Scanners
Title: ScannersRating: 2.5/5
Genre: Horror, Sci Fi, Thriller
Starring: Michael Ironside, Stephen Lack
Director: David Cronenberg
“All right. We're gonna do this the scanner way. I'm gonna suck your brain dry!”
Perhaps mis-marketed as a ‘Classic Horror’ film, for apart from its age, at no point did it really feel like a horror film should; there was no attempt to provide any sort of disbelief or scares, no psychological tampering and only a couple of really ‘gory’ scenes. Instead what we are left with as an unconventional thriller with a constantly evolving plot as we follow the lead through his journey until the final (rather bizarre) conclusion. Understandably on a low budget, and approaching 30 years old I was expecting a few shortcomings with regards to the effects but unfortunately they ended up being the films biggest asset.
We are quickly introduced to the notion of a scanner, a human capable of not only reading someone’s thoughts, but also of controlling them, linking to their nervous system to control their heart rate or even raising their blood pressure until various body parts explode. Many scanners have great difficulty in understanding or controlling their abilities, hearing multiple voices in their head they are often either declared insane or attempt to escape civilisation. With the help of ‘Dr. Ruth,’ he is able to teach the lead, ‘Christian Vale’ (Lack) to control his abilities, and silence the voices with the assistance of a drug called ‘ephemerol.’ He is then sent to kill a scanner assassin, Revak (Ironside), ruthlessly killing all those who refuse to join his cause.
Most of the performances were mediocre, but the lead role played by Stephen Lack was quite frankly awful. He was clear and concise, but also void of any emotion. Appearing entirely calm despite being shot at, the generic ‘love interest’ didn’t look as though he noticed, and in a film such as this actually being able to identify with the character would have done wonders for the overall sense of interest in what occurs. On the other hand, Revak (performed by the then young Ironside) foreshadows the career ahead of him, with an unnatural calmness, a sense of power and control combined with a keen intellect makes him an excellent cold and calculating enemy, who quite frankly would have made for a far more interesting character to follow.
Quickly getting under way, the introductions were handled in a perhaps confusing but concise manner, giving ample explanation after the event, but the script often left a lot to be desired. The ‘conspiracy twist’ became obvious all too quickly, the scene changes where often jarring and required a few moments to figure out where they were, and some locations seemed rather bizarre; his sudden inexplicable discovery of where other scanners were hiding, and the unexplained and wholly confusing ending just two unavoidable issues.
Yet despite all these issues, two prominent scenes stand out, and not coincidentally because they are both the ‘gore’ scenes. In the time of low-budget 80s effects they have succeeded in performing ‘mind-blowingly’ well (pardon the pun), and this is perhaps worth watching just for those scenes alone, but I cant quite see how this has been remembered so long, as there is certainly little of note presented here. If you want a film displaying Cronenberg at his best, go rent “The Fly.” Want a film about telepathic people able to make peoples heads explode, watch the Animé “Akira” as the action comes more frequently and the characters are more believable. As for “Scanners,” it would have made a far better gore-flick.
Genre: Horror, Sci Fi, Thriller
Starring: Michael Ironside, Stephen Lack
Director: David Cronenberg
“All right. We're gonna do this the scanner way. I'm gonna suck your brain dry!”
Perhaps mis-marketed as a ‘Classic Horror’ film, for apart from its age, at no point did it really feel like a horror film should; there was no attempt to provide any sort of disbelief or scares, no psychological tampering and only a couple of really ‘gory’ scenes. Instead what we are left with as an unconventional thriller with a constantly evolving plot as we follow the lead through his journey until the final (rather bizarre) conclusion. Understandably on a low budget, and approaching 30 years old I was expecting a few shortcomings with regards to the effects but unfortunately they ended up being the films biggest asset.
We are quickly introduced to the notion of a scanner, a human capable of not only reading someone’s thoughts, but also of controlling them, linking to their nervous system to control their heart rate or even raising their blood pressure until various body parts explode. Many scanners have great difficulty in understanding or controlling their abilities, hearing multiple voices in their head they are often either declared insane or attempt to escape civilisation. With the help of ‘Dr. Ruth,’ he is able to teach the lead, ‘Christian Vale’ (Lack) to control his abilities, and silence the voices with the assistance of a drug called ‘ephemerol.’ He is then sent to kill a scanner assassin, Revak (Ironside), ruthlessly killing all those who refuse to join his cause.
Most of the performances were mediocre, but the lead role played by Stephen Lack was quite frankly awful. He was clear and concise, but also void of any emotion. Appearing entirely calm despite being shot at, the generic ‘love interest’ didn’t look as though he noticed, and in a film such as this actually being able to identify with the character would have done wonders for the overall sense of interest in what occurs. On the other hand, Revak (performed by the then young Ironside) foreshadows the career ahead of him, with an unnatural calmness, a sense of power and control combined with a keen intellect makes him an excellent cold and calculating enemy, who quite frankly would have made for a far more interesting character to follow.
Quickly getting under way, the introductions were handled in a perhaps confusing but concise manner, giving ample explanation after the event, but the script often left a lot to be desired. The ‘conspiracy twist’ became obvious all too quickly, the scene changes where often jarring and required a few moments to figure out where they were, and some locations seemed rather bizarre; his sudden inexplicable discovery of where other scanners were hiding, and the unexplained and wholly confusing ending just two unavoidable issues.
Yet despite all these issues, two prominent scenes stand out, and not coincidentally because they are both the ‘gore’ scenes. In the time of low-budget 80s effects they have succeeded in performing ‘mind-blowingly’ well (pardon the pun), and this is perhaps worth watching just for those scenes alone, but I cant quite see how this has been remembered so long, as there is certainly little of note presented here. If you want a film displaying Cronenberg at his best, go rent “The Fly.” Want a film about telepathic people able to make peoples heads explode, watch the Animé “Akira” as the action comes more frequently and the characters are more believable. As for “Scanners,” it would have made a far better gore-flick.
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