eduardovictory Film Review: SCANNERS (1981)

Day 1

SCANNERS

David Cronenberg's "Scanners" is a modern science fiction horror picture... released 32 years ago. It seems Mr. Cronenberg was right on the nose in crafting a corporate espionage picture that was as captivating as Christopher Nolan's "Inception". However the true drama in this film comes from the brilliance of the film's screenplay, also written by its director. Where the film suffers most is from its lead actors, who unfortunately provide rather dull performances at times.

Of the world's entire population, there are 237 known "scanners", people with extraordinary telekinetic powers that allow them to enter and manipulate the minds of others. ConSec once had in its grasp all 237 of these gifted people, all of whom were lost after the most powerful scanner on Earth, Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) demonstrated the abilities of his power. Revok is waging a war against ConSec, starting an underground army, built up of other renegade scanners. However, Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan), has found one that was unaccounted for and must convert him to the cause to help stop Revok.

Cronenberg's script works on multiple levels. The film can fit the categories of a thriller, action film, horror movie, or science fiction drama. Corporate espionage has become a genre all its own in recent years as well. Scanners is a film that terrifies us based on a very frightening "what if" type of question. What if normal people, to you and me, could get inside of our heads and force us to commit atrocities against people we love, hate, or have no relation to? What if they could force us to crash our cars into walls or put a gun to our very heads? Or worst of all, what if they could force young kids to worship teen idols who stick their tongues out of their mouths all the time, twerk, and urinate in buckets!?

The film's main protagonist, Cameron Vale (played by Stephen Lack) is a vagrant, introduced to us at the food court of a shopping mall, eating off of abandoned food trays and smoking a cigarette. Based on the nature of the introduction of Vale and the development of the story in act III (which I will not mention for those curious enough to watch the film).

Like the Scanners in the film, our society pushes the mentally ill to the very fringe of the social machine and they themselves, can't function normally in the everyday routines. Cronenberg explores both of these scenarios in his film as Vale is questioned by Dr. Ruth as to why he is 35 years old and is "such a derelict" - and a later scene in which the scanner's symptom of hearing voices can be suppressed by a drug, allowing them to function normally, without any problem. Is this a solution that Cronenberg says people would love to have for such a complicated problem? One shot that will cure a complex health issue?

Or perhaps it was just entertainment. And in that case, the film's biggest fault lies with it's star, Stephen Lack, who is greatly miscast as the Vale, often times sounding like he's reading his lines from a cue card off-screen. Given this issue though, I greatly relied on its supporting characters to make for most of the drama lacking from Lack's performance (no pun was intended there). Michael Ironside makes an incredible appearance as the nastily deranged villain Revok before playing another baddie in Paul Verhoven's "Total Recall" (1990) nine years later. But the fact that the main character, the person we were supposed to care for most, seemed bored half the time in the actor's delivery of his dialogue and performance brought this film down for me.

Coolest of all is Dick Smith's effects work. Particularly during the scanning demonstration and the film's final 10 or so minutes. There's no proof needed as to why the man changed the way special effects makeup was done and ushered in the modern era of effects makeup for guys like Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero. However, it wasn't with this film, but rather a movie he worked on for William Friedkin called "The Exorcist".

Scanners was a film that made me think and perhaps that is what is was meant to do. The script strives for far too much to be just another piece of entertainment. Fascinatingly enough, Cronenberg has said that he had so little time for preproduction that the film had to begin shooting on an incomplete script, writing, revising, and editing as he went along. Though not the best, this was a movie I really dug and will definitely watch again in the future.

6.5 /10