This is a fairly original film, unfortunately original does not necessarily mean good. Furthermore, it can't quite make up its mind what it wants to be: horror, comedy horror, black farce...An alien is apparently dumped on Earth from a flying saucer, and goes walkabout. Does he kill people? Sure, and no, he doesn't take over them as for example in "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers", rather he rips off the victims head and places it on the old body. There is also a bit of a side plot, a feisty woman detective who shoots a dangerous criminal, then the guy escapes and comes after her. There is all sorts of other stuff too, but seriously, if you think the music is the best part of this film, few will disagree.

Plot Synopsis: An alien criminal is genetically devolved into human form & banished to Earth. The problem is that the process has made the creature's body extremely fragile to the point that during a fight with some rednecks shortly after arriving on Earth, its head explodes. The alien then wanders through a nearby city, frequently 'borrowing' the heads of various humans to use as a replacement for its own.Film Review: Three years after making the bleakly disturbing HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, director John McNaughton followed up on the success of his debut feature by making this moderately budgeted sci-fi / horror flick. The Borrower stars Rae Dawn Chong as a female cop on the hunt for a rapist (Neil Guintoli) as well as genre troopers Antonio Fargas (SHAKEDOWN; HOWLING VI: THE FREAKS) & Tom Towles (FORTRESS; the remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) making appearances.The film has had the indignity of being shut down after running out of money, the incompleted film being shelved for two years before seeing the light of day. In its current form, the film does not feature any noticeable narrative gaps except for a badly-rushed ending where the alien takes over an ambulance (one of the worst rush-jobs of an ending in recent genre history).Bad endings aside, the film's main problem is that it has a plot that is more along the line of "stuff happens" than resembling a fully fleshed-out story. The premise – that of an alien convict who goes around, squeezing people's heads off – is very limited in scope. The idea never develops into anything more than that. Sensing this, the screenwriters toss in a secondary plot about a pair of cops tracking down a rapist that, while a reasonably good story on its own, doesn't fit in with the rest of the film. If McNaughton, who has shown that he can make a serial killer story effective, persisted with the rapist angle, he would have had a decent film instead of the hodgepodge film shown here. On the acting front, almost everybody gives a decent performance. Chong & Don Gordon are well cast as the pair of cops. Guintoli, who would later (rather ironically) star in the Henry sequel, is suitably creepy as the rapist – the scene of him walking out of the hospital dressed in the uniform of a female cop that he had overpowered while said cop is lying on the hospital bed naked is the closest the film comes to disturbing the audience. As for the actors taking turns to play the alien, Tom Towles sets the bar high & gets surprisingly good mileage in playing an alien creature who is wandering around the city, mimicking the behaviour of passers-by & spending the night & following morning at a homeless shelter, but the other actors fail to match his performance exactly.In the film's favour, the dark humour that McNaughton brings into the mix gives us a rather dark sense of irony. In this regard, the alien represents a hapless harbinger of doom – everywhere it goes, people die, not always by its own hand (check out the scene where the alien is sitting in a café drinking coffee while a bloody robbery is taking place right next to it).The visual effects are wildly patchy – the bug-like alien in the beginning is quite good but the head-ripping effect is not as well made. Not to mention the fact that the continuity is lousy – not much is done to convince the viewer that the alien's body & head are different.

Five years after John McNaughton made Henry Portrait Of a Serial Killer he made this supposed gory SF horror. It made me think a bit of The Terminator. I mean, somebody coming to earth and start to learn earth. the film opens with an alien punishing another alien by giving him a human face and exile him to earth. Still being an alien he wants to change his identity by ripping of heads and replacing his former head with it. It's all shown with the typical effects of that time, I mean the bladder effects. It's all done by Kevin Yagher, still in the business and known for MI 2 and Friday the 13th final chapter and some Nightmare on Elm Street episodes. So the effects are really good but the movie lacks in storyline, they involved another killer Scully, nothing to do with the alien and nothing to do with the storyline. He's in the movie for no reason and just got shot. I gave it a 5 just for the effects, it's weird that with the actors known in that era and the director and effects that this isn't out on DVD, you can find it still on VHS only in NTSC. Weird, I surely could BORROW a copy.

Director: John McNoughtonCast: Rae Dawn Chong, Don Gordon, Tom Towles, Antonio FargasTagline: Dont lend him anything you cant afford to looseReview: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