Review of Scanners (1981) by Art S — 29 Nov 2012
Early Cronenberg, so you know there are going to be some gruesome special effects...and there were (but not as many as I expected). Instead, this is a film of awesome facial expressions -- these guys are really concentrating! Like De Palma's The Fury from a few years earlier, Scanners focuses on people with psychic powers who can use them to control other people's actions.
How this new group of people came to exist fits in well with Cronenberg's oeuvre at the time and what they might do with their powers if they teamed up (or were controlled by the military-industrial complex) fits in with the spirit of the era.
However, Cronenberg's film gets lost somewhere and although the crazy narrative of the plot makes for a weird alternate reality, the characters don't all connect.
This review of Scanners (1981) was written by Art S on 29 Nov 2012.
Scanners has generally received positive reviews.
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