David Cronenberg’s jittery 1981 sci-fi classic digs into a creepy power that makes people do creepy things.
When movie fans think of Scanners, the immediate association is its spectacular exploding-head scene. In fact, when anyone thinks of spectacular exploding head scenes… Scanners is always on top of the pile, right next to Dawn of the Dead and Maniac.
But while the work of special effects legend Dick Smith deserves much applause (in addition to Scanners, his credits include The Exorcist and Death Becomes Her), there is more to David Cronenberg’s 1981 thriller than one gloriously gory splatter. Even characters who keep their heads suffer horrible pain, and as the tension rises in the story, a sense of chaotic unease permeates the movie’s world, racing toward a final act that offers some catharsis but little closure.
Scanners marked Cronenberg’s first big shift toward wider recognition, and his fame further expanded with his subsequent 1980s releases: Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly, and Dead Ringers. The head scene comes fairly early in act one; it’s an important moment that establishes not just how far Scanners is willing to go, but also what the people possessing the titular psychic powers are capable of.
The movie sets up opposing forces in Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), who knows he’s not normal but initially doesn’t understand why, and Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside), who’s all too eager to weaponize his abilities.
While Scanners builds to an epic mental battle between these two characters (it’s not quite as gasp-inducing as the head explosion, but it’s packed full of Cronenberg’s trademark body horror), we learn more about how the phenomenon of “scanning” came to be.
In contrast to Stephen King’s Carrie and The Institute, where the kids are just born gifted, Scanners goes the Firestarter route, later picked up by the King-influenced Stranger Things.
