9 Fantastic Movies Too Devastating To Watch More Than Once
4. Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer
Far from the bargain bin slasher flick this looks like from the outside, Henry is a genuinely terrifying look into the mind of a mass murderer with no real purpose or motivation for killing other than this is "what he does."
When this was released in 1990 it was highly controversial, and with good reason. The many, many murder scenes were some of the most brutal and disturbingly grounded ever put into a movie. And it can't be overstated just how senseless and random the acts of violence are.
Yet, Henry isn't a pointless movie. Those murder scenes - caught on a home video camera so that Henry could watch them later with his friend, Otis - aren't merely slapped together to get a rise out of the audience. They serve to showcase the utter banality of Henry's life and comment on the voyeuristic nature of violence. (It's basically a grim and effective "Hi viewers!")
What this film does better than just about any Silence of the Lambs ripoff is prove that the most dangerous people don't always have some deep-seeded psychological issues to drive their thirst for violence.
Some people just kill. That's what so horrifying about Henry. That's also why it's not a wise idea to sit down and try to analyze the movie a second time. You won't find a deeper meaning, you'll just find yourself deeper into anguish.