MovieChat Forums > Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1991) Discussion > Henry's motives toward Beccy

Henry's motives toward Beccy

posted 2 years ago by Lucia2016 (647)
5 replies | jump to latest

Why do you think he killed her at the end, i have seen this 3 times now over 20 years and my thoughts changed on each watch.

When i first saw it i thought he was a conflicted character who wanted to be good but couldn't help it and reluctantly killed her.

The second time i saw more his sinister side and how he was a compulsive liar and so it was inevitable.

This third time it's a bit vague again as he does seem to care for her somewhat but there are a couple of things i noticed that i think may have seeled her fate.

First is perhaps when she took him to her bedroom and he was clearly uncomfortable this might also have caused him too view her as a 'whore' and he lost that respect for her.

If not that then i think it was purely a practical decision, he demonstrates throughout a very shrewd knowledge of how to avoid being caught and he had his principles he stuck to. Killing Ottis put him in a bad spot because once the parole board came sniffing and ppl knew he was missing it wouldn't have been smart if the person he was last seen with was now shacked up with his sister.

So i think he weighed it up and reluctantly killed her out of self preservation.

Any thoughts

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78562) 2 years ago

He was deleting a witness.
He had no empathy, no compassion, his motives didn’t even appear to be sexual. He committed murder in order to vent some scary inner rage that’s not really addressed in the narrative.

Henry is a scary bastard, I’d like to think he got gunned down by the State Police on a routine traffic stop but who knows..?

There are a lot of Henrys out there.

[–] Lucia2016 (647) 2 years ago

I do think his mother was probably a whore, whether he actually killed her or not is up for debate but i imagine that part is at least true. Seems to be a common theme with disturbed people. At least in Movies.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78562) 2 years ago

Yeah, some bad stuff happened to him as a kid, no doubt.

[–] Lucia2016 (647) 2 years ago

Back to Becky for a moment, if he was just deleting a witness which i think is most likely, then why take so long about it. He could have pounced as soon as they were on the road or in the motel. I'm thinking there must have been a little conflict even by his standards

[–] quadrusl (48) 15 days ago

I had the impression that Becky would have been loyal to him. It seemed he got annoyed by her and didn't want company. Easier to kill her than break up with her.