Scanners Movie Review By William Pauley III 
"I'm gonna suck your brain dry!" screams Darryl Revok, a scanner with grandiose delusions, arousing a telepathic war with his scanner brother, Cameron Vale. Cameron's body is thrown back by the extraordinary strength of Revok's scan, his veins thicken with a sudden surge of blood and burst through his skin. He must fight back! Revok, a bit surprised at his brother's telepathic strength, struggles with trying to keep control of his scan and simultaneously trying to block out Cameron's scan. Revok's face becomes swollen with inflated capillaries. Revok then redirects his scan to focus on his brother's heart. Blood boils out of his chest like burning acid. Cameron begins to dig his fingernails deep into his own face, ripping generous portions of flesh from his skull in jagged strips, all Revok's doing [some scanners have the ability to control other humans like a marionette puppet]. Cameron regains control, sending a scan so powerful that he bursts into flames. Revok wails, his eyes suddenly turning white... Damn. It's rare that a film that causes me to involuntarily say "damn" afterword, but Scanners is one of those films. In the movie, Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), who has been living as a derelict, is recruited by Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) to track down a renegade scanner named Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside), who is out recruiting scanners of his own [taking the 'join or die' approach] to join his scanner revolution. What is a scanner? A scanner is a human being who was exposed to the [fictional] drug Ephemerol while in utero. The drug caused the babies to develop extra-sensitive telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Scanners have the ability to transfer information and control vital organs, which, as turns out, is a helpful tool in creating an empire to control the world. There is tons of over-the-top gore here, including the occasional exploding head. The special effects in this movie, pulled off masterfully by the geniuses Dick Smith (The Exorcist) and Gary Zeller (Altered States), still make me queasy even 28 years after the film was originally released [1981]. The acting in the film is subpar, with one exception: Michael Ironside. Ironside is one of those actors that was simply born with the word "badass" tattooed on his face. The intensity that he brings to the movie cannot be matched or recreated. His character, Darryl Revok, will forever be on my "all-time favorite badass villains" list. The director, David Cronenberg, has been quoted saying that this film was a "nightmare" to create, citing the short two week pre-production period as the primary reason for most of their difficulties. Cronenberg did not have time to finish the script before shooting began, which forced him to write between the hours of 4 am and 7am for scenes that they would shoot immediately after. Also, the production design team did not have any time to build any sets, forcing them to literally drive around until they found a proper place to shoot. Cronenberg tends to take a scientific approach when crafting his films (The Fly, The Brood, Dead Ringers), which successfully gives his horror a frightening sense of inevitability - that the worlds he creates may very well be our future if science continues its potentially hazardous meddling. And knowing, of course, that science will never cease to discover or create... we're doomed. |
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