The Great Unwatched: Scanners

We continue our series, 'The Great Unwatched' with 'Scanners', though this is a bit of a cheat.  I've seen parts of it over the years, but never the whole thing.  I've owned it for probably 4 years or so.

So it seems there are a bunch of folks out there that not only can read your thoughts, but can control your body and do some truly nasty things to you.  Let's call them 'Scanners'.  There's one particular Scanner named Darryl Revok, played by the always bad ass Michael Ironside.  Man, that's a great last name.  Ironside.  

So Revok is recruiting other Scanners to fight the evil ConSec corporation.  Well, that's his story at least.  ConSec recruits a Mr. Cameron Vale.  Vale doesn't understand what's happening to him as his abilities develop.  He begins working with Dr. Paul Ruth, played by Patrick McGoohan of 'The Prisoner' fame.  Ruth trains Vale to harness his abilities in order to stop Revok.  

Conceptually, I love Scanners. It has some truly inspired moments, and features another memorable scene from a Cronenberg film, as we discussed last time with 'The Brood'.  I'm sure you're all familiar with the 80's nerdy guy's head exploding.  Just YouTube 'Scanners', and it'll come right up (in fact, the whole film is available to watch) But unlike 'The Brood', 'Scanners' does not feel as accomplished.  The most distracting part being the performance of our hero, Stephen Lack.  He pulls you out of the film each time he's on screen.  It's as if he's reading his lines off a teleprompter, after being dared to suck the emotion out of every line.  But one thing it does excel at, is cheesy 80's sci-fi/horror goodness.  It seeps out of the film.  Everything you may love about that genre during that time, over the top acting, cheesy special effects and gore, and oh those fashions!

Overall the film is a success.  Not as good as 'The Brood', but Cronenberg delivers again, even with a troubled shoot.  It seems they were indeed writing the movie as the filmed due to Canadian film tax regulations at the time.  It's an engaging, sci-fi thriller with a nice twist at the end that it does a fine job of masking.  Definitely worth a rental.

Grade: B-

Next: The John Huston noir classic, 'The Asphalt Jungle'.