Review by Gary Tooze

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Description: The title of this David Cronenberg sci-fi horror film refers to a group of people who have telekinetic powers that allow... them to read minds and give them the ability to make other people's heads explode. The children of a group of women who took an experimental tranquilizer during their pregnancies, the scanners are now adults and have become outcasts from society. But Darryl (Michael Ironside) decides to create an army of scanners to take over the world. The only person who can stop him is his brother Cameron (Stephen Lack), who wants to forget that he was ever a scanner. Winner of the International Fantasy Film Award at the 1983 Fantasporto Film Festival, Scanners was followed by a pair of sequels, neither of which involved Cronenberg.

~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide.

 

 

The Film:

In a stalwart example of camp, early in Scanners, a man addresses a room of people — it is a conference, of sorts. He is a scanner, and intends to display his ability to the group. A man volunteers, sits beside the speaker, and is soon scanned (the process involves, in the scanner, tightening every muscle, clenching teeth, and glaring evilly). Unbeknownst to the speaker, the volunteer is a renegade scanner, and more powerful. The two become awkwardly tense, convulse a bit, and the speaker’s head explodes — it is a perfect culmination for the building action.

“Scanning” involves telepathy although, exampled here, the process causes harm in the scanned. In other hands this ability may have been depicted in a humorous or respected manner (What Women Want) — it would be a talent, whereas here it is a handicap as well as skill. The conflict arises between two groups of scanners: one set for world domination, the other set to stop them.

Excerpt from Rumsey Taylor at NotComingToATheaterNearYou located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

The best I can say for Scanners on Blu-ray is that it looks better than SD. Some colors are bright - it is clean and there is some infrequent depth on the single-layered 1080P transfer. There is a green hue over much of the image and background grain can be downright blotchy. I may be hyper-critical as it did give me the best presentation of the film I've yet seen - but the Blu-ray leaves some room for improvement. Detail has impressive moments in Scanner's close-ups and contrast wavers from modest to strong - dependant on the scene. The effects aren't overly-transparent through the higher resolution and remain as gruesome as ever.  As a bare-bones quickie Blu-ray - it's visually 'okay' for a late night viewing.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Koch have provided lossless tracks in both original English and a German DUB via DTS-HD Master 5.1 at around 1600 kbps. The intense and suspenseful score is by Howard Shore who has an impressive resume of work behind him. There is some less-overwhelming depth and clean high end. There are no subtitles and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region 'B'.

Extras :

No extras at all. They intended some but the Blu-ray authoring team's heads all blew off.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
There is a campy edge to Cronenberg's Scanners. From that angle - I like it. In fact there are plenty of positives - including a very deliberate build with enough unknowns to keep you attentive. The Blu-ray is second tier but probably won't be bested anytime soon. Fans may wish to pick it up. 

Gary Tooze

June 30th, 2011