FILM GUTTER REVIEWS: SCANNERS (1981)

3/6/2021

SCANNERS (1981)

Dir. David Cronenberg,
103 mins

Welcome back to the final installment of Cronenberg month, where this time around we'll be taking a look at one of the director's better-known movies, the telepathic odyssey that is Scanners. Hard to believe this one was released the year I was born, but there you go. Even if you haven't seen this movie for yourself, there's a reasonable chance that you'll recognise the moment where a character's head explodes from its various uses as an internet meme. Of course that's a memorable scene, but there's plenty more to this feature than just that one thing – so let's get into it, shall we...

The story follows Cameron Vale, a shiftless drifter with a dangerous secret – he can 'scan' people, effectively a form of telepathy that allows him to read the thoughts of others as well as affecting the minds of those around him (if he really puts the effort into it). However all those streams of subconscious thought are rather overwhelming, until he is discovered by Dr Paul Ruth an introduced to Ephemerol, a drug that can reduce the volume of thoughts and allow clarity to re-emerge. But Ruth has a motive beyond purely helping out – there is a dangerous rogue Scanner out there in the form of Daryll Revok, and it's up to Vale to help stop him before he kills the entirety of the Scanner underground. What follows is a dark tale of underground intrigue so typical of the Cronenberg 'brand' at this point, but probably the best he had delivered up until this stage.

There's plenty to like here, and it's not surprising this one has cemented a firm place as a favourite in the director's back catalogue. While the technology involved here clearly dates it, if you view it as a sort of time capsule it still holds up really well today. Stephen Lack is perfectly serviceable in the lead, deliberately playing things down for this own sanity, while there are great turns from Jennifer O'Neill and specifically Michael Ironside, who has always been a great movie bad guy and shines in his limited screen time here. Patrick McGoohan also does a fine job as Dr Paul Ruth. All of that is backed up by an intriguing storyline that takes you down numerous twists and turns, delving deeper and deeper into the secret world of Scanners, its internal politics and just how much people outside of the group would love to exploit their potent powers. It certainly suggests a much wider world, and the ending does leave things fascinatingly open-ended. While there were sequels to this, as well as neo-sequels in the form of the Scanner Cop movies, none of those had Cronenberg involved and as such I've not checked those out. It's possible they may continue the story, but I couldn't say for sure. It would have been great to see Cronenberg come back or, if I can dare say the word, maybe see some sort of remake in the near future? It's pretty rare you hear me say that, although there could be something to a modern spin on this one.

RATING: 9/10. Not really much to criticise here, and you'd have to nitpick pretty hard not to get something out of this one. This feels like we're getting ever closer to the David Cronenberg that would ultimately bring us stone-cold body horror classics like Videodrome and The Fly, and certainly ranks the best of what we've seen so far this month. There are some strong acting performances from a great cast, a really interesting and powerful core concept, plenty of surprises and unexpected moments within the plot and a really likeable finale that did rather beg for a Cronenberg-led sequel that sadly we never got. Obviously there were bigger fish to fry elsewhere for the director, and looking at what followed he probably made the right decision to leave this setting behind ultimately. So it's a striking 9/10 – and you didn't even need to read my mind to know it would get that sort of mark...

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