| | | | Scanners
(1981) |
n the early 80's the home video boom was in full swing. One thing that helped fuel this boom is not often discussed but must have been a significant factor: 'video nasties' and the millions of teenagers worldwide who suddenly found that they had relatively easy access to them.
Looking back now, it must have been a match made in heaven. Extreme images of simulated gore coupled with an invention that allowed excited teenagers access to them when their parents were out.
Many of the most gory or terrifying movies passed into legend at high schools round the world, which brings us on to... "Scanners".
A moderate success when released theatrically, Scanners was a huge success on home video, due, almost entirely to the infamous 'exploding head' sequence that immediately passed into schoolyard legend. Millions of copies must have been hired for this reason alone and, for many teens, the rest of the movie, a tense and relatively slow paced psychological thriller with only two sequences of real gore, must have come as a bit of a disappointment.
-At least this is my theory.
For "Scanners" is deserving of much more praise than the hundreds of mediocre reviews that seem to exist. It plays on one of our common personal fears, telepathy; as well as one of society's most common fears in the early 80's -That government and corporations are up to really scary things behind closed doors...
The story revolves around the concept of 'Scanners'. That there exists among us an imperceptible breed of telepathic humans able to control others...
We are introduced immediately to our unlikely hero. Cameron Vail (Steven Lack), is a homeless outcast who has the extraordinary 'gift' of hearing peoples thoughts. In the early scenes of the movie we are shown that, far from being every teenagers dream, it is a terrible affliction for Vail from which he has no respite or escape.
Seperately, we are also introduced to someone else who once had constant voices in his head, Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside at his best). Revok attends a seminar on telepathy and the phenomenon of 'scanning' and spectacularly overpowers the person who is giving simple demonstrations. This is where the poor guy's head explodes (played by Victor Del Grande).
Meanwhile, Vail is captured by Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) who has spent a lifetime researching scanners. Dr Ruth works for ConSec, a powerful corporation that specializes in military and defense projects (what a suprise!).
Ruth gives Vail a new experimental wonder drug called 'Ephemerol' that will help his control the voices and he is subsequently trained to use his powers more effectively. ConSec needs him to deal with Revok, who as a previous subject has got out of control and is now seeking to create his own group of 'super scanners' through injecting Pregnant women with the same drug, Ephemerol.
What follows is a brilliantly effective and highly unusual cross between disturbing psychological thriller, conspiracy movie and low-brow gore-fest.
It works though. Probably because it cleverly portrays things in a 'just believable' way. The mysterious and anonymous ConSec corporation, much like the one in Douglas Trubull's "Brainstorm" seems believable. The filmmakers couldn't have chosen a better 'bad scanner' than Michael Ironside, who gives the performance of his career, complete with old black and white lab footage of his attempts to drill into his own head "to let the voices out". The unusual choice of the quirky British actor Partrick McGoohan (of "Prisoner" fame) for Dr Paul Ruth also is to be applauded.
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An unusual, dark, brooding horror/sci-fi/thriller from Cronenberg. A legendary cult classic that, for once, is actually better than the legend that surrounds it.
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Born in Toronto in 1943, with a freelance writer and a dancer for parents and a home filled with books and art, Cronenberg enjoyed an enlightened upbringing, rare for that straight-laced time and place. (Since Louis St. Laurent was Canada's prime minister from 1948-57, this period is known in Canada as the Eisenhower era.) Cronenberg admits that he was not your average tyke. "When I grew up," he told interviewer Chris Rodley in the book "Cronenberg on Cronenberg," "most other kids weren't into watching praying mantises eating grasshoppers." He became known as the Canadian who never went south, an exploitation horror king who revealed himself to be a genuine auteur, a B-movie Fellini who jumped to the A-list while pursuing the very same themes that once saw him reviled in the Canadian Parliament as a public menace. 
Scanners spawned five poor sequels, none of which Cronenberg had anything to do with. "I'd have stopped the sequels if I could have, but I had neglected to copyright my idea" he says.
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Rediscover your favorites! If you like
Scanners or 80's Horror classics, then be sure to
check out this list: ..... Lost Boys ..... Near Dark ..... Fright Night ..... Hellraiser ..... Shining ..... Poltergeist ..... American Werewolf In London ..... Night of the Creeps ..... Nightmare on Elm Street ..... Paperhouse ..... One Dark Night ..... Re-Animator ..... Prom Night ..... Mausoleum ..... Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama .....[More]
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Scanners' most famous scene used a plaster dummy and goats for the exploding head... A shotgun was used to shoot at the dummy's head causing the now famous head explosion. -Thanks to Mike
"My films are not the children of nightmares or daydreams. They come from the philosophical discourses I have with myself," explained Cronenberg.
William S. Burroughs' novel "Naked Lunch" contains a chapter concerning "Senders," a hostile organization of telepaths bent on world domination, a clear literary inspiration for this film.
Right after the scene where the head exploded in the front of the college auditorium crowd, as the crowd leaves in terror...look at the desk in front, where the explosion took place...and there's no blood or anything at all on the desk! -Thanks to Brett
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|  |  |  | | Scanners
Locations |
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The film was shot in Toronto, Canada with scenes shot on Yonge St off Elm St near Dundas St (main intersection).
Sam The Record Man's store can be clearly seen in the background of the scenes in the van and first opening scene with Peter Lack as a homeless person in the Food Court at the Yonge & Bloor Center (located in the basement/Yonge and Bloor Subway enterance of the shopping complex)just across the street from Yorkville. [Thanks to Julie]
Can you help? Do you know any of the Montreal, QUEBEC, Canada filming locations used for Scanners? [Please send them in]
|  | | | | ![[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced]](16_9.gif) | ![[MONO]](dd1.gif) | Trailer |
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Scanners' Canadian composer Howard Shore was born on 18 October 1946 in Toronto and, after leaving his band Lighthouse, entered the film music fray in 1978. Throughout his career he has been a frequent collaborator with Cronenberg, and scored virtually all of his films to date.
The music was released by the Silva label in 1992 and contains 9 cues from "Scanners", 11 cues from "Dead Ringers" & a 12 min suite from "The Brood".
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Soundtrack Available:
Used On CD
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