Misadventures in Blissville

Alternate Title: “McNaughton by Nature”

Here we are again, nauseating you with another episode of Extreme Cinema – Action and Exploitation movies with Andrew La Ganke and David Lawler. Tonight, my stars, but we have two movies directed by John McNaughton, Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael and How to Make an American Quilt … just joking, folks, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and The Borrower.

Did you know that this movie, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, still plays in theaters?  A quick check on the Googles reveals the Landmark Sunshine Cinema shows the movie; it’s essentially a midnight movie these days, but it still plays in theaters.  The only other film out there that continues to generate this much of an insane midnight movie cult following is, of course, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – just kidding.  A few episodes of Extreme Cinema back, I mentioned how this is a movie I could never recommend to anybody for fear of getting funny looks from people for the rest of my life; it’s right up there with The Devil’s Rejects, both of these movies, for me, are insanely well-made but they’re extremely hard to get through (for different reasons).  Movies can be excellent, yet almost unwatchable.  

The Borrower is a bizarre movie. I remember first seeing it, chopped to hell and back on the Sci-Fi channel a while back. I think I even saw it before I saw Henry. My mother actually says to me, “Davey, I saw this movie, it was absolutely disgusting, but it was great! You would love it. It’s called The Borrower.” This was back when she liked horror and science fiction. Along with cable tv, and Danny Peary, and Roger Ebert, and my Aunt Marlene, she got me into movies in a big way. We did Jack Sholder last time, and you described The Hidden as being one of the better Terminator rip-offs. I suppose The Borrower fits into that sub-genre, right? The first thing we see is an alien criminal, who is told by a hilarious-looking creature with a voice modulator that he is being sent to Earth as punishment for his crimes, instead of summary execution (which we’re led to believe is somehow more merciful). We see Tom Towles again, this time as another white trash drifter. Is that a potato gun he’s holding? The alien criminal appears, punches Tom (sends him some 20 feet), and then the alien’s head explodes, which is completely normal. The headless alien removes (or “borrows”, as the case may be) Tom’s head and puts it on his shoulders.

Written by David Lawler and Andrew La Ganke.
“Love Theme from Extreme Cinema” composed and performed by Alex Saltz.
Introduction written by Bronwyn Knox.
Narrator, “The Voice”: Valerie Sachs.
Artwork by Bronwyn Knox.
Head Title Washer: Ben Lauter.

Running Time: 1:36:46

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