The third of the Controversies series that I’m reviewing is, quality wise, somewhere between Stevie Simkin’s Straw Dogs (which increasingly feels like a high watermark for the series) and Peter Krämer’s A Clockwork Orange, with the story behind Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer being as compulsive and controversial as those earlier films, but the film itself being unique in the series so far, being a low budget, non-mainstream production.

Shaun Kimber does a good job of tracing the production of the film and its various battles to be seen, not only with censors but also producers MPI, who were shocked that the low budget horror movie they had financed turned out to be more of an art film than a splatter film, and shelved it for years, only releasing the film after it started to get a buzz from sneak screenings at film festivals.

Much of the censorship legend surrounding Henry comes from the way the film was treated in the UK (the MPAA gave it an X rating and frankly stated that no level of cuts could reduce that due to ‘the moral tone of the film’). The head of the BBFC, James Ferman, wanted to ban the film outright, but in a rare moment where his staff managed to convince him to shift his opinions, finally passed the film with significant cuts – and this was after original distributors Electric had removed a controversial opening shot to stop Ferman viewing the film as exploitation, this being a time when the censors could cheerfully apply double standards between ‘respectable’ and ‘unrespectable’ films. Ferman’s idiotic cuts and re-editing of the film, changing the whole context of a pivotal moment, are discussed in detail, as are the scene s themselves.

Kimber discusses all this at length, and keeps the narrative accessible. If there are fault to be pointed out, it would be the author’s insistence on relying on other people’s opinion rather than stating his own, and an obsessive fascination with various DVD editions, where far too much is read into the increasingly commercial releases.

Faults aside, this is interesting stuff, and well timed given the new blu-ray edition of the film. For anyone interested in low budget indie film production, and the history of film censorship, it’s a fascinating read.

DAVID FLINT

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