HENRY, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER Midnights This Weekend at The Moolah

“If you shoot someone in the head with a .45 every time you kill somebody, it becomes like your fingerprint, see? But if you strangle one, stab another, and one you cut up, and one you don’t, then the police don’t know what to do. They think you’re four different people. What they really want, what makes their job so much easier, is pattern. What they call a modus operandi. That’s Latin.”

HENRY, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER screens Midnights this weekend (November 18^th and 19th) at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63108) as part of  Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series.

Read my interview with Michel Rooker, star of HENRY, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER HERE

John McNaughton’s 1988 masterpiece HENRY, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER is a work of genius provided you can make it all the way through. The film is based on Henry Lee Lucas, who died in prison in 2001, hence the name. Lucas was arrested in 1983 in Texas and, on the basis of his confessions, hundreds of unsolved murders over the previous decade attributed to him were officially classified as cleared.

The Henry of the movie, as played by the brooding Michael Rooker, basically is a wandering loner who falls in with his dim-witted buddy Otis (Tom Towles) and Otis’ sister Becky (Tracy Arnold) in Chicago. Henry and Otis kill people. For no reason, really. Like the real Lucas, Henry did it just to have something to do. And also like Lucas, did it in so many ways that the cops couldn’t pinpoint him.

HENRY, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER paints one ugly portrait of Henry and Otis. In films like HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13th we have serial killers at hand, but in an unreal world with indestructible villains (or heroes if you ask the Late Night Grindhouse crowd). But Henry is real, and the killings are all too authentic, which is why the film is unsettling as hell. Sure you can sleep through the night knowing some guy who wears a hockey mask isn’t going to come in with a lawn trimmer and splatter your face into a few dozen pieces. HENRY doesn’t provide that luxury. He snaps your neck, he stabs you to death, he shoots you, or he mutilates you and sticks you in a suitcase and tosses you on the side of the road.

HENRY is a fascinating character study, more psychologically damaging than gory, and well-performed by a cast that brings the lowliest section of humanity to life. That being said, brace yourself for a relentlessly nihilistic experience. One day it could be you found in that ditch, and it won’t be pretty, will it? Don’t miss HENRY, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER midnights this weekend at The Moolah.

TICKETS ARE $7 AND YOU CAN BUY THEM ONLINE VIA MOOLAH’S WEBSITE.

THE PSYCHOTRONIC PRE-SHOW STARTS AROUND 11:30P WITH THE FILM STARTING AT MIDNIGHT.

A Facebook invite for Friday’s show can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/2140526502838331/

A Facebook invite for Saturday’s show can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/100662183743670/

The Moolah Theatre & Lounge serves alcohol until 2:30AM! Feel free to show up early and stay late to have some drinks and get friendly with the amazing Moolah staff.