Trick & Treat for October 17th:

HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1989; directed by John McNaughton)

Two, big nutty blobs which, when unwrapped, could be very bad for your health. No, we’re not describing a relatively harmless Oh Henry! bar. We’re talking about two fellows named Henry and Otis, the principal characters in this horrifying tale. If you want a glimpse of the dark, disturbing underbelly of humanity, then you can’t do too much worse than this (although there are actually worse). We stress that, unless you know your audience’s limits, that you consider checking the movie out on your own first, prior to inviting friends, family and the neighborhood clergyman over. The story: Ne’er-do-well buddies Henry and Otis are a lot like most people: they want to capture the times of their lives for posterity. Except that their ideas of Kodak moments aren’t kittens and carnivals. Henry and Otis are cold-blooded, brutal and sadistic murderers of innocent people. Murderers who record their crimes on videotape. The movie’s documentary-like and matter-of-fact style makes it all the more unsettling. HENRY will make your blood run cold. But unlike your garden variety slasher, vampire and demons-on-the-loose pictures, it may very well leave you completely unnerved, rather than laughing nervously. 

Who wants to wait until the 31st to wallow in Halloween indulgences and scary movies?! Home Projectionist doesn’t! And so we’ll have pairings of 31 Frights and 31 Bites every one of October’s 31 nights: a scary, snack size movie “trick”, and a delicious “treat” to go along with it.