Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 2 - Mask of Sanity

That price tag isn't a joke. I really paid $3 for this stupid movie.

1998

Written and directed by Chuck Parello

Starring: Neil Giuntoli as Henry, Rich Komenich (hey, that rhymes!) as Kai, Kate Walsh (hey, she's hot!) as Cricket, and Carri Levinson (hey, she's not!) as Louisa.

J-Rock's Review: Better than the first one, but still pretty awful. Bonus: Part 2 has boobs!!

Ah, what a pleasure it is to reunite with someone you haven't seen in a while. Unless that person is a sociopathic drifter who was very loosely based on an actual serial killer (at least in the first movie).

I saw the first Henry: POASK back in college, so when I saw Part 2 for sale at a soon-to-be-demolished video store on the west side of Stamford, I figured I could part with $2.95 to see some blood and guts and have a few laughs.

Let's just say I'd better hurry if I want to beat the wrecking ball and get a refund.

OK, maybe I'm being a little overcritical of Henry Part 2...it actually wasn't that horrible. I'm not saying it was great by any stretch, but it was fairly well-made and had some decent killing. And it had BOOBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our story once again centers around Henry (duh), a lonely, angry, smelly, dirty, bitter psychopath. It's been 12 years since the last movie, so let's just assume it's been 12 years since Henry killed anyone. My guess is that in the intervening years, Henry finished his MBA and went to work for Goldman Sachs, where he made a killing on wireless IPOs and landed a huge commission in '97. He bought a brownstone on the Upper East Side, met a nice corporate attorney, and thought he'd settle down. Then the dot-com bubble burst, and Henry lost everything.

A wanderer once again, Henry ended up in Some Town, where he befriended Kai. Kai lives with his girlfriend (wife?) Cricket, who's a lot hotter than her name would imply, and Louisa, who's actually pretty hot, but because she wears glasses and knows how to read, we're supposed to think she's ugly. I think Louisa is Kai's niece, but I don't really want to watch the movie again to find out. If you really need to know, then you need to get a life.

Kai gets Henry a job--get this--delivering porta-potties to construction sites. I guess this doesn't sit well with the old Hankster; after all, the idea of a man with a college education dragging plastic shitters around is just undignified [Ed. note: the real Henry Lee Lucas never made it past the fifth grade]. Predictably, he starts killing people again. The only one I really remember is a fat guy who slipped something into Henry's beer at a party with Kai and the gang. Henry comes back and strangles the guy. Yippee.

One interesting sub-plot to this movie is Louisa's inexplicable love for Henry. Not only does he continually rebuff her advances, but HE'S A FUCKING SERIAL KILLER. Even if she didn't actually know his past, it's pretty obvious that the guy's not right, even downright anti-social. They actually briefly make Henry a sympathetic character in this flick - when he starts to feel pity and/or remorse and goes to leave, Louisa threatens to blow her brains out. Henry stays, but then later on, they all come home to find Louisa with a revolver to her head. They try to reason with her (even Henry), but she pulls the trigger and saves us all from more whining. Yippee.
Did I mention the boobies in this movie? Yessiree, Cricket shows them (through an extremely thin white t-shirt) while she's getting it on with Kai. You may recognize Cricket from The Drew Carey Show, where she played Drew's fat girlfriend, and also from Kicking and Screaming, Will Ferrell's youth soccer masterpiece. Fortunately for her, not too many people have seen this movie, or else she wouldn't be getting gigs like The Drew Carey Show.


Anyway, Henry Part 2 isn't the worst movie you could rent, but there are a lot of better ones. Sweet Home Alabama isn't one of them.

More info from IMDb: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Part 2 - Mask of Sanity