I have a strange obsession with this movie. I know I am inflating my grade. I’ve seen this movie many times and each recent time I’ve questioned myself somewhere along the way. (Why do I like this again?) It is, at heart, a low-budget deranged horror/sci-fi movie with a stitched together plot and a baffling ending. (All computers have nervous systems? Did Revok’s plan to ship out Ephemerol work? How exactly has Cameron Vale “won” at the end?) But let’s cut to the chase — this movie is all about the amazing ’80s music, the blood-red carpets and chrome shopping mall, the bland boardroom at “ConSec” and the overall unease one feels throughout the entirety of the film. Just who the hell are the good guys? Which group of resistance fighters should we be rooting for? What exactly is this a social parable for? And will we see another exploding head like at the beginning? (Kinda.) And Stephen Lack. . .he’s acting like that on purpose, right?
That’s the most disturbing thing about Scanners. The simply otherworldly bad acting of the male lead. Surely, this has to be on purpose. Because most of the movie is dubbed, there had to’ve been opportunity to at least swap his voice out (nothing you can do about those goo-goo eyes.) The other performances, Michael Ironside & Patrick McGoohan especially, are actually quite good considering the ridiculous dialogue they have.
In conclusion, I recognize that this is a flawed film, but I hold it very dead to my heart.
