THE BORROWER (1989) **

The Borrower was director John McNaughton’s follow-up to Henry:  Portrait of a Serial Killer, and it’s a big comedown from that classic.  With Henry, McNaughton took what was potentially a B movie and elevated it by not shying away from the brutality of the subject matter, allowing his actors to give realistic, natural performances, and capturing the events much like a documentarian.  In lesser hands, it could’ve been a forgettable exploitation item.  With The Borrower, it’s like he made a conscious decision to do the exact opposite of what he did with Henry.  The results are a sloppy, uneven, and only sporadically amusing sci-fi/horror/cop thriller.

An alien that looks like a giant cockroach passes sentence on a criminal in a white void.  His punishment:  Be turned into a human and sent to Earth.  There, he has trouble adjusting, and his head blows up.  The alien then takes to ripping the heads off various citizens to replace the void between his shoulders.  Naturally, he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake, and it’s up to policewoman Rae Dawn Chong to stop him.

This had all the potential to be a great flick.  Think a funkier version of The Hidden, but with a lot of exploding and/or severed heads.  It’s just a shame the script is so damned messy.  It’s admirable that the screenwriters tried to give Chong’s character purpose by having her wrestle with PTSD.  There’s even a long scene where she consoles a rape victim.  However, the subplot with her hunting down an escaped lunatic just feels like filler.  The various run-ins the alien has with society (like the time spent with a bunch of homeless bums) often falls flat too.  Sure, there is an occasional nutty moment, like when a rock video shoot is interrupted by the alien.  It’s just that these wacky moments don’t gel with the solemnly serious detective stuff.

The severed head effects by Kevin Yagher are pretty good.  I don’t know if the MPAA made them cut it down or what, but the film gets lighter on gore as it goes along.  Still, there are some nasty moments here and there, just not enough of them to make it worthwhile.

The cast is solid though.  It’s nice seeing Chong getting a leading role, even if the rest of the movie is subpar.  I don’t know who thought up pairing Chong and Don Gordon, but they have a lot of chemistry together.  Henry’s Tom Towles and Starsky and Hutch’s Antonio Fargas are fun as the Borrower’s first two incarnations.  Too bad his later alter egos don’t convey the otherworldly awkwardness Towles and Fargas bring to the role.

Maybe if The Borrower didn’t come out right after Henry it wouldn’t sting so bad.  Genre fans will probably want to check it out just for the cast alone.  As for me, I can’t say I was head over heels for it.  

AKA:  Alienkiller.