Review of Scanners (1981) by Matt G — 12 Jun 2015
About 20 minutes into this challenging film that goes nowhere, the "Citizen Kane"-equivalent of horror violence occurs when a man's head literally explodes. I imagine it must have been akin to seeing color TV for the first time for audiences back in 1981.
The good news is, if you make it this far, you will have seen the best part of Cronenberg's look at Jedi-like mental manipulators in Canada trying to track down one of their own who goes on a murdering rampage (mostly by making a man drive his car full of passengers into an accident and, you know what - just typing that out further emphasizes to me how much this movie wants to be a gripping horror thriller but can't figure out how or hold our attention.
.. it took me 42 minutes to type this sentence out just by thinking about this movie). This movie sounds like it would be dynamic and exciting. It isn't. It could be engaging and conversation-driven, right? It isn't.
Seriously, try and care about any of these people in this. I think it is impossible. Cronenberg has made worse films (see "Crash," which, for as bad as that was, is still leagues ahead of the 2004 Oscar-winning "Crash"), but none have been this likely to induce a coma.
This review of Scanners (1981) was written by Matt G on 12 Jun 2015.
Scanners has generally received positive reviews.
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