Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

People are voting emotionally.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Being sentenced to Earth after some unknown problem on another planet, one alien goes on a weird and wild quest to stay alive, one head at a time. What i mean by that is the alien can't survive unless he continues to switch heads, which is awesome! It reminds me of "The Hidden" where Kyle Mclaughlin is fighting an other worldly alien that just wants to drive fast cars and listen to heavy metal. Each movie contains a host alien, but only one contains Rae Dawn Chong! I'm mysteriously attracted to her in this, she pulls a bit of film noir and wields a badge, on the hunt for a rapist murderer. This movie has fabulous gore. There is very little back-round music, mostly white noise, giving it a creepy texture. Some real funny moments, and some nice out of focus stuff (theres a point in the movie where just peripheral to a conversation in the police headquarters a battle takes place between a cop and a wild street tough). The only problem i have with this movie is most of the interactions between Chong and her partner are labored and seem like a pacing problem. But all the sequences with the alien, ripping off heads or hitchhiking or pretending to be a human being, are highly awesome. The end is splat-tastic, a sequel is rumored but never done.

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.

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.

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.