The DIY Chicago indie was scripted by McNaughton with actor/playwright Richard Fire (Bleacher Bums), and newcomer Michael Rooker frighteningly inhabited the title role, based on real-life murderer Henry Lee Lucas. So discomfiting was their movie in its depictions of violence and pathology that it had to slowly wend its way through film festivals, accruing critical praise and stunned audiences’ word-of-mouth before finally getting a full release in 1990.