Scanners
1981, R, 102 min.
Directed by David Cronenberg, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O’Neill, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane, Charles Shamata.

Wanna see someone’s head blow up and eyes pop out? Be certain of your answer before casting your gaze on Scanners, because otherwise it’s liable to blow up in your face ­without warning. Toronto’s king of the visceral horror tale, David Cronenberg (Videodrome, The Fly, Naked Lunch) tells another of his mind-tripping stories designed to get underneath your skin and your psyche. Though the ideas in this movie are a good twist on the body-snatchers idea in which there exists among us an imperceptible breed of telepathic humans called scanners, and the good ones are called on to weed out the bad ones, who are bent on world domination,­ their execution leaves too many details too fuzzy. Still, this relatively early work from Cronenberg shows all his signature stylistics in full bloom.

This article appears in December 15 • 2000.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.