Classic Movie Review: 'Scanners

It is incredibly reductive that when many people think of David Cronenberg they think of Scanners. Scanners isn’t a bad movie, per se, but it should not be the first movie or even the second movie that people think of when they think of a master such as Cronenberg. With movies like The Brood, Eastern Promises, A History of Violence and Videodrome, it says something sad about our culture that people just want to remember an exploding head.

Scanners stars Steven Lack as Cameron Vale, a so-called ‘Scanner,’ Cameron doesn’t actually know that he’s a scanner. For Cameron, this gift is a massive burden. Imagine hearing hundreds of voices all at once, a constant cacophony of thoughts happening simultaneously and inside your mind. That is what life is like every single day for Cameron Vale until he’s spotted one day at a mall where he uses mental telepathy to take revenge on one of those many, many peoples voices, an elderly woman who he is able to nearly murder with his mind.

The agents drug Cameron and take him to a secret facility under the guidance of Dr Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan). Dr Ruth has developed a drug that can help people like Cameron tune out the voices while honing their ability to ‘scan’ or control other people's minds and bodies via telepathy. Dr Ruth hopes to train Cameron to locate other scanners, specifically a very dangerous man named Daryl Revok (Michael Ironside).

Revok has become one of the most powerful scanners in the world and he has aimed to use his gift to gain power and commit atrocities. We get a sense of Revok’s dangerous power when he sneaks into a secretive meeting at Dr Ruth’s company, ConSec. ConSec had intended to show investors the possibilities available in using scanning and scanners. Revok however, takes the opportunity to show those in attendance how powerful he is.

In the most famous, indeed iconic, scene in Scanners, Michael Ironside sits alongside a fellow scanner and uses his telekinetic powers to make the man’s head explode. Undeniably, this scene is cool. Director David Cronenberg and special effects guru Gary Zeller packed a plaster head with all sorts of gory bits and then, in a bit of invention that would go down in movie history, Zeller hidden behind the head the, shot it with a shotgun creating an iconic, unforgettable image.

There is no denying how cool this moment is. It’s so cool, in fact, that is likely the only thing people remember about Scanners. That’s appropriate because the rest of Scanners is not very memorable. Scanners is arguably the least memorable film in David Cronenberg’s spectacular oeuvre. Steven Lack and Patrick McGoohan provide remarkably dull leads while the usually reliable nutcase Michael Ironside is at his most muted.

The idea is there but for much of the runtime Scanners is a slog. Steven Lack is so bland as the lead that we hardly invest in him. He’s also deeply ineffectual and when we arrive at the final showdown between him and Michael Ironside, it’s neither surprising nor dramatic that he appears to get his backside kicked in this battle of the brains. It doesn’t help that Scanning is a rather boring way to fight with all of the tension being undercut by actors having to make silly faces to show that they are concentrating super-hard and darting their eyes where they might otherwise be throwing a punch.

There is an unspoken silliness to Scanners that Cronenberg appears unaware of. In a better effort he might recognize how silly his characters look during their mental warfare and find a way to steer into it with more gore or a comedic bit. Sadly, with Steven Lack in the lead, there is no effort to or seeming ability to pivot. Lack is a supremely boring and bland lead actor and nothing aside from the special effects can overcome his dull performance.

My suggestion to you is to watch the head explosion scene on YouTube and then go find yourself one of Cronenberg’s many genuine classics and enjoy that. Scanners is a one trick pony and not the best example of the work of one our finest directors.

Scanners is the classic on the latest episode of the Everyone’s a Critic Movie Review Podcast. Find Everyone’s a Critic wherever you listen to Podcasts. We are also on YouTube. And, you can interact with myself and co-host Bob Zerull on Facebook.com/EveryoneisaCriticPodcast and Twitter @CriticsPod. Follow me on Twitter @PodcastSean or @CriticSean