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Picture
An unassuming man learns he is a very powerful psychic and is recruited
​by a scientist to help stop a renegade psychic from taking over the world.
HORROR/SCI-FI

Scanners (1981)

Written and Directed by David Cronenberg

Starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Patrick McGoohan,
​Michael Ironside, Lawrence Dane 

Connor Eyzaguirre
November 1, 2020
7/10
Scanners has been on my list for years. David Cronenberg is one of those cult directors whose work I'd like to see in its entirety. I'm a huge fan of The Fly, and I enjoyed The Brood, The Dead Zone, A History of Violence, and Eastern Promises, and while I thought Videodrome and Dead Ringers had issues, they were decent watches. I had high hopes for Scanners, and I was pretty disappointed. The special effects are lights-out, but the movie has no plot. None of the characters seem to have any interest in moving the story forward apart from Michael Ironside, who stole the show. There was nothing to keep me invested, and the film ends so abruptly and out of the blue, resolving nothing.

Our hero of Scanners is Cameron Vale (Lack), a blank-faced, monotone homeless man who is told by a wacky scientist that he is society's only hope against a powerful sect of humans known as scanners. Cameron is a scanner, meaning he has the power to read minds, take control of them, and destroy them if he wants. Another scanner named Darryl Revok (Ironside) is amassing an army of evil scanners to conquer the world, and Cameron is recruited to stop him with zero training or preparation. There's some twists and turns, including a big one that just feels forced, and then it's over. There's a brief battle of wills between Cameron and Revok, but we don't know what's at stake. It's almost insulting to the audience at times.

Scanners is known mostly these days as the movie where the guy's head explodes. And that's correct, though the effect isn't that hardcore anymore. The effects in the final battle were far more effective, I thought. I just wish this movie had more to say. The concept is so exciting and engaging that I want the movie behind the concept to be just as good. This film is a cult classic now, and I understand why, but if you're looking for a solid sci-fi story, you should probably keep looking.

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Filmgazm is made by movie lovers for movie lovers. We believe in the magic of film and we aim celebrate films of all genres and throughout cinema history, regardless of who's behind the camera or who financed it. We at Filmgazm believe that every film deserves to be reviewed on its own merits and that's what we are here to do. Enjoy the show!
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