Scanners, like many sci-fi /horror cult films is a mix of the good and the bad. Aside from the naffness of the core concept of a group of people with extraordinary mental powers there’s a sufficiency of bad taste SFX (like the exploding head in the early part of the film) and the usual B-grade ham acting but technically at least it’s a marked advance on Cronenberg's previous, thematically-related, film, The Brood.
Scanners are people with, literally, mind-bowing telepathic powers and the story involves the mission by the good guys to stop the use of these powers for nefarious purposes, in other words, a typical-enough story of science gone awry and the abuse of knowledge, themes which Cronenberg continued to explore in his later films,
Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) is a vagrant scanner who gets snatched by a secret security agency scientist, Dr Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) in an attempt to catch a rogue scanner (Michael Ironside) who is planning to take over the world.
With a premise like that Scanners is the kind of film that never sets out to be taken seriously and there are some people who actually regard that as a good thing. They will find much to enjoy here as the film is very much in the exploitational mode and doesn’t spare the over-the-top gore. If you don’t recognize yourself amongst that crowd then probably skip it unless you’re a Cronenberg completist.
FYI: There were four sequels: Scanners II: The New Order (1990), Scanners III: The Takeover (1992), Scanner Cop (1994) and Scanner Cop II: Volkin’s Revenge (1995) that neither Cronenberg nor any of the cast from this film were involved in.
DVD Extras: Inside Scan: Scanners – an inside look with horror journalist Alan Jones: an hour long doco on the films of David Cronenberg, Trailer.
Available from: Umbrella Entertainment