Review: Scanners

Stephen Lack stars as Cameron Vale, who discovers he is a ‘Scanner’, someone with extraordinary psychic powers. He is trained to hone these powers by eccentric scientist Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan). The idea is for Vale to infiltrate an underground movement of Scanners, led by the cold-blooded Daryl Revok (Michael Ironside), a murderous Scanner who can make people’s heads explode. Jennifer O’Neill plays Kim, another Scanner who is part of a kind of Scanner think tank. Lawrence Dane plays the clearly untrustworthy head of the organisation Dr. Ruth works for.

 

Of all the films about mentalists or psychics, here’s one of the only ones you really need to see. This 1981 flick from writer-director David Cronenberg (“The Dead Zone”, “The Fly”, “Eastern Promises”, “A Dangerous Method”) has a few wobbly performances here and there, but is for the most part great fun for people who like exploding heads. That’s everyone, right? One of Cronenberg’s best films for sure, if not quite the equal of “The Dead Zone” (the other psychic powers film you need to see, unless you count “Carrie”, which is about telekinesis). Although completely fucked up, it’s not quite as weird as “Videodrome” or some of Cronenberg’s more bizarre work, but it’s definitely a cult item and better than some give it credit for.

 

The story is genuinely interesting, and aside from a few dud performances, it’s a real winner. You certainly can’t tell that the script was mostly written on the fly. Patrick McGoohan is an interesting, idiosyncratic actor and a good choice to play the doctor here. He’s very strange, and has you a bit off-kilter throughout, which is perfect for the film. He’s got a very distinctive voice and he just doesn’t give line readings the way others do. He has his own vibe. I could also easily have seen Donald Pleasence in the role, actually, but McGoohan is rock-solid nonetheless. The show is stolen, however by Canadian character actor extraordinaire Michael Ironside, who gives a wonderfully chilling, Jack Nicholson-esque performance. He’s listed fifth in the credits, but believe me, he’s the guy you’ll remember as the ‘evil’ scanner. Filling out duties as the ‘good’ scanner is the very robotic Stephen Lack, who sure does. He’s a completely bland and uninteresting presence on screen. Jennifer O’Neill, meanwhile, is just OK. Given the mediocrity amongst the rest of the cast (and lead actor Lack), it’s a real shame we couldn’t get a Brad Dourif, Henry Silva, or Meg Foster in here somewhere. Pretty sure Foster’s a scanner for real. What?

 

The film has a synth score by Howard Shore (“Panic Room”, the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy). I’m not always a fan of synth, but in this film it works for sure. Aside from the unforgettable opener with Ironside, there’s a brilliantly insane bit where an unborn child (!) actually tries to ‘scan’ Jennifer O’Neill. Although a tad silly, the gory FX-filled finale is a lot of fun and the FX hold up quite well for a reasonably low-budget Canadian film from 34 years ago.

 

With memorably gory FX, a compelling and slightly silly plot, and a fantastic villainous performance by Michael Ironside, this one’s good bloody fun for people who like exploding heads. The squeamish need not apply, but it’s no single-minded gore-fest, either. One of the best films of its type, undoubtedly, it’s like “X-Men” (or even “The Terminator” when you think about it) but Canadian and with exploding heads. How about a Robert Rodriguez remake with Michael Shannon or Paul Bettany in for Ironside, and Jake Gyllenhaal in for Stephen Lack? Just putting it out there.

 

Rating: B