El depredador galáctico

From John McNaughton, the mastermind behind Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, comes...The Borrower. Whereas Henry is disturbingly realistic, this is the exact opposite. The Borrower is completely absurd. An alien criminal and outcast is de-evolved to human form and exiled to earth. The de-evolution process, however, has made his body unstable and he must "borrow" other people's heads to survive. The story sounds good, but is obviously hard to execute. Tom Towles, also from Henry and numerous other genre classics, is hilarious as one of the borrowed heads. It's too bad that he has the least amount of screen time. The other cast members include Rae Dawn Chong as a detective investigating the murders and Antonio Fargas as a bum that befriends the Borrower. The music is awful and annoying but Kevin Yagher's make-up effects are sufficiently gross. Yagher's gore effects and Towle's performance are the main reasons to watch the movie. The box reads "more animated than Re-Animator" which is a lie but it should please the majority of horror fans.

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!

A criminal alien is sentenced to spend time on Earth ("A fate worse than death") but finds the climate doesn't agree with its genetics and its human head explodes. No problem, right? It just keeps grabbing heads off of victims (including a dog) and swapping them out to survive. Chicago cop Diana Pierce (Rae Dawn Chong) is on the case though. This was John McNaughton's follow-up feature to HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER and I will admit it has a genius set-up. Unfortunately, the film completely lacks focus and feels like two scripts slapped together. Chong's cop character, who apparently is assigned every case in and outside of the city, spends too much time obsessing over a rapist she busted and they try to wrap this into the alien head snatching plot. When the film focuses on the alien bits, it really shines thanks to great turns by Tom Towles as alien's first victim and Antonio Fargas as a homeless guy who befriends Towles. This was shot in the late 80s (a movie marquee offers DAKOTA) but not released until 1991. As a rule, this should always be played as a double feature with JT Petty's THE BURROWERS.

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!

Aliens punish one of their own by sending him to earth. The alien is very violent, and when the body he occupies is damaged, he is forced to find another. Strange, unorthodox science fiction/horror film. The script is quite clever and the film has plenty of amusing moments, but Mr. Mcnaughton should stick to more serious films, i.e. "Henry". Impressive make-up effects by Kevin Yagher and plenty of gore help but only to a certain extent. Runs to long and tends to drag out a bit, especially towards the end. Above average for this kind of film but somewhat disappointing in the end.

5.5/10.