Following the success/notoriety of his first three full-length horror films, Shivers (1975), Rabid! (1977) and The Brood (1979), Canadian auteur director David Cronenberg’s next hit, the extraordinary Scanners (1981), exploded – quite literally – onto the scene. It’s a film that staggers the imagination as much today as it did four decades ago and it’s not difficult to understand why.
Scanners wastes no time in introducing us to the main protagonist, Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), whose strange behaviour in a shopping mall leads to a female customer making a critical comment about Vale’s appearance to her friend and subsequently suffering what appears to be a stroke. It seems that Vale has the ability not only to read minds but to literally tear them apart.
We soon learn that Vale is, in fact, a ‘scanner’ and possesses extraordinary telepathic powers; this brings him to the attention of Doctor Ruth (Patrick McGoohan), who wishes to recruit scanners and turn them into assets to society rather than threats to it. However, another powerful scanner Darryl Revok, has far more evil intentions, as he’s the head of a sinister underground movement. Played by the charismatic Michael Ironside, he makes his own explosive entrance into the movie by blowing apart a man’s head in a live TV demonstration of his powers.
This amazing sequence can never be forgotten once witnessed and it remains one of the key sequences in all of Cronenberg’s oeuvre. It propels this movie to a final fiery confrontation between Vale and Revok which provides a more than satisfactory climax to what can only be described as a masterpiece of terror.
Many contemporary critics were not impressed by Lack’s performance, describing him as weak and ineffective, but many agree that his quirkiness defines the character of Vale and a recent interview with the actor included amongst the plentiful extras on this superb Second Sight presentation of Scanners shows him to be both funny and refreshingly self-deprecating. Several other interviews with luminaries associated with the film are equally entertaining and informative, providing us with a much better understanding of this seminal film in the history of the horror genre.
Scanners has never looked better than it does on this brilliantly presented Blu-ray and UHD package, and the film itself is still regarded as one of Cronenberg’s best works. The recently released trailer for his upcoming film The Shrouds suggests that the old magic is still there.
SCANNERS is released on 4K and Blu-ray from Second Sight on March 31st.
