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| “ | I'll kill you all! | „ |
| ~ Henry Bowers |
Henry Bowers is the secondary antagonist of the novel It and its film adaption. He is the Losers' arch-rival and the leader of the Bowers Gang and It's former henchman.
Biography
Beginnings
Henry had a hate-filled childhood. From the start, he was abused psychologically by his abusive Nazi father, Butch Bowers. Butch encouraged Henry to hate all foreigners, and hate women, because in Butch's words women were "whores" and Henry grew up with a nihilistic, hatemongering attitude. Butch prompted Henry to be a bully. Butch once carved a swastika upon the Hanlon farm gate, having a strong hatred for the Halons (just because they were black) and Butch was nearly imprisoned for this hate crime. However, he told Henry to hate Mike Hanlon, and never mix with him.
It was around this time Henry became a sociopathic bully. He "befriended" Mike's dog, and called it the offensive name "nigger dog". He then began to feed it poisoned meat, and eventually he overfed it so it choked and died. Henry took pride in doing this cruel act.
It (novel)
Henry Bowers first appears when Ben Hanscom is doing an exam before Summer holidays. Henry is known to be a troublemaker and pervert, but although the teachers are fully aware of his cruel nature they turn the other cheek - partly due to IT's influence, and partly due to their law-abiding nature.
Henry asks Ben if he can copy from his paper, and Ben stubbornly refuses. Henry then whispers that Ben is dead. On the way out of school, Ben is ambushed by Henry and his fellow bullies, Vic and Belch, who get him just when he comes out of the library and Henry taunts Ben about his weight, and then threatens to carve his name onto Ben's chest. Ben thinks its a joke until Henry gets out his knife. Vic and Belch are horrified and tell Henry to stop, but Henry begins carving H onto Ben's chest. He kicks Henry in the chest and throws himself down the hill into the Barrens. Henry comes looking for Ben in fury but only finds Bill and Eddie. Henry threatens them about killing them if they shelter Ben, but Bill sticks up for Ben and doesn't reveal his hideout.
Henry begins developing a mental breakdown over the following weeks. He also has a hatred for Richard Tozier, and chases the kid through the middle of town, also in broad daylight, and Henry storms through department stores with the intent of killing or maiming Richie. Henry gets himself and Richie banned from the store because of his aggressive chase. Thankfully, Richie loses Henry and is subsequently threatened by the giant statue of Paul Bunyan which is possessed by IT and nearly kills him.
Later, Henry begins to hear voices calling to him, which is IT. He is awoken in the middle of the night, and goes outside clad just in boxers, and hears the Moon talking to him. IT is really speaking to him, but Bowers is no longer sane enough to tell truth from fiction. Henry obeys IT's commands to kill the Losers, and he begins hunting them down. Henry one day sees Mike on the street, and surrounded by his entire gang: Vic, Belch, Patrick Hockstetter, Gard Jagermeyer, Peter Gordon and Moose Sadler, he gives chase to hunt Mike. All seven of them chase a terrified Mike to the rubbish dump in the Barrens, and on the way, Henry begins throwing fireworks to kill Mike. He confesses that he murdered Mike's dog. Mike breaks down in tears upon hearing this. Mike then gets to the Losers, and after a tense standoff, Henry begins the Rock fight by fighting Bill and the others. Henry's gang retreats, one by one, when the rocks hit them, and Henry is sorely wounded by rocks and he is left to sulk before vowing to kill all the Losers before Summer is over.
After the Rock fight, Henry now begins to dissolve into full madness and develops an even stronger hate for the Losers. As "revenge" for the Rock fight he ambushes Eddie, and breaks his arm in broad daylight in the town center. Henry is actually sent a pocket knife from IT and Henry kills his father with it, his first murder. He then ambushes Beverly on the street, and begins abusing her, but she knees him in the balls and damages them so badly they bleed. Henry, full of insane rage, begins chasing Beverly to the Barrens, then, when she meets the other Losers, into the sewers after them. The Losers fight IT and almost kill IT. Then Henry is traumatized when Vic and Belch are killed by IT. IT ages Henry from the sight of IT. Henry eventually escapes after a long traumatic experience in the dark sewers. He makes it home, but is immediately arrested by police for his father's murder.
Lots of people apparently want to hang Henry because with IT almost wounded to death, Henry has been "revealed" as the killer, and people want justice. But the authorities imprison Henry in Juniper Hill insane asylum. There, he is visited by IT some thirty years later. IT asks him to kill the Losers for good. He returns to Derry, posing as a concierge bringing Eddie news of his wife, and in a brief fight, Henry dies later during an attempt to kill Eddie who stabs him to death in self-defense.
It (1990 film)
After being humiliated by the seven main characters known as the "Losers Club", Henry's sanity begins to finally deteriorate, with a final push from It. He and two other greaser bullies named Victor and Belch, followed them to the sewers to kill the Losers as revenge. However, the three become lost in the labyrinth tunnels of the sewer and in the process Vic is decapitated and Belch's face is mutilated by It in the form of Frankenstein. Henry is able to escape by running as fast as he can out of It's reach. He finally makes it out of the sewers but his hair has turned completely white by the horror-shock of seeing his two friends murdered and seeing It in its true form, which also drives him completely insane. After several nightmarish hours of aimlessly staggering, he finds his way back to his home. At his home, he finds the police, who have just found his father's corpse, whom he himself killed with a switchblade under It's possession. The police assume that the now severely crazy Henry, has committed all the murders that year (perhaps under It's influence). And Henry is found guilty and immediately placed into Juniper Hill mental asylum for the rest of his life.
30 years later, Henry is a middle-aged man still locked up in the asylum. When Pennywise returns he manipulates Henry to kill the main characters and helps him escape the institute where he tries to kill a now adult Mike Hanlon, the only African-American member of the club. When other adults from the Losers tried to save Mike, Henry accidentally stabbed himself with his switchblade in the process, and died.
Personality
Henry is abused by his crazed, alcoholic father, Butch Bowers, who taught Henry how to be racist. Due to his dysfunctional upbringing, Henry has developed a serious mental problem in which he thinks killing others is fine, (most likely sociopathy or schizophrenia).
Appearance
As a kid, Henry adopted a Greaser physique, he wore a brown (pink in the novel) leather jacket and oiled his black hair. He was slim and athletic as a kid. But when he got older, he had white hair from his encounters with IT, and was very chubby, and very insane. His sanity got worse because of the constant hate he was fed by his father Butch and also from IT. After death, his corpse had the unnerving habit of shifting its position slightly so it looked like he was going to revive as an Undead.