Review of Scanners (1981) by Eli?Ka P — 04 Feb 2017

I don't think I'd seen this film since the days of VHS and I was quite surprised what a good film this was. In my mind, I'd lumped this film with writer/director David Cronenberg's other early films, like "Rabid" or "The Brood," which were interesting and smartly off-beat genre films, but nowhere as great as his later films.

Even though his earlier films may not have been his best, Cronenberg has been thematically very consistent throughout his career and "Scanners" too taps into his favorite psychological themes and his obsession with body transformation.

As with most of his films, he explores these themes through science fiction and/or horror stories, and "Scanners" is not an exception, although I do feel this film was a bit more action/suspense oriented than as much of an arthouse/genre mash-up of his other films.

The story follows a private security firm using telekinetics (scanners) to battle a renegade scanner who has a mysterious plan. Michael Ironside memorably plays the lead bad scanner. Patrick McGoohan plays the leader of the private security firm who's lost all of his scanners and is forced to fine one to help him stop Ironside.

On the surface level, the film is an exciting (and gory) thriller, but on the subtextual level it does delve into some of Cronenberg's personal obsessions, but not quite as deeply as some of the best films ("Dead Ringers" is his best).

Like most of Cronenberg's films, they likely will not appeal to a wide audience (they're too gory and weird for the art house crowd and they're also too offbeat and "artsy" for the gorehound horror crowd), but if you're in that sweet spot that enjoys literate horror and science fiction, this is one you don't want to miss.