SCANNERS (1981) in '80s and '90s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

0 Points

Forum Jump

SCANNERS (1981)

Author	Comment
Lunkenstein	SCANNERS (1981)	Lead	[-]
Apr 28 06 9:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	10 Seconds: The Pain Begins. 15 Seconds: You Can't Breathe. 20 Seconds: You Explode. ~ one of the film's taglines. David Cronenberg's SCANNERS is an excellent sci-fi thriller from the early '80s. It deals with special people known as scanners, who have enormous mental powers. Some are benevolent, others not. The film features outstanding performances from Patrick McGoohan and Michael Ironside, plus special effects which are unforgettable. Howard Shore's score is another highlight, hitting the mark dead on with its tense, unnerving approach. "You're a scanner, which you don't realize, and that has been the source of all your agony. "You're not cooperating Cam." "We're gonna do this the scanner way." The ending sequence is particularly amazing. Any other SCANNERS fans out there?
	Remove this ad
Southern Beau	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#1	[-]
Apr 28 06 11:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've never seen this movie. Perhaps I should take a look at it.
Rapfred	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#2	[-]
Apr 29 06 12:35 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Somebody must have been sucking Croney's brains out when he hired the aptly named Stephen Lack as the lead. Not even Frank Moore in RABID was this dreadful. McGoohan and Ironside are the grace notes here, but when Lack's on screen -- which is all too often -- the movie's a chore to sit through.
TidesOfWerewolves	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#3	[-]
Apr 29 06 1:21 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Somebody must have been sucking Croney's brains out when he hired the aptly named Stephen Lack as the lead. I think you really are right-- he just seems terribly out of his element. Ironside is fantastic and it's a stretch to believe Lack could best him. The idea of "freaks" who are abused by mainstream society and begin to violently revolt is what stands out for me most with this movie. There's that defining moment where they opt not to stay in line and strike back. It may be that the Scanners are naturally selected to be the new dominant power and therefore must be destroyed if the Normals are to prevail. The modern obsession with prescription drugs sometimes makes me wonder if the birth of a meta-human people like the Scanners isn't as far-fetched as it would seem. "Pass me through your fingertips/Throw me down like an old rag/I'm not standing/Don't look back/Are you human or a dog?"
oldmanster	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#4	[-]
Apr 29 06 8:19 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Can't remember if it was Scanners or The Brood that made me a confirmed Cronenberg follower. I certainly didn't see Shivers or Rabid until later. ... Reed
Lunkenstein	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#5	[-]
Apr 29 06 9:24 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Stephen Lack was an odd choice for the lead. His IMDB bio lists him as a noted painter who occasionally does films. IMO, all things considered, I don't feel he was that bad in the role. I thought he was quite good during the "scanning" moments (especially the finale). As for his regular scenes, and I agree there are many, I can accept him as fairly emotionless for the character - "a derelict, such a piece of human junk" - whose feelings are buried and self-esteem low. The movie's not perfect and you really have to suspend believe when Lack scans into the mainframe, but I still think the overall film is pretty terrific.
blackbiped	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#6	[-]
Apr 29 06 9:33 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've been a big SCANNERS fan since it first came out. (I even won a SCANNERS t-shirt from Fango at the time.) I no longer find it as intense as I did then, but it's still a lot of fun to watch. *Quote:* Can't remember if it was Scanners or The Brood that made me a confirmed Cronenberg follower. SHIVERS was my first Cronenberg film (titled THEY CAME FROM WITHIN when I saw it) but SCANNERS was the one that made me a fan. Then came THE BROOD on cable and RABID on VHS. VIDEODROME was okay but I thought the ending was a letdown. I didn't like DEAD RINGERS. I didn't like EXISTENZ either the first time I watched it, but it got better with repeat viewings. I hardly remember anything about CRASH. THE FLY is my favorite Cronenberg movie, with SCANNERS and THE DEAD ZONE in a tie for second. Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way.
Lunkenstein	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#7	[-]
Apr 29 06 12:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* THEY CAME FROM WITHIN Think I may have seen that at a drive-in back in '75, but have only very vague memories of it. (Could have been during a party-hearty outing). I also love his version of THE FLY. ------------------------------- "We'll see whether I'm crazy or not."
porta	scanners	#8	[-]
Apr 29 06 7:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Scanners came out when i was 11 years old, probably the height of my horror fandom. This was back in the day where we had to put our names down on the waiting list for a video, so I awaited Scanners with baited breath for several weeks. I remember being quite disappointed. I think I probably wanted a head exploding every couple of minutes, and to hell with any plot.... but, revisiting it since then, I've bin kinda impressed. It's a fine flick....if only there were more heads exploding.....
blackbiped	Re: scanners	#9	[-]
Apr 29 06 10:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Believe me, back then, one head exploding in a movie was a major occurrence. And until it happened, I didn't even know whether or not we'd get to see it or the alternate "heart failure" take. Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way.
JimPV	Re: Lack-ing	#10	[-]
Apr 30 06 11:00 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Somebody must have been sucking Croney's brains out when he hired the aptly named Stephen Lack as the lead. Not even Frank Moore in RABID was this dreadful. He even looks hammy in this random screen grab: *Quote:* I remember being quite disappointed. I think I probably wanted a head exploding every couple of minutes, and to hell with any plot... but, revisiting it since then, I've bin kinda impressed. It's a fine flick...if only there were more heads exploding... lol...! I hear ya'. I've seen some of this (at least) many moons ago. Need to check it out again. Netflix, here I come! (BTW, how's the DVD?) "How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone" -Coco Chanel
	Remove this ad
Lunkenstein	Re: Lack-ing	#11	[-]
May 1 06 12:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* BTW, how's the DVD? It's an MGM release from 2001 and strictly bare-bones. Just a trailer and scene selections I think. The ws picture quality is very good, but sadly, they dropped the ball on the audio. It's fine up until the last 20 to 30 minutes. Then it goes slightly out of sync making it appear dubbed. At first I thought it was my player, but I've read many reviews online making note of the same glitch. Overall, it's still watchable. Hopefully they'll correct it someday with a special edition, and include some bonus features.
Zombiewalkin	Re: Lack-ing	#12	[-]
May 1 06 3:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Good film but hard for me to sit through.....could be because of Lack's acting.......or Lack thereof........ha!
JSilence	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#13	[-]
Jun 7 06 10:38 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Stretching way out on a limb here, but I think I know what Cronenberg was going for with Lack. He seems exactly, almost exactly, like someone who's been violently psychotic, but is now heavily "medicated." Honest, there's a space on the checklist for patient intake, and when they're like that (Cameron Vale), you check "flat affect." [sic] Hadn't Cronenberg worked with Lack before on some of his non-commercial films? So he'd know just what he was getting. Vale is the only Scanner taking ephemerol that we meet (OK, aside from the scanner who comes after them in the record shop). And look at him. Kim tells him, "You? You're hardly human." The medication given to let him fit in has made him instead less human than Revok. Like I said, out on a limb, but maybe Cronenberg was going for that effect. What's really bizarre, is that on several buildings and bridges in downtown Nashville, someone's spraypainted the name "Revok." I even saw it on some passing train cars the other day. Anyone else seen this?
carruthers40	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#14	[-]
Jun 8 06 3:27 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm with ya JS, can you "Do the Thorazine shuffle", I like this film and Cronenberg quite a bit and agree with Lack's "affect" in this film, you know Lack is an artist and did the sculptures in the great shoot out scene. He has a site www.stephenlackart.com/ *Quote:* Anyone else seen this? They walk among us....
JSilence	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#15	[-]
Jun 8 06 8:19 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Thank goodness someone else has seen that... I had no idea Lack did the sculptures! (Always loved Ben Pierce's credo.."My art keeps me sane.") Even if I didn't love his work, I'd love Cronenberg for admitting that McGoohan scared him to death. Any ideas on just how Cameron Vale was kept "on ice" as he grew up?
Monsterpal	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#16	[-]
Dec 19 06 10:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Somebody must have been sucking Croney's brains out when he hired the aptly named Stephen Lack as the lead. Not even Frank Moore in RABID was this dreadful. McGoohan and Ironside are the grace notes here, but when Lack's on screen -- which is all too often -- the movie's a chore to sit through. I thought the same thing the first time I saw the film, but I've come to appreciate his performance in recent years. I think it's a deliberately affectless performance that fits the character.
scortch	Re: SCANNERS (1981)	#17	[-]
Dec 19 06 11:51 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I wish I could give the proper print attribution to this comment, but I remember that, when "Dead Ringers" came out, Cronenberg commented on re-using Lack in that film. He said that he realized that casting him in "Scanners" was a experiment that failed and that his performance was regarded as the weakest element in the film (something that Lack supposedly agreed with). Under much protest from Lack, he recast him as a variance on his real life self as the sculptor/artist who creates the gynocological tools from Hell. Personally I have always found his "Scanners" acting to be a distraction in what is an otherwise very good film. He does much better in "Ringers". As a whole aside, does anyone ever remember seeing the R-rated trailer for "Scanners"? I went to see "First Family" with my Dad (I was 14 at the time- huge Newhart and Buck Henry fan) and they did the whole "exploding head scene". No prelude, no voice-over, no explanation of what was going on, just THAT scene, stripped of sound effect and music, from the presentation intro, to selecting Ironside from the audience, to the scanning, to the start of something going wrong, and then BLAM! cut to two EEG waveforms and the word "Scanners". You can imagine the audience reaction to THAT!
CAPTAINCOMPANY	SCANNERS (1981)	#18	[-]
Dec 21 06 2:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hey guys, my favorite scene in the film is the "footage" of the teen-aged Revok in which Ironside appears to be channeling a violently dangerous/psychotic version of Charles Manson (complete with trepanning hole in his forehead to mirror Manson's carved in swastika) Bryan
Dr Acula		#19	[-]
Nov 15 09 11:44 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Just watched this on DVD for the first time after having seen it on broadcast TV, and it's much easier to follow as an overall film. As far as the Steven Lack question: I think he does the job well, which is portraying somebody who really has very little emotion of his own. I think the problem isn't the performance, but that it's the performance as requested by the director for the film, and audiences in general have a difficult time enjoying a film with an emotionless, personality-less lead. For some reason, I thought that the TV edit I originally saw ended with Ironside getting his head exploded, by reusing the footage of Louis Del Grande from the beginning. I think the ending is really ambiguous. It could be that Stephen Lack took over the body of Ironsides, and his telling Jennifer O'Neil that they won was just showing a clearcut victory for the good guys. On the other hand, I think there is another distinct possibility. If O'Neil was secretly working with Ironsides, who claimed to have been manipulating the situation to bring Lack to him, it could mean that Ironsides sucked-out Lack's power like he said he would, and is now the most powerful scanner of all. Either ending seems likely to me. Not sure if Patrick McGoohan was really a hero or villain in this piece... http://www.davidcronenberg.de/
ScareBear		#20	[-]
Nov 15 09 6:22 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	What JSilence said. Yup. Seen the graffiti in Nashville!
	Remove this ad

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Add Reply

Yuku free message boards

SCANNERS (1981)

SCANNERS (1981)