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Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, a review by Jimmy

Title : Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

Overview
Michael Rooker is unforgettable as Henry, a soft-spoken loner with a cool exterior masking an inner rage that boils at blast furnace intensity.

When fellow ex-con Otis invites Henry to move into his Chicago apartment, he becomes a willing participant in Henry's senseless, random killing sprees. Meanwhile, Otis' unsuspecting sister, Becky (Tracy Arnold) is smitten with Henry, whose broken childhood mirrors her own.

Masterfully directed by John McNaughton, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER is a chilling character study of a mass murderer that continues to shock and disturb twenty years after its debut.

My Impression
Now I'm happy that my favorite horror movie was selected for this marathon. I know that some will disagree that this film is an horror movie, but for me it's the most frightening film I've ever seen (as you know I'm only frighten by the movie that could happen in real life). This movie is an evidence that it's possible to make a great film without a budget (100,000 $ for it). The acting is great and really convincing, seriously this is the best work of Michael Rooker and Tom Towles is the perfect choice to play Otis Toole. The movie doesn't always show the violent murder, but the result and this is scary to see only the dead victim and an echo of the murder action. Of course some murder are shown and the familly murder is the scarier thing I've ever seen on screen (I'm certain that the people who had seen the film understand) it's so realistically filmed and possible with all the crazy people living outside. The way Michael Rooker play Henry you had no choice to think that these kind of psychopat live a perfectly anonymous and normal life in reality.

Really nothing negative to say about this film (even the music score is frightening). They had changed some little fact about the real story by exemple the real Becky was the 12 years old niece of Otis, but I'm not sure that it's a bad thing since at one point enough is enough.

Rating :

(From Jimmy's 2009 Horror Marathon on October 22nd, 2009)

The Beatles: Get Back, a review by Antares

The Beatles: Get Back (2021) 60/100"White Album", amply illustrates what the world lost when the four went their separate ways after Abbey Road. The real beneficiary of the breakup was George, who was always my favorite Beatle, as he went into the studio and recorded , the album that released Harrison from the chains of bondage that the Lennon-McCartney partnership had forged. Neither John Lennon, nor Paul McCartney ever released an album post-breakup that reached anywhere near the strata of this seminal work from the "get back Jojo...Go home!". There's a moment early in the first episode where Lennon hasn't arrived at Twickenham and Paul is just piddling around on his bass and you see the framework for the song being hatched in Paul's brain. Throughout the first and second episodes, you see Lennon & McCartney adding new lines to the song. There's no malevolence towards Ono in this part of their creative process for the song. The things Lennon conjured up in his head for that interview never happened and probably was due to his discouragement at how his career was turning at that point. I've never blamed Ono for breaking up the Beatles. I think the Lennon we all saw in the mid to late seventies was her doing, but not when he was still in the band. In fact, I've seen other video of Linda Eastman adding her two cents in where it wasn't probably needed. She could be seen as "Yoko"ing Paul with her opinions too. The Beatles broke up because George was tired of only getting his allotted two songs on an album. There's another moment in the documentary where he bemoans the fact to John that he has enough songs to fulfill his part of the next 10 Beatles albums. You can sense his frustration at this fact and the result would be "All Things Must Pass". And he's right, the first two albums in that three album release are all quality songs that would have made his statement prophetic.

(From The Beatles: Get Back (2021) on December 28th, 2021)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Marathon , a review by Critter

1.09
The Puppet Show

Plot: After Principal Flutie's death, the new sheriff in Sunnydale High, Principal Snyder, forces Buffy and her friends to participate in the school talent show. When a girl's heart is harvested, Buffy suspects a fellow student and his strangely talkative dummy.

My Thoughts: This episode plays off a fear that many people have, one which is almost as prominent as that of 'clowns' and that is of dummies. Dolls and dummies coming to life is something that creeps many people out so I love the twist they put on it in this episode, especially towards the end. I also love the addition of Principal Snyder in this episode, he comes off as a bit creepy but even quite unintentionally humerous on a few occaisions and is a great replacment for Flutey. I also love that this episode expanded into the closing credits with that hilarious scene from the talent show.

Rating: 3/5

(From Buffy The Vampire Slayer Marathon on May 24th, 2010)