The Borrower (1991)

"Don't lend him anything you can't afford to lose!"

Following up on Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer must have been a strange job for director, John McNaughton. His directorial debut had sat on the shelf for 3 years due to 'lack of faith in the project' from the producers, until they reluctantly began screening it in 1989. The film went on to be a cult hit, becoming one of the most controversial films to hit mainstream video in the 90's. Before all that could happen, McNaughton needed to find a new project to prove he could direct, seeing as Henry was unavailable. It seems odd that he landed on The Borrower, as it couldn't be more tonally different from his previous film, but McNaughton has proved over his patchy career that he is never interested in doing what is expected from him. And hey, that's definitely something to celebrate, whether you like his films or not.

The Borrower kicks off in outer space, with a violent alien being sentenced for his crimes. Instead of death, he is banished to lowly planet Earth, after being 'devolved' into human form.  Unfortunately for him, the process of devolution leaves him vulnerable to bodily meltdown; he can break apart or practically explode at any time. Even worse; they kick him off the space ship in Hicksville, USA, and the first people he meets are a couple of shit-heeled father-and-son poachers with guns. After he loses his noggin in a tussle, he 'borrows' a new head from the father (Tom Towles; Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) and flees the scene. 

The nasty alien then hitches a ride to the nearest city, where he takes in the primitive culture of humans in the guise of strip joints, drug dealers and casual violence. He meets a friendly hobo by the name of Julius (Antonio Fargas; Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch) who begins to show him how to fit in with the rest of the scummy humans. 

Meanwhile, the death of the hick has landed on the desk of world-weary detective, Diana Pierce (Rae Dawn Chong; Commando, Soul Man, The Color Purple). The surviving son from the initial attacks seems crazy; aliens and exploding heads? But why did he call the cops himself if he committed the crime? Or did he? Soon she is hot on the heals of the 'borrower', as he constantly has to replace his head when the old one fails him, leaving a pile of headless corpses in his wake. Will Diana be able to stop this nasty bugger?  Just how many heads will he get through before he is stopped?

Despite the gory horror premise, The Borrower is actually quite light in tone. In ways it can be seen as a satire on just how unappealing 'big city' life can be, as every character is a tramp, drughead, wino, criminal, hooker or violent psycho; making the alien seem nearly placid among all the nasty humans. Well, apart from the head-ripping business, I guess. Most of the humour is enjoyable, especially with the tramps. Some of the other scenes can be hit-or-miss, such as when he is picked up after being run over by a seriously dumb broad. Juxtaposed with these moments are more straight scenes with Rae Dawn Chong as the cop hunting the killer. Some of them tend to drag on, and the sub-plot about a violent perp out for revenge against her seems like it belongs in a different film, as it is much more serious in tone and never gels comfortably with the rest of the material. 

The film is rather episodic in nature, and only in the last twenty minutes does it actively move towards bringing  its loose threads together. And that's when the film just grinds to a halt. It seems that the  production may have run out of cash, and had to be finished up quickly and cheaply. Cheaply and quickly is exactly what we get. It's horribly rushed, and out of sync with the rest of the film, which was already patchy to begin with. Even the opening scene on board the spaceship seems at odds with the film that comes immediately afterwards, almost like it was shot by a different director and crew.

It's a pity, as The Borrower is a fairly enjoyable film. The special effects are fantastic, and are done by genre hero Kevin Yagher, who was responsible for some excellent work in some of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, as well as Childs Play. We get plenty of 'bladder' effects, exploding heads, head rippings, some intenstines and random bloodletting. The soundtrack reminded me of the fun, spiky nonsense Goblin did for Demons, and really helps the fun factor. Acting across the board is patchy, though there are plenty of recognisable faces amongst the cast to keep genre fans happy. Keep an eye out for Madchen Amick towards the climax in a role that predates her sexy turn as Shelly in Twin Peaks. There are also nods to other horror flicks, including Henry, to keep you entertained.

Despite being shot in 1988 (the film lives and breaths late 80's), it ran into problems when the distributor hit the bricks and remained shelved until 1991 when it finally got a release. It seems that McNaughton wasn't having much luck early on in his career, but thankfully for him things took a turn for the better when Henry finally got an official release. The Borrower is most likely going to remain a minor blip on a fairly inconsistent director's CV, but if you like films like The Blob or The Hidden, then I definitely recommend it.