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Overall Rating : 2.5/10
Directed By : Michael Feifer
Antonio Sabato Jr. (Melrose Place (TV) )
John Diehl (Fire Down Below)
Kostas Sommer (Boston Strangler: The Untold Story)
Kelly Curran
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : August. 4, 2009
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| PLOT Considered to be one of America's most notorious serial killers, Henry Lee Lucas admitted to committing over 350 murders with partner and fellow serial killer Ottis Toole while drifting through multiple states in the American South from 1975 until his arrest in 1983. |
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| THE REVIEW DRIFTER : HENRY LEE LUCAS tells the story of one of America's most well known serial killers who confessed to committing over 300 murders between 1975 and 1983(some with accomplice Ottis Toole) The film chronicles his life beginning with a trouble childhood in which his mother beat him on a regular basis and also forced him to watch her many sexual flings with various men. This upbringing would later see Henry Lee Lucas grow into a life of crime and murder. During his prison tenure Lucas was known to make confessions only to fully recant them later - which begs the question was Henry Lee Lee Lucas a prolific killer or instead, a prolific liar? After chronicling the life's of serial killers like Ed Gein, Dennis Rader(aka BTK) and most recently, Ted Bundy, Director Michael Feifer is back again with yet another serial Killer basked flick, this time the subject being Henry Lee Lucas. Henry Lee Lucas is a man who grew up in Virginia spending most of his young childhood as his mother Viola's punching bag, both verbally and psychically. He would grow up absorbing the abuse and later it would turn him into a cold blooded killer of what he confessed to being hundreds, one of those murders happened to be his mother which occurred after a heated argument. After his killed his mother Henry spent most of his time as a drifter taking small time jobs until he met Ottis Toole and his 12 year old niece Becky. During this time Toole and Lucas became the best of accomplices and Henry and Becky, lovers. Together, Lucas and Toole killed a number of people all through the south until one argument about Becky becoming homesick resulted in Henry killing her as well. Becky was just one of two victims Henry was convicted for, but later he made countless confessions at the pressuring of officials.....but he later recanted many of them. The thing about Henry Lee Lucas is that although we are almost certain that he was responsible for at least some of the murders he confessed to committing, we are unsure of just how many and what is true. Lucas seemed to agree with what prosecutors asked of him each time, those making ,many, many confessions through out his lifetime, but later he would back-track and deny everything. So with that said, any film, book or any other type on media based on Lucas is likely never to be 100% true, but Feifer and screenwriting partner Wood Dickinson, do their best to tell the story. Like the previous Bundy flick Feifer tells the story through various flashbacks from different periods of Lucas' life. I found these flashbacks to be a little uneven, jumping from on period to another without any real transitions, almost as is Lucas himself wrote the script since he never seemed to know what was true and what wasn't about his own life. The story plays out like a made for TV drama, chronicling just the basics and not really exploring any of the possible crimes Lucas and Toole could have committed(after all Lucas confessed to killing over a hundred women). We see glimpses of Henry's dysfunctional childhood with a mother who was an abusive prostitute who once put Henry in a coma after a beating and also the fight with his brother which left Hebry injured resulting in the loss of an eye(he was fitted with a glass eye afterward. Then to teen years where Henry says he killed his first victim his "girlfriend" who rejected him. Most of the film focus on Antoni Sabbato Jr's adult portrayal of Henry, but the truth is that the best parts of this film come by way of the childhood scenes in which Henry is being portrayed by young Ezra Averill. In my opinion just as was the case of Kane Hodder as Ed Gein in Feifer's ED GEIN ; BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD, Sabbato Jr. just does not feel right for this part, nor does his counterpart Costas Sommer as Ottia Toole. When I think of these two, I get the picture of two sleazy Southerners with bad grammar and all - instead, we have two "GQ-esque" guys who are trying their hardest to look the part and nail the dialect. As someone who thought Corin Nemec was ok as Ted Bundy, in my opinion Sabbato Jr. and Sommer are far worse. Being from Texas, I found this movie boring and rather difficult to invest interest in. The movie setting and characters in the film are southern yet nothing about it feels even the least bit authentic to me. I watched a video in which Antonio Sabbato Jr. states that for this movie he researched the case and practiced the accent extensively, but by his showing here I could easily think otherwise. This is yet another film that is like a cliff notes version of a true crime case, as it has no real depth, only slightly touching on facts in less detailed way. Instead of feeling factual, while watching this I got the feeling that most of this was based on a bunch of guesses, it should not, like any of Feifer's other serial killer films, be used as a tool for learning about the case. In the end I have to say that I didn't enjoy this film very much at all as I knew prior to seeing it. Like with many of these serial killer flicks, the Henry Lee Lucas has been done before on film and has been executed much more effectively - please see John McNaughton's far superior, HENRY : PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER instead. |
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| GORE
METER 2.5/10 Surprisingly tame on the gore, a slit throat, a couple of stabbings and some blood. |
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MUSICAL
SCORE 2/10 Some pseudo country-rock music and some light scoring. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM I'll agree that Henry Lee Lucas, like any other serial killer is interesting and it's interesting to learn about these people, but if you are looking to learn about Lucas in any form, this wouldn't be the greatest place to start. While we should never glorify a killer such as Lucas, I say at least portray them realistically. With this film I just never got that vibe and in sense the off-point acting almost pushed this one into dark comedy territory. This DVD will be released September 1, 2009 |
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| STILLS | ||||
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