John McNaughton's The Borrower isn't a very good film, if you ask me. It tells the story of an extraterrestrial creature who has been devolved into a human, and sent to earth as punishment.His earthly exile is witnessed by a couple of gun totin' hicks. They watch as a man is dropped off by a UFO, and his subsequent fight with an alien. They manage to help run the creature off. But when they go to see if the guy is OK...all they can do is watch as his head inexplicably explodes.He doesn't seem to be dead though. Rather, his body attacks the older hick...removing his head and using it as a replacement.The bloody-necked humanoid-looking creature then starts to roam around skid row, where he befriends a couple of junkies.It seems that he is only able utilize the heads of others for a temporary period...before they start to explode. So he is forced to kill one of the junkies, rip off his head, and replace it with his own in the process. After this incident, he roams around a bit more, before passing out in a museum, and being brought to a hospital.While in the hospital he wakes up and finds a doctor. The doctor tries to examine his bleeding neck, but before he is able to, the creature mutates, into it's semi-monstrous form, and murders him. Ripping off his own head, and replacing it with the doctor's (white head, on a black body). When he does this, his body mutates- like a chameleon- to match it's head. The special effects aren't bad...there's just no story to back it up.The film's most hilarious moment occurs when the creature heads back to the doctor's house- where he meets the doctor's dog. Of course, he rips off it's head and replaces it with his own- rendering him a dog-headed alien-human hybrid.Hearing all sorts of weird noises, one of the metalheads from next door looks over the fence to see what is going on. This gets him attacked and killed, but one of the girls manages to shoot and (seemingly) kill the dog-headed beast, in the process.All the while, a female police detective is on the case, trying to track down whatever the hell is responsible for causing all these gruesome deaths. But she is, herself, being stalked by a psychopath who managed to escape from a prison infirmary.The two story lines don't intersect until the last 5 minutes of the film. Here the alien-infested headless corpse manages to reanimate itself inside the morgue, killing the coroner, and taking over her body- before being shot and killed by the male detective. The opportune alien then takes over the body of the dead psychopath- who had been previously killed by the female detective (explaining why it was in the morgue)- leading to the final showdown between it and her (with help from some random interlopers).When all is said and done, this is a pretty basic and poorly constructed film. They force in all sorts of stuff at the end to try and make it work, but they wind up leaving a multitude of loose ends. If you are planning on enjoying this one, you are going to have to suspend disbelief- in order to get around the various plot holes- and just enjoy the special effects. It's not even that funny really. Certainly not the best example of it's kind.3 out of 10.

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.

This movie is great! Lots of rad 80's/early 90s style special effects which means lots of gore and sweet mutation scenes! Excellent! The plot is basically about a super violent alien who is banished from his home planet and is sent to earth in the form of a human. The difference between him and a normal human is that he can rip people's heads off to replace his own which allows him to take their form. That being said you know there's gonna be plenty of decapitation action! Imagine THE HIDDEN (also a super rad movie) with less fast cars and more blood and slime. If that's not a killer plot i don't know what is. there is also a couple bare boobs in the mix too. Another plus is that the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. definitely a must for splatter fiends or anybody who digs campy horror!

Ya know, I saw this movie back in 1991 when it came out and I remember really liking this film. Years later I go ahead and buy this movie and had to force myself to watch it. OK, I kind of like the idea of this alien having to switch heads because his head keeps blowing up. Stupid, but could have been fun. Now, this is what I didn't like. Lack of gore, extremely bad music score, and horrendous acting. This movie had so much potential to be a shocking gore fest but decided to go a much tamer route and less serious. This just ruined the whole film. All the way through the movie I kept expecting to see multiple head explosions, a serious score to give the movie some frightening atmosphere, and to have some characters that you actually cared about. Instead, this movie delivers something that a 12 year old kid could write. I can't believe this movie was directed by the same guy that directed "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer". What a horrible disappointment. The only good part of this movie is the last 5 minutes when it finally starts picking up. Unfortuanatly, it still goes nowhere. Highly disappointing and if you are a real horror fan stay away from this movie. Don't even rent it.