Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), directed by John McNaughton, 30th Anniversary Edition MPI 4k remaster, encoded in 10 bit HEVC with AAC sound, including 5.1 remaster, original theatrical stereo, commentary track, and English subtitles.

IMDb : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099763/

Video encoded in two-pass 9 600 kbps x265 10bit with the veryslow preset for archive quality image.

English and English SDH subtitles OCRed, proofed and corrected.

Note : If you haven't seen this ultra-indie serial killer film before, this 4k remaster is an excellent opportunity to remedy that. Michael Rooker's amazing performance alone is worth the price of admission, but be warned, this is the definition of a feel bad movie: It's about sad, broken people moving through gritty, dirty environments doing unspeakable violence to each other, no one is particularly likable, and the ending doesn't really resolve much, it just implies the cycle will continue, and you will probably feel like you need a shower. Still, it's a classic for a reason, just don't expect to be in a good mood after. It's very loosely based on the exploits of real-life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole, although their many confessions have now been put into serious doubt (see the Netflix documentary The Confession Killer for an overview).

This 4k remaster looks quite good, although the harsh negative grain could have been managed a bit better, and I personally would like to have seen slightly less crushed blacks. Still, it's representative of the cinematography, which is about as stripped down and bare as the rest of the film, though it's not without its moments. The director's commentary track is information-packed and interesting too, with the usual ruminations on the problems of indie filmmaking.

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