After laying on a shelf for a few years, Henry was finally released late in 1989 to lots of acclaim and controversy. After it was rated "X" by the MPAA, its producer (MPI Home Video) decided to sue the organization, then released the film unrated.

Henry is one of the most disturbing films ever made, a violent, distressing, documentary-like account of the life of a Chicago killer who kills impulsively. His friend Otis is an ex-con who eventually joins Henry on a murderous path. And Henry also "befriends" Becky, the con's sister, an abused woman who shares an apartment with her brother.

As played by Michael Rooker (Sea of Love, Days of Thunder), Henry is a cool, cruel psycho who gets a rush when he snaps his victims' neck. His grisly pal, played by Tom Towles, is a lunatic of the ranting and raving variety. But both monsters -- I won't say "men" -- are equally frightening.

The "X" rating is usually aimed at films that are sexually explicit, but this time the MPAA used the rating for its extreme, repulsive violence and really one truly upsetting sexual sequence, in which Henry and his compadre videotape their terrorization of a family, as his pal Otis rapes, then begins to perform necrophilia with the recently murdered woman.

Henry's creepy, pervading atmosphere is almost as upsetting as its outbursts of ultra-violence. And that videotaped scene surely contains the type of unspeakable acts you look away from even when you read about them in the paper.

MPI executives claim there's less violence in Henry than in the summer's big action movies. True, and some of the violence in Robocop II and Total Recall is just as gory. Since Henry purports to be realistic, however, it's likely the MPAA got scared. No surprise. You should be, too.