The Borrower

McNaughton with its grotesque effectiveness depicts the dirt of the 80s city streets (see the police sergeant tiredly looking out the window as his guards beat up an angry prostitute), and not only that, the film often brings to mind the first Terminator or Highlander, which I really appreciate. However, it is mainly a textbook example of my favorite category of drunk narrations, which I described in the movie Shame, and whose parameters fully apply here, so I will copy its description here: The concluding idea of drunk narration is that watching the movie builds the impression of a long, drunken night, during which a lot is experienced, but it is not possible to recall or rationalize what actually happened, nor what the overall character was. Drunk narration has several rules, which were fully filled here: 1) It is usually impossible to distinguish the mood of the scene, for example, whether it is sad or funny. 2) It is often impossible to reveal the role of various appearing characters, usually one cannot know which characters are main or supporting, what is their role in different situations, etc. 3) It is often impossible to determine the pace of the movie, or even whether the storytelling is currently slowing down or speeding up. If it is successful, one can notice that as it approaches the end, it literally stiffens until it almost completely stops. 4) The film constantly tries to pretend that it has a key idea, but constantly digresses from it, blabbers, and obviously gains time to remember what it was and whether there was any. 5) We meet and say goodbye to problems, characters, and locations at completely unexpected moments. They often reappear, although we feel that the water has already closed behind them. The nature of the characters also often changes, which only strengthens the viewer's paranoia. 6) Familiar environments seem unreal. Desolate city streets, apartments that do not look like the homes of normal people, strange silence in populated exteriors. 7) It is never possible to gain control over the scene or the plot because it goes beyond the previous experiences with what has been seen and lived, and does not conform to any patterns. (09/03/2024)

A schizophrenic straddle between properly gory horror and something of a comedy, and I have no idea where the mistake was, coming from the maker of a very critically acclaimed debut, that neither the horror nor the comedy works. Yes, I was amused by the clumsy movement of the space scumbag, with the movement varying depending on what kind of "borrowed" (read cut off) head he was wearing at the time, the ridiculous rat in the soup scene made me laugh, and the homeless scenes were as decadent as in the cult classic Street Trash, but otherwise it's a waste, an unfunny and chaotic waste. How the scenes are composed (for example the utterly woeful final deal with the alien), plus the dull dialogue, it's not worthy of John McNaughton's reputation. (23/03/2024)