Movies: Scanners

Movies concerning telepaths or mind-controllers, like "Village of the Damned" and "Scanners," seem to contain particular staple scenes. There's always a telepath commanding a person to commit suicide, there's always a long extended shot of a psychic struggle (invariably involving lots of grunting), and there are usually explosions (because everyone knows the best way to kill a telepath is by blowing him or her up).

"Scanners" is probably one of the most...Canadian...of these efforts. The titular scanners are human mutants with the ability to read people's thoughts, bend their will, and even destroy their very bodies. Naturally, such people would make perfect weapons, but a scanner leader named Revok is emerging and plans to (what else?) rule the world. Even more naturally, a lone scanner will rise up to oppose Revok.

There are some good performances here, including a fatherly turn from Patrick McGoohan (of "The Prisoner" fame) and a nasty villain in Revok, played by Michael Ironside. The car chases, shootouts, and various locales are pretty pedestrian though, giving the proceedings a fairly bland aftertaste. One fun scene includes an ordinary phone booth exploding like it has a bunch of thermite charges planted underneath it.

Breaking from the usual biohorror mold, director David Cronenberg is not really treading any new ground in this movie. In fact, the primary reason the film's still remembered at all is one pivotal scene:



Even an exploding head, though, doesn't make a film a classic...

Rating: 7/10