ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - January 14th
"SCANNERS" released in 1981
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Private security firm ConSec plans to showcase a powerful new potential weapon: "scanners", people with exceptional powers of telepathy such as mind reading, mind-control, and telekinesis. However, when ConSec's scanner attempts to demonstrate his scanning power by reading the mind of a volunteer from the invited audience, the volunteer turns out to be a more powerful scanner, who scans back and causes the ConSec scanner's head to explode. ConSec officials attempt to take the "volunteer" into custody; however, he uses his powers to kill the men guarding him, and escapes. Stung by this embarrassing experience, ConSec security head Braedon Keller (Lawrence Dane) advocates shutting down ConSec's scanner research program. Program head Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) disagrees. He notes that the assassination and escape have shown the potential of the weapon they had sought to demonstrate. Ruth attributes the operation to an evil scanner named Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) who, Ruth says, has his own underground network of scanners competing with ConSec's program. He argues that ConSec should recruit scanners to their cause to infiltrate and bring down Revok's group.
To this point, scanner Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) has lived an unhappy life as a homeless social outcast, driven mad by the unceasing stream of other people's thoughts bombarding his mind. After bringing Vale into ConSec, Dr. Ruth injects him with a drug called ephemerol, which temporarily inhibits his scanning ability and restores his sanity. When Vale's mind is clear, Ruth asks for his help, explaining that Vale is a scanner and that Revok is killing all scanners who refuse to join him, and that Revok will kill Vale if Vale does not learn how to protect himself. Under Ruth's guidance, Vale learns to control his scanning abilities.
Unknown to Dr. Ruth, ConSec's security head, Keller, works for Revok as a spy. Revok learns of Ruth's infiltration plan, and dispatches assassins to follow Vale as he begins his search for Revok by visiting a so-far-unaffiliated scanner named Benjamin Pierce (Robert Silverman), who may know Revok's whereabouts. Revok's hired assassins follow Vale to Pierce's home and brutally shoot Pierce to death. Enraged, Vale uses his telepathic power to kill the assassins. As Pierce dies, Vale reads from his mind a name—Kim Obrist (Jennifer O'Neil). Vale tracks down Obrist, who has formed a telepathic alliance with a group of other scanners in opposition to Revok's group. Vale attends a meeting, but assassins working for Revok follow him and strike again, and only Vale and Obrist manage to escape alive. Scanning an assassin, Vale learns of a drug company, which he then infiltrates. He finds that large quantities of ephemerol are being distributed under a computer program called "Ripe", run by Revok himself through ConSec. Vale and Obrist return to ConSec, where Ruth suggests Vale scan the computer system to learn more about the Ripe program - originally developed by Dr. Ruth as a tranquilizer for pregnant women, the drug ephemerol had had the unintended side effect of causing the unborn children to become scanners. Meanwhile, Keller tries to kill Obrist, but she escapes. Keller kills Dr. Ruth while Vale and Obrist flee the ConSec building. Hunted by both ConSec and Revok, Vale and Obrist must find a way to expose the truth and stop Revok from creating a whole generation of scanners that could take over the world!
To this point, scanner Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) has lived an unhappy life as a homeless social outcast, driven mad by the unceasing stream of other people's thoughts bombarding his mind. After bringing Vale into ConSec, Dr. Ruth injects him with a drug called ephemerol, which temporarily inhibits his scanning ability and restores his sanity. When Vale's mind is clear, Ruth asks for his help, explaining that Vale is a scanner and that Revok is killing all scanners who refuse to join him, and that Revok will kill Vale if Vale does not learn how to protect himself. Under Ruth's guidance, Vale learns to control his scanning abilities.
Unknown to Dr. Ruth, ConSec's security head, Keller, works for Revok as a spy. Revok learns of Ruth's infiltration plan, and dispatches assassins to follow Vale as he begins his search for Revok by visiting a so-far-unaffiliated scanner named Benjamin Pierce (Robert Silverman), who may know Revok's whereabouts. Revok's hired assassins follow Vale to Pierce's home and brutally shoot Pierce to death. Enraged, Vale uses his telepathic power to kill the assassins. As Pierce dies, Vale reads from his mind a name—Kim Obrist (Jennifer O'Neil). Vale tracks down Obrist, who has formed a telepathic alliance with a group of other scanners in opposition to Revok's group. Vale attends a meeting, but assassins working for Revok follow him and strike again, and only Vale and Obrist manage to escape alive. Scanning an assassin, Vale learns of a drug company, which he then infiltrates. He finds that large quantities of ephemerol are being distributed under a computer program called "Ripe", run by Revok himself through ConSec. Vale and Obrist return to ConSec, where Ruth suggests Vale scan the computer system to learn more about the Ripe program - originally developed by Dr. Ruth as a tranquilizer for pregnant women, the drug ephemerol had had the unintended side effect of causing the unborn children to become scanners. Meanwhile, Keller tries to kill Obrist, but she escapes. Keller kills Dr. Ruth while Vale and Obrist flee the ConSec building. Hunted by both ConSec and Revok, Vale and Obrist must find a way to expose the truth and stop Revok from creating a whole generation of scanners that could take over the world!
Cameron Vale: You called me a scanner. What is that?
Paul Ruth: Freak of nature, born with a certain form of ESP; derangement of the synapses which we call telepathy.
Top: Reluctant scanner, Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack);
Above: Program Ripe head Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan)
William S. Burroughs' 1959 novel Naked Lunch - which David Cronenberg would later direct the film adaptation in 1992 - contains a chapter concerning "Senders", a hostile organization of telepaths bent on world domination, a clear literary inspiration for this film. Cronenberg originally structured the story as a futuristic thriller, involving industrial espionage and intrigue, car chases, conspiracies, and shoot-outs (including a gruesome scanner duel between Vale and Revok at the end); making it the nearest thing to a conventional science fiction thriller Cronenberg had made up to that point, lacking the sexual content of Shivers, Rabid, or The Brood.
Because of the strict rules of Canada's film financing structures at the time, it was necessary to begin shooting with only two weeks' pre-production work, before the screenplay had been completed, with Cronenberg writing the script between 4 and 7 a.m. each day throughout shooting. Since the production design team had no time to build sets, in some instances the crew had to drive around looking for things to shoot, with production having to end within roughly two months so the financing would qualify as a tax write-off; as a result, Cronenberg has repeatedly over the years stated that Scanners was "a nightmare" to film due to the rished nature of the production, as well as dealing with the difficulty with and antagonism between the leads, particularly Patrick McGoohan and Jennifer O'Neill.
In an interview with Film Comment, Stephen Lack recalled feeling under-the-gun during one of his first scenes on set. "There we were, the first day of Scanners and they had me get into this 18-wheel truck with four gearshift levers and have me drive into the shot. It was horrifying. I never drove such a thing and I was pretty disoriented," he explained. "We were set up on a feeder road to the highway, and all the camera crew and staff were there, and some car on the highway slowed down to gawk-and a truck on the highway rammed them from behind. There was a death and sirens, and the whole crew jumped over the storm fence to help out. I was given a slight reprieve of an hour to figure out the gears."
Because of the strict rules of Canada's film financing structures at the time, it was necessary to begin shooting with only two weeks' pre-production work, before the screenplay had been completed, with Cronenberg writing the script between 4 and 7 a.m. each day throughout shooting. Since the production design team had no time to build sets, in some instances the crew had to drive around looking for things to shoot, with production having to end within roughly two months so the financing would qualify as a tax write-off; as a result, Cronenberg has repeatedly over the years stated that Scanners was "a nightmare" to film due to the rished nature of the production, as well as dealing with the difficulty with and antagonism between the leads, particularly Patrick McGoohan and Jennifer O'Neill.
In an interview with Film Comment, Stephen Lack recalled feeling under-the-gun during one of his first scenes on set. "There we were, the first day of Scanners and they had me get into this 18-wheel truck with four gearshift levers and have me drive into the shot. It was horrifying. I never drove such a thing and I was pretty disoriented," he explained. "We were set up on a feeder road to the highway, and all the camera crew and staff were there, and some car on the highway slowed down to gawk-and a truck on the highway rammed them from behind. There was a death and sirens, and the whole crew jumped over the storm fence to help out. I was given a slight reprieve of an hour to figure out the gears."
TRIVIA: Michael Ironside was originally hired for a bit part of one to two scenes and was paid CDN$5300.
Top: The "explosive" first scene in Scanners!;
Above: Writer/director David Cronenberg
Academy-award winning make-up artist Dick Smith (The Exorcist, Amadeus) provided prosthetics for the climactic scanner duel and the iconic exploding head effect. The effect for the exploding head scene was accomplished by filling a latex head of the actor with dog food, leftover lunch, fake blood and rabbit livers, and shooting it from behind with a 12-gauge shotgun!
Released by Embassy Pictures in the United States, Scanners was a moderate success at the box office, grossing US$14 million against a CDN$4 million budget. Although a majority of reviews for Scanners were positive, there were some less-than enthusiastic reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert gave Scanners two out of four stars and wrote, "Scanners is so lockstep that we are basically reduced to watching the special effects, which are good but curiously abstract, because we don't much care about the people they're happening around". In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "Had Mr. Cronenberg settled simply for horror, as John Carpenter did in his classic Halloween (though not in his not-so-classic The Fog), Scanners might have been a Grand Guignol treat. Instead he insists on turning the film into a mystery, and mystery demands eventual explanations that, when they come in Scanners, underline the movie's essential foolishness".
Scanners eventually spawned two sequels and a series of spin-offs, including; Scanners II: The New Order (1991) and Scanners III: The Takeover (1992), with the spin-offs Scanner Cop (1994) and Scanners: The Showdown (a.k.a. Scanner Cop II) (1995). In February 2007, Darren Lynn Bousman was announced as director of a remake of the film, to be released by The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films. David S. Goyer was assigned to script the film, which was planned for an October 17, 2008, release, but the date came and went without further announcements, and all the parties involved have since moved on to other projects. In an interview with Bousman in 2013, he recalled that he would not make the film without David Cronenberg's blessing - which was not granted. In July 2011, it was announced that Dimension was planning to adapt the franchise into a television series instead.
Released by Embassy Pictures in the United States, Scanners was a moderate success at the box office, grossing US$14 million against a CDN$4 million budget. Although a majority of reviews for Scanners were positive, there were some less-than enthusiastic reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert gave Scanners two out of four stars and wrote, "Scanners is so lockstep that we are basically reduced to watching the special effects, which are good but curiously abstract, because we don't much care about the people they're happening around". In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "Had Mr. Cronenberg settled simply for horror, as John Carpenter did in his classic Halloween (though not in his not-so-classic The Fog), Scanners might have been a Grand Guignol treat. Instead he insists on turning the film into a mystery, and mystery demands eventual explanations that, when they come in Scanners, underline the movie's essential foolishness".
Scanners eventually spawned two sequels and a series of spin-offs, including; Scanners II: The New Order (1991) and Scanners III: The Takeover (1992), with the spin-offs Scanner Cop (1994) and Scanners: The Showdown (a.k.a. Scanner Cop II) (1995). In February 2007, Darren Lynn Bousman was announced as director of a remake of the film, to be released by The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films. David S. Goyer was assigned to script the film, which was planned for an October 17, 2008, release, but the date came and went without further announcements, and all the parties involved have since moved on to other projects. In an interview with Bousman in 2013, he recalled that he would not make the film without David Cronenberg's blessing - which was not granted. In July 2011, it was announced that Dimension was planning to adapt the franchise into a television series instead.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 80%
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