Scanners Review

MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1981

Scanners was a breakthrough directorial effort of David Cronenberg, bringing this man's sometimes twisted style of directing beyond the underground and to the masses. In it a rare world of telepaths (called Scanners) is explored, where the secrets of the mind can be unlocked and looks that kill are a reality. When a corporation investigating the military application of such empowered individuals captures a frightened and confused scanner, he is tossed into a world where no one can be trusted: humans and fellow scanners alike.

As the movie opens a confused homeless man, Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), is stumbling around the food court of a mall. From a distance away he can seemingly hear a conversation between two older women that are speaking poorly of him, and without realizing exactly what he is doing he mentally lashes out at one of the disparagers. Before she is harmed too significantly a pair of men capture Cameron and take him to an isolated and run-down factory overseen by Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan).

Dr. Ruth, who works for a powerful weapons-development corporation called ConSec, reassures the scared Cameron that he will be fine and helps him tame the jumbled voices of others floating around inside his head with an experimental drug called ephemerol. Cameron comes to learn how to control his special abilities and is soon thereafter charged with a dangerous task: infiltrate an underground organization of scanners led by the demented Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) so that the corporation may take down the killer.

Based on Dr. Ruth's explanation, Revok is a dangerous rogue scanner that is actively seeking out all others with this special ability to force them to either join his organization or die horribly. Indeed we see a demonstration of Revok's power as he infiltrates the ConSec headquarters and has a battle of minds with an unsuspecting scanner that ends with his victim's head literally exploding. The assassination having been successfully completed, Revok escapes the corporation's security forces with relative ease.

Cameron eventually crosses paths with some others like him that are neither affiliated with ConSec or Revok, but soon thereafter Revok's hit squads hunt the independent scanners down like dogs until eventually only Cameron and Kim Obrist (Jennifer O'Neill) remain. Together Cameron and Kim urgently struggle to help ConSec locate and destroy Revok to ensure their own safety, but they soon discover that all is not necessarily as it appears, and the people you think you can trust are actually the most dangerous.

Although Scanners is a horror film that packs a few gory punches, it gets under your skin psychologically rather than viscerally. The premise, the happenings and the thought-provoking tension all trigger the mind more so than the body, and its this that makes Scanners an above average sci-fi horror.

One of the standout elements to the film was the creepy soundtrack; it lends a foreboding blanket to the movie's happenings.

The acting tends to be across the board in this film. I wasn't terribly impressed with Jennifer O'Neill's performance, but Stephen Lack more than anyone came off fairly wooden. Due to the roles they played, their stiff acting didn't really hurt Scanners too much… they were playing social misfits unaccustomed to blending in with "normal" society, so the sometimes awkward performances could arguably help reflect this.

On the other hand Patrick McGoohan put through an absorbing and wonderfully eccentric performance as Dr. Ruth. While he trained Cameron there was little doubt which actor owned the screen. Michael Ironside has always been one of the most consistent and underrated actors to ever grace the screen, and I could think of few who could rival his sinister performance as the disturbed scanner Revok.

When compared to the typical horror flick some may find the pace a bit slower than they are accustomed to, but considering the depth of the story I found Scanners to move along at an acceptable rate. Once again, the film focuses on absorbing you into the story rather than providing a constant bombardment of false tension and "jump" scares.

All in all Scanners is a satisfying, though imperfect, psychological horror film that possesses a solid cast, an intriguing premise and Cronenberg's typical pessimistic touch. If the type of plot outlined above would generally interest you, you'll want to give this early 80's offering a try.

Movie rating: 7 stars

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