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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.

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.

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.

Director: John McNoughton

Cast: Rae Dawn Chong, Don Gordon, Tom Towles, Antonio Fargas

Tagline: Dont lend him anything you cant afford to loose

Review:

Director John Mc Naughtons follow up to Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer is a b-movie sci-fi/horror flick. I know that might not make the best of sense to some of you because youd expect something grand after seeing Henry, but this is the route that the director took. Its not a total waist though.

An alien criminal is sentenced to earth as a punishment for his crimes. The worst part of his punishment is, he will be a human all through out his sentence here on earth. And he has to take care of his body parts because they are fragile. After every couple of hours his head explodes so he goes around replacing it with other peoples heads and living out their lives. kind of like the same plot of a similar film called The Hidden only there the idea was better developed.

The problem with this movie is that it becomes redundant after a while. The alien dude does nothing but going around switching heads and walking around acting like a retard, repeating everything that everybody says and wobbling around like a zombie. Aside from this, theres no real suspense or tension...its just a one note gag with a few amusing moments along the line.

The film is trying to make a social commentary on humanity. Kind of the same way the Gremlins made fun of the worst things about us humans (vices, violence and the such) the alien on this film goes around seeing the worst of the human species. Violence, sex, murder and greed all make an appearance, with some funny results. I thought those scenes with the homeless where the best in the film. But ultimately, the movie had a good premise, a good idea and an opportunity to make a socially conscious sci-fi/horror film, but sadly it falls flat on its ass.

The movie does come up with some interesting moments, like those involving a dog (wont spoil it dont worry) and those head exploding scenes. There are some cool images int his film similar to the exploding head scenes in Scanners. Kevin Yagher and KNB effects guys did a decent job with the aliens and the make up effects. But these moments arent enough to save the movie from the poor execution that it was given.

Rae Dawn Chung demonstrates in this movie why she is no longer making movies. She plays a detective on the hunt for the alien. Her performance sucks like crazy, nothing special. On the other hand, Tom Towles as the hillbilly guy hunting dear was funny as hell, unfortunately he gets the least amount of screen time. Atonio Fargas as the homeless guy who befriends the alien had me cracking up a few times. They were the real highlights of the film for me. I thought they brought a certain amount of humor that the movie needed. I think the movie should have amped up the humor a little bit more given the type of film that this is.

The ending for The Borrower was very unsatisfying. Aside from the fact that the movie doesnt build any suspense or momentum, its just feels flat. I hate it when films just suddenly and abruptly end, just like that and leave you hanging. Its purposely left open for a sequel, but I dont think that it will ever get made.

Ultimately, I think this movie works as a b-grade, cheesy fun time. It has some social commentary, but it doesnt get its points across to well. If you dont mind ludicrous stories and situations or just a plain weird ass tale, lightly sprinkled with social commentary then check The Borrower out. But if your in need of a conventionally told story that gives you suspense and chills, then pass this one up, watch The Hidden instead.

Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

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!