Well, my last hope of watching a semi-decent 80s horror movie completely flew out the window when, at least on the copy that I own, the film started with a video-introduction by Troma-founder and notorious bad taste jester Lloyd Kaufman. Apparently Troma served as the distributor for "B.O.R.N", and in case you know a little something about the horror industry, you also know that this company stands for low-budgeted, silly and overall inept horror trash. On the other hand, however, Kaufman's intro was perhaps the least boring part of the entire film. In his very own and almost retarded style Kaufman makes a couple of jokes about the cast and plot. For example, when he explains that the film deals will illegal organ transplants he add-libs the wordplay: "I kidney you not!"
"B.O.R.N" is overall a disappointment and this in spite of several potential strongpoints. The black market organ business is a very macabre topic and the idea of ruthless gangsters cruising around the big city in an authentic ambulance and scouting for innocent victims to kidnap is quite tense and disturbing. Moreover, there a few interesting names in the cast, like William Smith as an emotionless surgeon, Russ Tamblyn as a sleazy kidnapper, P.J. Soles as the vicious brain behind the criminal organization and the odd-by-nature Clint Howard as a police deputy. Then why isn't "B.O.R.N" an undiscovered gem of the late 80s horror era? Well, basically because the whole thing turns into a dull and semi-sentimental soap-opera almost straight from the beginning! The very first victims that we see abducted in the ambulance are already critical to the rest of the plot. A movie such as this needs at least two or three random 'collateral damage' victims in order to set the tone and illustrate how relentless this organ-network in fact is! But here the cowboy- father (played by writer/director Ross Hagen) immediately witnesses how his three adopted daughters are dragged into the ambulance and calls in the help of a befriended former detective to track them down. The rest of the film is a derivative and boring cat-and-mouse thriller instead of a gruesome horror flick. There's hardly any action or suspense, let alone gore and bloodshed, and the coolest actors are given the least screen time. This is even Troma unworthy! In case you want to see better and/or more entertaining movies dealing with more or less the same subjects, look for the intelligent Michael Crichton thriller "Coma" (1978) and the overlooked Larry Cohen gem "The Ambulance" (1990).
"B.O.R.N" is overall a disappointment and this in spite of several potential strongpoints. The black market organ business is a very macabre topic and the idea of ruthless gangsters cruising around the big city in an authentic ambulance and scouting for innocent victims to kidnap is quite tense and disturbing. Moreover, there a few interesting names in the cast, like William Smith as an emotionless surgeon, Russ Tamblyn as a sleazy kidnapper, P.J. Soles as the vicious brain behind the criminal organization and the odd-by-nature Clint Howard as a police deputy. Then why isn't "B.O.R.N" an undiscovered gem of the late 80s horror era? Well, basically because the whole thing turns into a dull and semi-sentimental soap-opera almost straight from the beginning! The very first victims that we see abducted in the ambulance are already critical to the rest of the plot. A movie such as this needs at least two or three random 'collateral damage' victims in order to set the tone and illustrate how relentless this organ-network in fact is! But here the cowboy- father (played by writer/director Ross Hagen) immediately witnesses how his three adopted daughters are dragged into the ambulance and calls in the help of a befriended former detective to track them down. The rest of the film is a derivative and boring cat-and-mouse thriller instead of a gruesome horror flick. There's hardly any action or suspense, let alone gore and bloodshed, and the coolest actors are given the least screen time. This is even Troma unworthy! In case you want to see better and/or more entertaining movies dealing with more or less the same subjects, look for the intelligent Michael Crichton thriller "Coma" (1978) and the overlooked Larry Cohen gem "The Ambulance" (1990).
