; the nature of the material guarantees that. But it doesn't seem to be telling us much more than that the world is a scary place and murder is ugly. We knew those things. This is tabloid chic.
September 16, 2014
In a world in which eight nearly identical Friday the 13th movies offer the adventures of Jason the ax-murderer as entertainment for teen-agers, maybe we do need this sobering alternative.
August 12, 2013
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is as fine a film as it is a brutally disturbing one.
October 15, 2015
It resonates with nightmarish energies, as if possessed by a malevolent quality that keeps its subject matter piercing in this era of violent saturation.
September 16, 2014
A powerful, original look at the hopeless urban underclass in the American city, where lost people nibble at the garbage of our culture -- in a kind of perverse application of the "trickle-down" theory -- hating themselves and us all the while.
November 09, 2016
The director's artistry overshadows his grind house titillations, though they're still to be found aplenty...not just grim and gross or even disturbing; it's hurtful.
December 05, 2016
It is unspeakably unpleasant, and it is almost perfect.
September 16, 2014
If you want a gore fix, this is it. If you're looking for a film with purpose, better wait until the bill changes.
August 12, 2013
The film is an honest and disturbing attempt to come to grips with the sort of modern horror that we must -- more urgently every day -- try to understand.
August 12, 2013
McNaughton's direction combines a strict social realism with a cool, Fritz Langian sense of pre-determination, while his work with actors has the improvisational freshness of a John Cassavetes.

