Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 2
- Mask of Sanity (1998)
- written January 2003
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Henry, moving from town to town, shacks up with 3 entrepreneurs who
decide their port-a-toilet business could use some art. That is, they enjoy
torching building for the insurance money. Henry isn’t about to let some
amateurs steal his business of death, is he?
Overall: I’ve got millions of problems with this film. Obviously one is that at least the first film was slightly true to life. This one is pure fiction. Secondly, the character of Henry isn’t even the same. In part 1, Henry is strong, a leader, kills for fun but plans them out too. In this film, Henry is a homeless man, a scavenger from place to place with no ability to keep himself employed or with a place to stay. He will kill anytime, anyplace on a seconds notice for fun, and with a gun, with bombs, with torches. He’s more of a follower who reacts to things as opposed to be proactive. The bottom line is part 1 made the character look more like a hero (an anti-hero I guess) and this film makes Henry look like a loser. Oh and a child molester (with consent). The DVD version isn’t very good as the words and the mouths don’t match well. So the film just comes out as a waste of time. Comparing it to the first one, it’s an utter disgrace. Comparing as just a sequel, it’s not very related and it basically bastardizes the characters and the story of the first film. As a film in and of itself, it’s choppy and seems to have no true cohesiveness. The film starts out with scenes from a few murders and yet later on he commits no crimes that fit the same profile. The murder of the bum in the street was perhaps the last straw for me. Just so out of character it makes this film almost more a poor-man’s “American Psycho.” The actor who played Henry was annoying the whole time. Yes, I kept comparing him to Michael Rooker (who was awesome) but even trying not to, he still is just a poor physical stature to play Henry. He just doesn’t even look scary or tough. Ugh! Comparison: American Psycho…in a recession |
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