Film review: 'Henry: Serial Killer 2'
As far as today's movie industry is concerned, you can never keep a good serial killer down.
Coming shortly after Michael Myers has reared his masked head for the umpteenth time, Henry -- the maniac anti-hero of John McNaughton's acclaimed, low-budget 1990 movie -- is back to wreak more havoc.
Unfortunately, this misbegotten sequel is strictly B-movie programmer material, with none of the original creative participants involved. Playing midnight shows at New York's Angelika Theatre, it will presumably serve as a date movie for couples of a certain psychotic bent.
Henry, played so memorably in the original by Michael Rooker, is now essayed by Neil Guintoli, who manages to make the character even scarier by stressing his banal ordinariness. Henry seems like a reasonable guy, just trying to eke out a living delivering portable toilets. Of course, this is not the kind of work that brings out one's best instincts, and when Henry needs to let off a little steam, he resorts to the random stabbing, strangling or neck snapping (apparently his favorite).
Henry has been taken in by a lower-class couple -- Kai (Rich Komenich), a part-time arsonist, and Cricket (Kate Walsh) -- and it isn't long before Henry indoctrinates Kai into his particular brand of stress control. Soon, the pair are engaging in random acts of brutality, although Kai lacks Henry's unique zeal and imaginative flair. Complicating the domestic arrangement is Cricket's mentally challenged live-in niece (Carri Levinson), whose childlike demeanor doesn't prevent her from crawling into Henry's bed at night.
The film chronicles Henry's misadventures with the same deadpan detachment with which he dispatches his victims. It features a gallery of lowlife characters who verbally and physically abuse each other with regularity. Although purporting to be gritty and realistic, with Henry quite unlike the invincible villains of Hollywood's countless slasher pics, "Serial Killer 2" is similarly exploitative and offers no new insight on its subject. Although not without its chilling moments, what comes across most strikingly about the film is its sense of redundancy.
HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER 2
Margin Films
Director-screenplay: Chuck Parello
Producers: Thomas J. Busch, Chuck Parello
Executive producers: Waleed B. Ali, Malik B. Ali
Cinematography: Michael Kohnhurst
Editor: Tom Keefe
Original score: Robert F. McNaughton
Color/stereo
Cast:
Henry: Neil Guintoli
Kai: Rich Komenich
Cricket: Kate Walsh
Louise: Carri Levinson
Rooter: Daniel Allar
Woman in Woods: Penelope Milford
Running time -- 85 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Coming shortly after Michael Myers has reared his masked head for the umpteenth time, Henry -- the maniac anti-hero of John McNaughton's acclaimed, low-budget 1990 movie -- is back to wreak more havoc.
Unfortunately, this misbegotten sequel is strictly B-movie programmer material, with none of the original creative participants involved. Playing midnight shows at New York's Angelika Theatre, it will presumably serve as a date movie for couples of a certain psychotic bent.
Henry, played so memorably in the original by Michael Rooker, is now essayed by Neil Guintoli, who manages to make the character even scarier by stressing his banal ordinariness. Henry seems like a reasonable guy, just trying to eke out a living delivering portable toilets. Of course, this is not the kind of work that brings out one's best instincts, and when Henry needs to let off a little steam, he resorts to the random stabbing, strangling or neck snapping (apparently his favorite).
Henry has been taken in by a lower-class couple -- Kai (Rich Komenich), a part-time arsonist, and Cricket (Kate Walsh) -- and it isn't long before Henry indoctrinates Kai into his particular brand of stress control. Soon, the pair are engaging in random acts of brutality, although Kai lacks Henry's unique zeal and imaginative flair. Complicating the domestic arrangement is Cricket's mentally challenged live-in niece (Carri Levinson), whose childlike demeanor doesn't prevent her from crawling into Henry's bed at night.
The film chronicles Henry's misadventures with the same deadpan detachment with which he dispatches his victims. It features a gallery of lowlife characters who verbally and physically abuse each other with regularity. Although purporting to be gritty and realistic, with Henry quite unlike the invincible villains of Hollywood's countless slasher pics, "Serial Killer 2" is similarly exploitative and offers no new insight on its subject. Although not without its chilling moments, what comes across most strikingly about the film is its sense of redundancy.
HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER 2
Margin Films
Director-screenplay: Chuck Parello
Producers: Thomas J. Busch, Chuck Parello
Executive producers: Waleed B. Ali, Malik B. Ali
Cinematography: Michael Kohnhurst
Editor: Tom Keefe
Original score: Robert F. McNaughton
Color/stereo
Cast:
Henry: Neil Guintoli
Kai: Rich Komenich
Cricket: Kate Walsh
Louise: Carri Levinson
Rooter: Daniel Allar
Woman in Woods: Penelope Milford
Running time -- 85 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/19/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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