Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9739 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-09-25
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Synopsis
Scanners are men and women born with incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers. This breed of superbrains was developed as an accidental side effect of a tranquilizer administered to some women during pregnancy. Cameron Vale is one such scanner, and he, like most of those with similar powers, exercises the benefits of his special gifts in a safe and judicious manner. But a group of renegade scanners, led by the nefarious Revok, plans to create a race of telepathic ubermenschen who will rule the world. Vale must team up with a like-minded female scanner in order to thwart the plans of the fiendish gang. The protracted end game between Revok and Vale is heightened by a dark secret which is shockingly revealed just before their duel begins.

Customer Reviews

Blow Your Mind
Scanners was notorious at its time of release for the exploding head sequence. A scene the late great Kenny Everett spoofed on his television show.This film along with Rabid, The Brood and Dead Ringers cemented David Cronenbergs name as a master of urban horror.Any film that can get a restrained performance from the normally vigorous Michael Ironside has to be worth checking out. He is actually rather good in this. For me the excellent Patrick McGoohan is what lifts this very original film above the rank of a mere gorefest. If your a thinking mans horror fan add this to your stash. Its excellent.

Dark Imagination
This is a superb film. Directed by Canadian director David Cronenburg in 1981, it is the story of Cameron Vale, a "scanner" - a man with telepathic powers - and his efforts to uncover the truth of his background, while being hunted himself. Typically for Cronenburg, the film features a great deal of sinister characters, malevolent inscrutable corporations and no little double-crossing, as well as a hearty dose of body horror. If you have never seen this film before, it features one of the most famous special effects in cinema history - if you have seen it before, rest assured that for a film approaching thirty years old, it has aged well and remains a viscerally shocking moment. Probably only the climax isn't as effective, in special effects terms, but emotionally it still packs a huge wallop.

Probably the only flaw of the film is that to convey the use of scanning, there is a dark synthesised sound, as you can't of course "see" it happening. This works fine to begin with but on repeated viewing does pall a little. But that's perhaps my own fault for watching this film too often!

This is an excellent film, testament to the dark macabre imagination of Cronenburg, who wrote and directed it. One of the finest films of the 1980s