An okay thriller, with some fantasic gory effects. The exploding head being the obvious winner, but the veins at the end were pretty gross too. Too slowly paced to be entirely engaging, but the story is a good one. Pity the setting and characters aren't too interesting.
I probably would have loved this movie in high school...
I've become a David Cronenberg fan of late. That fandom came from his more tame efforts of A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. Those movies were fantastic. But I've also seen some of the movies that really define David Croenenberg's career, like Videodrome and Naked Lunch. While I liked both movies, the bio-gore factor just always turned me off a little. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of inanimate things pulsing and pussing all over the place. I'm more of a fan of character drama. Unfortunately for Scanners, my favorite parts of the movie were the bio-gore stuff.
This movie is kind of considered to be a sci-fi / horror classic. The big problem is that the movie is crazy aimless and almost unnecessary. Really, you are watching the movie for heads plowing up and the bleeding eyes. Those things are fun and cool and all we really know about it is that a bad guy is doing it. Great. But the plot here is totally useless. The only thing you really need to know is that some people have super-mental powers that pretty much have little to no relevance on the film itself. What I mean is that there are long and boring discussions of how Scanners came about and whatnot and those incomprehensible discussions lead to the next scene. Somewhere in that technobabble was an explanation of why they have to go to where they have to go. Damned if I understood it.
Maybe that's being a bit too harsh. I did understand a good chunk of it. Mostly, I just didn't care. Scanners really suffers from that over-the-top sci-fi problem where it doesn't focus on its characters, but on the weirdness of the entire situation. The best sci-fi stuff has real people dealing with a problem that is almost beyond their comprehension. You see fear and people talking to one another as opposed to praddling on with useless exposition. Really, exposition drives one scene to the the next in Scanners and that is a shame.
What really bothered me is the acting in this film. Michael Ironside brings his normal, awesome performance, but the main character was just flat as could be. There was no range of delivery and it almost felt like he was reading from a cue card. His female co-star was almost on the same level. Asking from chemistry from one another was asking a lot because they don't have solitary energy whatsoever. It was like asking snails to fall in love. I know that a lot of horror doesn't have some great acting, but Croenenberg is a real director. I'm surprised that he settled with a lot of these performances.
Probably the best parts of this movie are the biogore and Michael Ironside. I found myself waiting for the next moment for David Cronenberg to gross me out. He uses a variety of ridiculously violent effects to keep the audience on board for this movie. Really, you can be disappointed for a while after you see one of these effects because it's probably going to be a while before you see another one of them. But, again, once they showed up, it was usually a good time. I did and didn't like the fact that the Scanners' powers were not defined. At first, I thought it was just brain melting and exploding, but really these characters seem to be ultra-powerful in limitless ways. It gave Cronenberg that bloody pallate that he oh-so-desperately needed to work with in this movie, so I respect that. But if you were following the story (why?), then I imagine I would be a little frustrated with the lack of limits or guidelines set.
It's mildly entertaining. I would plan a double-feature with this movie with something significantly stronger of Cronenbergs before really venturing into this territory.
to my knowledge, the first david cronenberg film i ever saw. a pretty intense movie about "scanners" - people with very powerful mental abilities. micheal ironside plays a very good villain in this movie. if you like david cronenberg's movies, then i suggest you watch this!
the plot is laughable and the effects are outdated. the movie was goofy which made it good. fuck mgm for releasing the dvd the way it is though. the last reel of the film is out of sync with the audio which pretty much ruins the last 30 mins of the movie. i recommend you watch this movie on tape if you can find it.
It's overly easy to get on a Cronenberg kick, his bizarre combination of sci-fi and horror definitely hit the spot providing one has a little patience. I don't always have patience and admittedly at first I found this one to be a little bit confusing. Still at the same time I found the story to be very interesting, the effects are cool and it's a fun movie, I just had a couple of questions when all was said and done.
What happens is that we have a really powerful group of folks with psychic power and the ability to control minds called Scanners (go fig). Anyhow a doctor finds one of these powerful scanners to compete with the "head scanner" and interrupt his plan to take over the world.
It's a really weird tale and it feels very clinical and cold. It's not exactly horrific nor scary, but there are a few scenes which really must be seen (I'm not going to ruin them for you). It's a great idea and it's a pretty fun film to watch but it can be a little confusing and too odd in places to really be awesome. Still it packs quite a punch though and it's definitely inventive and the effects are really something.
Extremely subtle, gory and fun attempt of an action/sci-fi thriller with the usual Cronenberg trademarks such as machinery of evil and horror from within. The creepy Michael Ironside, the exploding head and the final scanner duel make the film worthwhile.
Ever since I first saw the cover to this movie, I wanted to see it. Now that I have I am disappointed. I thought it had great potential, but failed to create the fantastical mind bending experience I was longing for. The over the top acting and drawn out staring at each other with our heads tweaking, trying to kill one another, got old quickly. Even the surprise ending was lacking in imagination.
Oh dear... this film is on the list of films to see before you die... I started to watch it and I just couldn't... I'm just not good with science stuff and got bored, even with the head exploding! Is this film worth watching? Please, can someone let me know... does it get more interesting?
una de las grandes obras de cronenberg. aca esta bien presente una de sus obsesiones mas grandes: la lucha entre el bien y el mal, algo que, si bien se encuentra demasaido en la historia del cine, en "scanners" esta visto de una forma, claro, rara, oscura, fantastica.
cabezas que explotan, caras que se derriten, y una imagenieria mas deudora del comic que del cine de terror son algunas de las cartas que juega cronenberg en esta pelicula, una obra ineludible de su carrera
Good idea for a movie, but dear god was this a suck-fest. I'd heard it talked up so much that perhaps my expectations were too high, but nothing about this movie made it worth the 2 hours of my life it wasted - abysmal acting, boring pacing, only 2 special effects shots IN THE WHOLE FILM? And they were what, an hour and a half apart? Save yourself the trouble and skip this one.
Terrible, with two capital T's. Like this- TTerrible. The only good parts are when the bad guy blows up a dude's head in the very beginning, and when...oh wait, no that was the only good part. And the ending? The movie has all kinds of stuff to wrap up, and instead the bad guy magically sucks up the mind of his brother and they are one. Then end. Wow. Crap.
Paul Ruth: You are 35 years old, Mr. Vale. Why are you such a derelict? Such a piece of human junk? [pause] The answer's simple. You're a scanner, which you don't realize. And that has been the source of all your agony. But I will show you now that it can be a source of great power.
This is a neat sci-fi thriller from director David Cronenberg that has a very good premise that could have been a better movie if the characters were handled better than the plot.
The story involves a select group of humans with an extraordinary power.
Cameron Vale: You called me a scanner. What is that? Paul Ruth: Freak of nature, born with a certain form of ESP; derangement of the synapses which we call telepathy.
One of these scanners is Cameron Vale. He starts out at the beginning of the movie acting as a bum, before being recruited by a big company to stop another Scanner, played by Michael Ironside.
Ironside's character, Darryl Revok, is a powerful scanner bent on creating scanners all over the world, ruling over them, and getting rid of anyone in his way.
It is now up to Cameron to find Revok and stop him before it is too late.
Opposed to other Cronenberg features, which involve characters facing situations that usually have an extraordinary or at least conflicting dilemma to deal with but keeps its emphasis on the characters, this film is more about its plot, which becomes a little silly. There are evil corporations, people held at gun point with bad guy dialog in there way, and car chases.
Also, Stephen Lack as Cameron Vale is kind of bland. I can see why he was chosen for the part, his eyes are perfect for being a scanner, but the villain Revok is a much more interesting character that we do not see enough of. A movie focusing on him could have been even cooler.
However, the concept of this movie is really good and there are a lot of memorable moments, including the climatic scanner battle, and other scattered moments thanks to the good looking effects and the coolness that is Michael Ironside. Frequent Cronenberg collaborator, Howard Shore, also delivers a good score that works for the film.
Programmer: There's no need for that. It's just internal switching. Braedon Keller: Yeah? No one's ever switched off a scanner before!
to my knowledge, the first david cronenberg film i ever saw. a pretty intense movie about "scanners" - people with very powerful mental abilities. micheal ironside plays a very good villain in this movie. if you like david cronenberg's movies, then i suggest you watch this!
At first I thought the idea of these scanners was interesting, but the actor in the lead role was just pathetic and ruined most of the film for me. Nevertheless Michael Ironside was cool as well as the overall story and gory parts.
I couldn't believe how bad this film was! I was expecting the best SF film of modern times, but the whole time I was just thinking how well it would fit in MST. Saying that though, I think I was expecting too much, and there are some OK ideas. The acting is just terribly hammy, and they don't make the most of the basic premise.
Hoohoohoo! Wouldn't it be great to be able to make people's heads explode? This is such a great argument in favor of fully testing chemicals before releasing them to the general population for consumption. Well written, well acted and such a great take on movies about psychics.
An art film disguised as a horror movie. It earns its 3 stars just for the exploding head scene alone. However, it does drag at times and is severely dated.
This of course is the first David Cronenberg movie that doesn't make you feel unbearably crawly as you're watching it. Nicely crawly, this time - the ambiance is chilly and slightly off, the Philip-K-Dick-does-the-Thalidomide-story conceit rocks at budget rates, and the actors pull it out - and in this I include Stephen Lack. The monotonal, retentive, totally unreadable Lack creates a heavy undertow of student-artfilm here, he's almost a human distancing effect. I can't say I regret that this movie does not get into gender commentary. Just telephones melting, tracking shots of computer boards, head-damage fetishism, people getting thrown around. Just the necessities.
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