Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Abstract

The bodies of mostly young women are found in homes and alongside roads. A man and woman are shot to death in their store. In Chicago, Illinois, Henry sees a woman in a mall parking lot and follows her to a suburban home, but drives away when a man comes out of the house. He picks up a female hitchhiker carrying a guitar case. Meanwhile, at the airport, Otis picks up his sister, Becky, who has abandoned her abusive husband and left her daughter in her mother’s care. Becky tells Otis she plans to work as a waitress or beautician in Chicago, but does not want to go back to stripteasing. When Henry arrives home carrying a guitar case, Otis, his roommate, introduces him to Becky. Henry graciously offers Becky the spare bedroom. Henry has a job at a pest exterminating company, but because of sporadic work his boss cannot pay him full time. He gives Henry a red canister of insect spray and puts him on retainer. Henry returns to the suburban housewife he followed earlier and, with the canister strapped on his shoulder, talks his way into her home. He strangles her to death. Otis works at a gas station, where a high school student stops by to pay him in advance for drugs. When Otis returns home, Becky asks how he met Henry. Otis tells her they met in prison, where Henry was serving time for killing his mother and her lover with a baseball bat. Henry comes home and eats the fish supper Becky has prepared. When Otis leaves to take care of business, Becky plays cards with Henry. Discussing their families, both reveal a hatred for their fathers. Becky’s father was violent and raped her. When she asks if he really killed his mother, Henry declares that he stabbed her to death because she made him wear a dress and watch her have sex with other men. Henry claims he killed her on his fourteenth birthday, but when he adds that he “shot her dead,” Becky reminds him that he first admitted stabbing her. “Oh yeah, I stabbed her,” Henry agrees. Becky gets a job as a shampoo girl at a beauty parlor. Later, at home, she becomes defensive when Otis jokes about her being a stripper. Becky tells Henry that she wore a costume and never danced nude. When Otis playfully grabs his sister and kisses her, Henry jerks Otis away from Becky and makes him apologize. Though angry at Henry, Otis agrees to go out and have a beer with him, so Becky can clean the apartment. Henry and Otis pick up a couple of prostitutes and park in an alley, with Henry in the back seat and Otis is front. Henry kills his partner, and when the woman with Otis screams, Henry breaks her neck. As Henry drives, Otis worries about being caught, but Henry assures him nothing will happen. Back home, Henry cannot believe these are the first murders Otis has seen, and hints that Otis has joined him in a brotherhood, whether he likes it or not. Fearful for his own life, Otis agrees. Henry puts an assuring arm around Otis and gets him a can of beer. Later, when Otis kicks in the screen of their old television, Henry takes him “shopping.” They go to a man who sells stolen items, but the “fence” is abusive toward them, so they kill him by smashing a television over his head, plugging it in, and electrocuting him. Along with a new television, Henry and Otis steal a video camera. Back at the apartment, they make home movies with Becky. The next day, Otis visits his parole officer, but after a couple of questions, the officer cuts the interview short because his son has a dental appointment. Otis drives to a high school to deliver drugs to the student who paid him earlier, but when Otis caresses the young man’s thigh, he gets punched in the face. The teenager runs away, leaving Otis cursing. When Otis tells Henry he wants to murder the kid, Henry explains that killing him would land Otis back in prison because people have seen them together. To avoid being caught, find victims that nobody can connect to you. Henry invites Otis to take a ride. Prowling the night streets in Henry’s car, he shows Otis his pistol. In an underpass, Henry stops the car, raises his hood, and flags down a young motorist. When the man steps out of his car, Henry tells Otis to shoot him. Otis fires three shots and kills the motorist. Driving away, Henry instructs Otis how to be a successful killer. He explains that you never kill people just one way, because police will establish a “modus operandi” and connect the killings. Never use the same gun twice, and always keep moving. Henry invites Otis to travel with him, with periodic stops back in Chicago when Otis is scheduled to meet with his parole officer. They drive to a house, bind a young married couple, and videotape the carnage. While Otis molests the mother, her young son enters, and before he can run, Henry breaks his neck. They kill the parents and return to their apartment to watch the home invasion on television. Otis plays the tape in slow motion. Meanwhile, at the beauty parlor, Becky telephones her mother to ask how her daughter is doing. She hopes to return home soon. Henry and Otis drive, looking for victims. Otis videotapes women, but as he leans out the window, something hits and breaks the camera. Disgusted, Otis throws the camera out the window. He wants to stop for a beer, so Henry drops him off and drives home. There, Becky tells Henry she has quit her job and plans to return home to her daughter tomorrow because Chicago is “too busy.” She invites Henry to accompany her, and says it is safe because her husband has been jailed for murder. Henry takes Becky out to dinner on his “new credit card,” and when they return, Otis is passed out and the home invasion video is playing in slow motion on the television. Henry stops it and pockets the tape cartridge before Becky sees what is on the screen. Becky takes Henry into her room and begins to seduce him, but Henry is uneasy. Suddenly, Otis interrupts them, giving Henry an excuse to pull away from Becky and go out for cigarettes. Henry sees a woman with a dog, and begins to follow her, but changes his mind. Returning home, he finds Otis raping Becky. When Henry knocks him off her, Otis smashes him in the head with a beer bottle and attacks him with the jagged bottle neck. Becky grabs a metal beautician’s comb with a sharp end and jabs it into Otis’s eye. As Otis writhes in agony, Henry picks up the comb and stabs him to death. The hysterical Becky wants to telephone police, but Henry orders her to shut up. He dismembers Otis’s body in the bathtub, and Becky helps him load a suitcase and plastic bags into his trunk. They drive to a river and dump the remains. Henry calms Becky’s fears and tells her they will have to keep moving. He has a sister in California who has an extra room, and they can send for Becky’s daughter when they get there. Becky pledges her love to Henry, and he replies, “I guess I love you, too.” That night they stop at a motel, but Henry avoids her attempts at intimacy. In the morning, Henry wakes up and shaves with a strait razor. He drives away from the motel alone. Later, he stops along a highway, pulls a large suitcase from the trunk, and dumps it in a ditch.