Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas

While the infamous "Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer" is considered the definitive movie about Lucas, it does leave out a ton of facts and information. "Drifter" certainly helps to fill in the blanks, with it's disturbing account of young Henry Lee's childhood, and the mental and physical abuse inflicted upon him by his mother. Here we are shown Lucas in three different stages of his life, child, teenager, and full grown psycho killer. All three actors to portray him are very believable in their roles, and I must say this is Antonio Sabato's film, and his depiction of Henry Lee Lucas is cold and charismatic at the same time; unfortunately in this case, Sabato's good looks are something that needs to be overcome in order for him to come across as believable. Watching the film from start to finish, I found myself looking for any flaws or weaknesses that would cause the pathetically low rating for the movie on this site. I found none. The murky cinematography perfectly captures the mood as well as the time that the story is supposed to take place in, and the script, although leaving many of the murders out due to time and budget limitations, (Lucas murdered over 100 people) never loses focus. This is a lean and mean production that ditches big budget Hollywood sheen for a low key, factual approach. I can only assume the low rating was given because of Sabato's extreme good looks, as most negative reviews mention that and consider it a problem. Those interested in one of America's most notorious mass murderers should ignore those silly criticisms and give this a watch.

Not a perfect movie by any means...but well worth a look if you have even a passing interest in the murderous exploits of Henry Lee Lucas.

In response to Ted's 'review'...if it could be called that, please don't identify yourself as Australian again. I too am Australian and your childish observations give us all a bad name. And claiming that your location means you couldn't possibly have heard of Henry Lee Lucas is embarrassing...you have a computer...have you ever tried to use it for researching something and perhaps adding to your limited knowledge of the world? Sure you may not have enjoyed the film you 'reviewed', but you base your opinions on the fact you felt the film was 'horrible'. How enlightening for us all! You should stick to films in your age bracket and leave the reviewing to us adults in future who actually have some knowledge of the medium and who are able to construct a sentence that is coherent.

Not only horror is my cup of tea but the story behind serial killers does interest me too. But being in the biz for over 15 years I'm mostly not into movies about serial killers. Oh yes, there are some great ones, The Deliberate Stranger (Mark Harmon playing Ted Bundy) for example, still OOP and the other OOP To Catch A Killer (Brian Dennehy playing John Wayne Gacy), and of course Henry:Portrait Of A Serial Killer concerning Henry Lee Lucas (played by Michael Rooker). The movie I just saw also told the story of Henry. But here it's boredom all the way. Were Portrait gives some nasty disturbing scene's (remember the television) this flick just is about, did he kill 3000 persons or not. We see some killings but the blood never flows. We see stabbings in the back, in the neck but the victims never bled. The best part is when Henry and his friend Otis picks up a hitchhiker. What happens next isn't disturbing but is really the best part. The only fact I could agree with is the truth about Henry having an affair with his niece Betty. He did kill his mother but not as stated in this flick. It's sad to see that a flick about two weirdo's doesn't deliver fear.

Antonio Sabato was so bad in this movie. I used to think he was a good actor. I read the book about Henry Lee Lucas in the 80s. As always, the book is always better than the movie. However, the movie from the 80s "Henry Lee Lucas, Portrait of a Serial Killer" was done real well. This one couldn't hold my interest. It was done so badly.

A man called Henry Lee Lucas is arrested for murder in Texas . As he's interrogated by the police department he confesses to another murder . Then another . Before very long Lucas has been confessing to an unprecedented number of murders

I'm not really an aficionado of serial killers / spree killers and so consulted wiki as to this true life mass murderer . Henry Lee Lucas isn't going to win any humanitarian awards . He eventually confessed to 60 murders while in police custody . When he went to court he said he committed 100 murders then before long he was confessing to 3000 murders .. He was found guilty of the murder of an unidentified woman in Texas woman and sentenced to death but this was commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds that he was almost certainly in Florida at the time of this murder

" Hold on Theo . If he was in Florida that almost certainly means that he didn't commit the murder so why did the court do something resembling a strange compromise where's imprisoned instead of being executed ? Surely he's innocent or guilty and no compromise involving punishment is required ? "

Yeah that's what I don't understand either and things don't make a lot of sense . There's a massive difference between 3,000 murders and 1 murder . Most importantly from a legal point of view there's a massive difference between 3,000 murders and zero murders . If you don't kill anyone then no crime has been committed therefore the state has no right to imprison anyone . Lucas continually kept changing figures as to the numbers he supposedly murdered and that leads to a limited number of possible scenarios

1 ) He was guilty of at least one or more murders and seeing the resultant publicity decided to up the numbers to gain even more infamy . The good a man does while he is alive dies after him but the evil he does live long after him

2 ) The police deciding he's guilty of one or more murder decide to stitch him up for a few unsolved cold cases and Lucas went along with it and it kind of snowballed from there

3 ) Lucas was entirely deluded and committed no murders at all but the cops thought he was guilty of at least something so decided to stitch him up

What is certain is Lucas was found guilty of killing his mother and served ten years for her killing . Apart from that the film is unsure as to how it should play its hand . Lucas doesn't come across as the most pleasant or intelligent of men . He is from a background of to use a derogatory term " trailer trash " but this doesn't necessarily make him a murderer of one individual or many and the film does seem to be a bit to willingly say he was a serial killer without going in to any specifics as to the amount of people he murdered . It feels the need to be a a compromise . I'm not saying Lucas was in any way innocent of murder but you're painfully aware that the film isn't trying to make out what the truth may be and stick to its opinion of that possible truth and for what might have been a very impressive well made indie film featuring an outsider from society ends up sinking to a degree