The Borrower

A disappointing horror flick from John McNaughton("Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer")has one of the dumbest premises in memory.The plot is about an alien whose head keeps exploding for some reason,forcing him to steal new heads from innocent victims.There are some interesting twists and the gore effects are suitably splashy!The cast is also okay,but still the film is laughable and stupid.Definitely one to avoid,if you don't like cheesy horror/sci-fi genre!

From the guy who brought us the unnervingly realistic and tense 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)' comes another genre effort by director John McNaughton, but you can call 'The Borrower' somewhat a total change of pace. Its ridiculous premise bathes itself in hysteria, cheese and an overpowering metallic soundtrack. A true step-down, but the angle has changed for this low-budget outing in favour of a black comedy with a less than serious tone and horrifically in-your-face FX work. It kind reminded of the similar themed 'The Hidden (1987)', which seemed to be a trend-setter for many that followed ('Dark Angel and 'Split Second' shoot to mind) involving cops on the trail of a serial killer that may be of extra-terrestrial origins.

A criminal alien is genetically devolved and vanquished to earth in human form. There he discovers that his head has a habit of exploding, forcing him to find another replacement and eventually another one. Police detectives Diana Pierce and her partner Charlie Krieger find themselves on the case of this very demented serial killer who likes to take the heads of the victim, but soon they realise there might be more to this case.

As it is it's a mildly fun b-grade romp with numerous moments of flamboyantly gooey head explosions and tearing off heads (kind of like that in 1979 film 'The Dark') to only borrow them. Strangely when the alien does do that, the body changes too, even though its only should be the head. Whoops. The idea shows a breath imagination, but McNaughton's duplicated handling of it is simply disappointing and never variable enough. Even the social element is weakly penned. Other than those unconventional graphic scenes, nothing much tends to happen from its slight structure. It suffers from a languishing last quarter, muddled writing with a redundant sub-plot (though it does tie in at the end… but why?) involving another killer and one of the cops. Even the lighting is so smoky, or some sequences are paved in darkness making it hard to work out certain details. While the action when it occurs is frenetic, there's nothing beating its systematic feel and where we are left with an incomplete feel due to its cop-out ending after rattling climax.

Rae Dawn Chong emit's an uninterestingly sullen temperament as detective Pierce and a grizzled Don Gordon is fine as detective Krieger. The support fairs up much better with a delightfully amusing Tom Towles and Antonio Fargas steals some scenes.

'The Borrower' is moderate entertainment due largely to the make-up FX, but ends up being bounded in its bizarre concept and plodding narrative.

Like he did in "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", director John McNaughton presents us with a predator's eye view of the wonderful world of victims, with a tad more dark humor this time around, and the result is a fine little film. We clueless humans are portayed as a strange bunch in the eyes of an alien criminal, who has been sentenced to the worst punishment on his planet: Life as a human! The human form is not entirely compatible with this species' biology, the annoying result being the head's tendency to explode. Consequently, our alien protagonist is constantly "head-shopping", taking on characteristics of each victim he decapitates in order to capacitate himself. Rae Dawn Chong is the only human to catch on, but of course, who's going to believe a hotheaded female detective? The offbeat characters and wonderfully warped humor set this title apart from most genre offerings .... a cult gem, maybe not for most tastes, but definitely worth a DVD re-release. Check it out if looking for something a bit ... different.

What a strange career decision of John McNaughton to follow-up his dark masterpiece "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" with this silly and ultra-cheesy Sci-Fi romp! "Henry" was an intense and harrowing shock-drama, partly based on horrible real-life events, whereas this crazy flick revolves on naughty aliens banished from their planet and killer headaches! "The Borrower" is an endurable and occasionally even fun little flick, but it lacks a proper script and especially that last half hour lingers on enormously. This low-budget B-movie opens with images inside an alien spaceship as it heads for earth to drop off a banished member of their intergalactic community. The opening is pretty funny, as the alien refers to human beings as the absolute lowest forms of life and getting sent to earth is actually a punishment far worse than execution. Gee thanks, Mr. Alien! We like your planet, too. The rest of the film is reminiscent of "The Hidden"; only the alien's modus operandi to switch hosts is a whole lot messier. Whenever the unfriendly visitor runs out of energy or gets damaged, he simply rips off the head of any poor person (or dog) that stands too close and attaches it to his own body. His first victim is a redneck hunter (the ultra-cool Tom Towles of "House of 1.000 Corpses") and the alien uses his head to go to the big city and run a little amok there. Meanwhile, the ambitious female detective Diana Pierce pursues an escaped psycho-killer and naturally both story lines will neatly come together in the end. The crazy head-transplant aspect results in some excellent splatter-sequences and a fair amount of delightful black humor. Also, and as some other reviewers already mentioned, the film is even mildly effective as a social commentary pointing out all the issues of life in the big city. Too bad about the imbecile and downright crappy ending. It almost seems like McNaughton completely lost interest in finishing the film properly.

If you enjoy bad movies, especially late 1980s/early 1990s science fiction/horror, I recommend this movie. The premise and story are interesting, there are both intentionally funny parts and unintentionally funny parts, and the music is good (especially the theme). Probably the weakest aspect is the acting. Between the title character--an alien who is played by five different actors as he changes identities--and the two heroes, a pair of cops boringly played by Rae Dawn Chong and Dan Gordon, we never really have anyone to care about. One aspect of the movie that I found especially pleasantly surprising is its urban setting. Most low-budget SF or horror b-movies are set in the wilderness or a post-apocalypse to cut down on costs, while this was set in the big city, full of people and streets and buildings and modern technology. That--and the unexpected cross-dressing by Brad-Pitt-manqué Neil Giuntoli--are what make this movie a keeper!