John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer should have been a standalone film. It was a nasty and effective look into the life of a killer that depicted the subject like no other film before or since. That being said, it is almost inevitable these days that every movie with even a minor bit of success is exploited and is either sequelized or remade. In the case of Henry, I remember thinking that this was a joke when it was first announced as I could not understand how they could possibly continue the story and even more so, why they would want to. A quick look at the credits and we can see that although much of the creative team behind the original Henry is missing, the producers managed to retain the art director, costume designer, and composer of the original. This went a long way to keeping some of the grit of the original intact.

Neil Giuntoli (The Borrower) takes over for Michael Rooker in the lead role and exhibits the same kind of restrained madness that Rooker perfected in the first film. This was one of my main concerns as I thought this was going to become another MTV-style slasher movie starring Henry but the calm tone of the film ensured that this was not the case. Thankfully, director Chuck Parello chose to make a movie that kept the mood of the original and did not opt for scantily clad teenagers running from a killer at summer camp. It would have been completely inappropriate and thankfully he seemed to understand this. While this is a good thing, the film also took its time and had a plot outline that mirrored the original but with different characters and different murder sequences. I enjoyed the slow pacing but I wished that there were at least a few surprises as anyone who is familiar with McNaughton's version would know what was coming as far as the general idea of the story went.

Taking the character of a murderer and transplanting him in a different town was a good way to handle this sequel. We see that Henry is a creature of habit and that he cannot help himself in his problem with killing. We can also see that he longs to have people around (a killing buddy) and that he does display feelings for people even if in the most subtle of ways. Although much of the plot is very similar to McNaughton's film, one major difference was in the handling of Henry's partner in crime. In this film, he is named Kai (Rich Komenich) who is unlike Otis in that he is not a complete moron and he also has his own previous antisocial tendencies in that he is an arsonist. I found the relationship between these two to be quite interesting as Henry was teaching Kai to kill as Kai was teaching Henry to burn. While critics may say that Kai was simply an Otis replacement, I found that there was quite a bit more to the relationship between Henry and Kai than that of Henry and Otis.

Director Chuck Parello began a spree of his own with this film as he has since directed a few other movies based on killers Ed Gein and The Hillside Strangler. I thought that Henry 2 was the best of the three because, like the original, it was terrifying in the fact that it was so quiet. Serial killer movies can be difficult in that they always contain a despicable lead character. Getting audiences to go on a journey with the character and want to stay involved is a difficult task and although Parello has created some entertaining films, he should take a lesson from himself and look again at the performances he got out of the principals in this film. The acting and direction are what made this film and its predecessor so great and the strength of the performances in this sequel was the main thing that elevated it from becoming another cinematic embarrassment like so many others that try to expand on a great idea only to fail miserably.

Interestingly enough, Giuntoli was in The Borrower directed by John McNaughton. The McNaughton connection doesn't end there as it turns out that Parello was actually a publicist at MPI when the first Henry was released and he was instrumental in getting it out there and seen. I am assuming that this close connection to the source material is part of the reason he was careful in maintaining the integrity of the character in his handling of the sequel. Fans of television's "Grey's Anatomy" wil recognize Kate Walsh who plays Kai's wife Cricket. (Josh Pasnak, 1/7/07)

Directed By: Chuck Parello.
Written By: Chuck Parello.

Starring: Neil Giuntoli, Rich Komenich, Kate Walsh, Carri Levinson.