[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Henryportrait_1879.jpg]]

''HenryPortraitOfASerialKiller'' is a controversial 1986 film [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin that follows the exploits of a serial killer named Henry]].

The film starts out with a girl named Becky, who just got out of a tough relationship with her convict husband and heads to Chicago to make some money for herself and her daughter. She's staying with her brother Otis who has taken in Henry as a house guest. Becky and Henry share troubled pasts, which gives them a somewhat romantic connection while Henry and Otis begin a bond based on their shared desires for random violence and go on a killing spree.

The film is notable for two major reasons; 1) launching the career of the then-unknown actor [[TheWalkingDead Michael Rooker]] and 2) its extreme violence and rape scenes that caused a huge amount controversy with the MPAA and lead to several different edits of the film in the UK as well as on home video.

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!!This film provides examples of:

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Just for starters, the real Henry Lee Lucas had a glass eye.
* BlackComedy: [[WordofGod Director John McNaughton]], on the 20th Anniversary DVD release, says he finds the conversations that Henry and Otis have when they're not committing murders to be this, a sort of very dark comedy duo.
* DeconstructorFleet: Of serial killer and slasher films that have us root for the villain and may sometimes even give them a sympathetic motive. Here we're given the SerialKiller character in its rawest form and the result is more sickening than entertaining.
* DepravedBisexual: Otis.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Henry becomes quite offended by the idea of necrophilia.
** Debatable. It's probably more a case of not wanting to leave behind forensic evidence than any actual moral objection.
*** However, Henry does not take kindly to the concept of incest at all.
* ExecutiveMeddling: The film was made in 1986. It was ''released'' in 1990.
* InUniverseCamera: Whenever Otis and Henry film their murders.
* KillEmAll
* MoodWhiplash: [[WordOfGod McNaughton]] said this was exactly what he was going for when he went from the murder of the TV shop owner in one scene (which was supposed to be funny and make us root for Henry and Otis), to Henry and Otis videotaping the murder of an entire family the next.
* SerialKiller: Henry and Otis.
* TheSociopath: If being a serial killer wasn't enough of a clue, Henry's indifferent response when Becky tells him that she loves him is further evidence. The ending pretty much confirms this.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Henry Lee Lucas was a real serial killer who confessed to killing over 600 people... but was only convicted for 11 killings. The film is more or less based on Lee's claims than his actual crimes.
** It actually caused a huge scandal as police fed Lucas with details from various crimes, in many cases to clear unsolved murders: thus meaning the real killers were not pursued. Lucas himself got distinction as being the only death row prisoner ''spared'' by (at that time) Governor George W. Bush of Texas. He died in prison from cancer, and Otis Tate also expired of natural causes while incarcerated.
** The girl Becky was based on was actually twelve years old.
* VillainProtagonist: Henry
* VillainousIncest: Poor Becky; first her father and [[spoiler: later her brother]].
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