Henry 2: Portrait of a Serial Killer Review (1996) Worth Watching?

It's about a group of small town criminals that Henry gets mixed up with.

Henry 2: Portrait of a Serial Killer was directed by Chuck Parello (who also directed Ed Gein) and stars Neil Giuntoli (from The Borrower), Kate Walsh (from Legion) and Penelope Milford (from Blood Link).

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 2 picks up where the last one left off, with Henry (this time played by a different guy) wandering into a new town. He stays in a vile homeless shelter while looking for work, later finds a job cleaning porta potties and moves in with his new co-worker. If this were the first Henry this would be when the killing would have started. But this is Henry 2 and so far it's a very different movie.

Aside from a few victim stills in the first scene there's nothing that shows Henry has any interest in killing, or any need for any kind of outlet for that matter. And his new co-worker isn't a killer either. The dude sets fires for insurance money. That is until him and Henry come across a couple of guys squatting in a building they're prepping to burn down. They kill them to keep them quiet which opens the killin' floodgates.

The first Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer felt more like a documentary than a horror movie. It was like a look inside the mind of a serial killer. Henry 2 deviates from this style and is more of a regular movie. It has a full plot, deeper (but not deep) character development, suspense and even a little sprinkling of drama. It holds onto a few small details to connect it to the first movie, but this Henry overall doesn't feel like the first whatsoever. It's just a movie about a trashy small town arsonist who gets mixed up with a serial killing drifter.

Worth Watching?

Nopes. There's a reason Henry 2 went unnoticed. It's not great. It's slow and feels tame. There's some tragic characters just like in the first Henry, but they're just not convincing. I really wanted to like Henry 2.

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