Le Voleur de Têtes

Aliens punish one of their own by sending him to earth. The alien is very violent, and when the body he occupies is damaged, he is forced to find another. Strange, unorthodox science fiction/horror film. The script is quite clever and the film has plenty of amusing moments, but Mr. Mcnaughton should stick to more serious films, i.e. "Henry". Impressive make-up effects by Kevin Yagher and plenty of gore help but only to a certain extent. Runs to long and tends to drag out a bit, especially towards the end. Above average for this kind of film but somewhat disappointing in the end.

5.5/10.

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.

If you're expecting a serious Sci-Fi or Horror flick, this film will disappoint you. But if you can appreciate something that's so ridiculous it's funny, then this movie is for you. I laughed harder and harder as the movie progressed. It's no five-star film, but I think the humor is enough to redeem this film.

What a strange career decision of John McNaughton to follow-up his dark masterpiece "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" with this silly and ultra-cheesy Sci-Fi romp! "Henry" was an intense and harrowing shock-drama, partly based on horrible real-life events, whereas this crazy flick revolves on naughty aliens banished from their planet and killer headaches! "The Borrower" is an endurable and occasionally even fun little flick, but it lacks a proper script and especially that last half hour lingers on enormously. This low-budget B-movie opens with images inside an alien spaceship as it heads for earth to drop off a banished member of their intergalactic community. The opening is pretty funny, as the alien refers to human beings as the absolute lowest forms of life and getting sent to earth is actually a punishment far worse than execution. Gee thanks, Mr. Alien! We like your planet, too. The rest of the film is reminiscent of "The Hidden"; only the alien's modus operandi to switch hosts is a whole lot messier. Whenever the unfriendly visitor runs out of energy or gets damaged, he simply rips off the head of any poor person (or dog) that stands too close and attaches it to his own body. His first victim is a redneck hunter (the ultra-cool Tom Towles of "House of 1.000 Corpses") and the alien uses his head to go to the big city and run a little amok there. Meanwhile, the ambitious female detective Diana Pierce pursues an escaped psycho-killer and naturally both story lines will neatly come together in the end. The crazy head-transplant aspect results in some excellent splatter-sequences and a fair amount of delightful black humor. Also, and as some other reviewers already mentioned, the film is even mildly effective as a social commentary pointing out all the issues of life in the big city. Too bad about the imbecile and downright crappy ending. It almost seems like McNaughton completely lost interest in finishing the film properly.

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.