10 Horror Movies Shot From The Killer’s Perspective

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer stars Michael Rooker as psychotic drifter Henry, who indiscriminately commits murder while travelling across the United States. 

Filmmaker John McNaughton roots us with Henry from the start of the film to the end, making us party to his increasingly depraved festival of carnage, captured on fittingly scuzzy 16mm film.

The film's unwavering depiction of various flavours of boundary-pushing violence made it immediately controversial, yet Rooker's bone-chilling performance as Henry and the sheer immersive atmosphere of the filmmaking ensure that it's lived on as a cult classic for almost 40 years.

McNaughton, who began his career in the documentary field, ingeniously adopts a doc-like aesthetic throughout, lending an added air of "authenticity" to what we're seeing, even if it isn't in any way framed as a mockumentary or found footage film.

Subconsciously though, that stylistic approach combines perfectly with the film's up-close engagement with its repugnant protagonist to create a discomfortingly intimate depiction of a murderer on maneuvers.