Monday, December 31, 2018

Scanners

Movie Name: Scanners
Year of Release: 1981
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Michael Ironside, Lawrence Dane, Robert A. Silverman
Genre: Horror, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8 
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review:
Brilliant director David Cronenberg followed his excellent "The Brood" with yet another fantastic feature, which explored the limits of the human body, and how it keeps evolving and morphing into something else. The film follows the story of Cameron Vale, a young man who is initially, on the streets living of scraps and leftovers. We quickly learn he has telepathic abilities, which he can't control. He gets captured and taken to ConSec, a private company that is running a "scanner" program, under the tutelage of Dr. Paul Ruth. "Scanners" is the designation given to people with telepathic abilities, and there's a current war raging between different factions, with ConSec wanting to leverage their abilities commercially, and an opposing one, under the leadership of Darryl Revok, who has far more sinister motivations. Dr. Ruth sends Cameron underground, so he can unveil Revok's motivations, and simultaneously uncover an underground ring of Scanners. What Cameron discovers is far more complex than what anyone expected. 
David Cronenberg has been able to build a fantastically diverse body of work. "Scanners" is one of his original screenplays, one that tackles body mutations, one of his recurring themes, during a large part of his career. These mutations are not intended to demonize the characters or to portray them as demigods, they are typically reflections on the constant evolution of the human body and how that impacts the relationships between human beings (and to a certain extent, how that conditions the notions of morality, good versus evil and also the sexual dynamics). "Scanners" is a perfect example of his point of view, since it manages to embed his concepts of mutation within the fabric of society, and how the corporate world/capitalism ambitions to monetize these changes. The film has great visual effects from Chris Walas and his team, alongside the fantastic score from Howard Shore and cinematography from Mark Irwin (all usual collaborators of Cronenberg). A great film from a truly unique talent.

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