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The 1986 cult classic about a serial killer loosely based on Henry Lee Lucas comes to Blu-ray.

He seems like a regular guy, but Henry has a secret: he likes to kill. He likes random kills, people who won’t be missed. He is a part of a gritty underworld, of poverty, prostitutes and the homeless. He has no pattern, just an urge. It is an urge he does not hesitate to sate.

From the first moments of the film, watching Henry (Michael Rooker, Jumper) go about regular, every day business amidst shots of corpses, we know that this film will be a stark look at death. What we don’t know is that it will also be a tale of companionship - of like minded men finding each other’s company thrilling and eventful - and of dark humor. But first, the companion: Otis (Tom Towles, Grindhouse) is an old prison buddy of Henry’s who gives him a place to crash. Things move in a different direction when Otis’s sister, Becky (Tracy Arnold), comes to stay as well. Becky has just left her husband, and is immediately taken with the blond and brooding Henry. They have a few things in common; a hatred for their parents, a past of abuse. But while Becky takes this past and merely has a screwed up life, Henry becomes something else: without remorse.

Henry and Otis, though, are the main coupling of this flick. They pick up prostitutes, and Henry kills them. Otis has a bad day at work, and Henry takes him out for a night of spree killing. While the relationship with Becky is a cautious circling, it is the bond of empty killing with Otis that makes the film dark, and a little unnerving.

It has it’s share of humor, as black and strange as it is. The scene where Henry and Otis kill the fence (Ray Atherton) is so over the top that one can’t help but laugh. The strange, almost child-like conversations between Otis and Henry (discussing murder casually over French fries, for example) shows just how separated from reality the two are, and for some reason, it is funny.

Probably the biggest and most memorable scene in the film is the family murder - Henry and Otis acquire a video camera, and the two kill a mother in front of her infant son while recording it. The two watch the videotape in later scenes, reliving the kill, and according to some, likening what the audience is doing at that moment to approval for what the two men have done in the film. It is an interesting statement on the film’s part, and a curious condemnation of the audience the film relies upon for success.

Bonus features on the Blu-ray release are many; commentary with the director, John McNaughton, is present, as well as deleted scenes and outtakes with his commentary. There are theatrical trailers and still galleries, storyboards and interviews with McNaughton from 1998. Best, though, are the two featurettes: “Portrait: The Making of Henry” and “The Serial Killers: Henry Lee Lucas” which shows us a look at the man who inspired the film, and the many differences between him and his celluloid counterpart become clear. This latter featurette (over an hour long) is the thing fans of the film will most want to watch, to see if this Henry is close to the real one. The answer is no, he is not - and it is our good fortune.

This classic of horror cinema is well worth the watch, and for some, even to own. Henry proves a strange film, oddly funny and twisted.

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