Scanners (18) |Home Ents Review

Scanners is probably the first body horror movie that most people saw in the 1980s. This new 4K restoration lets you match movie magic to memory.  

Scientist Dr Paul Ruth (McGoohan) finds a troubled young man called Cameron Vane (Lack) who has extreme telepathic abilities. He trains Cameron to focus his ‘scanning’ abilities and then tells him that the world is threatened by an evil scanner called Darryl Revok (Ironside). Vane must find Revok and eliminate him before Revok can build an army of scanners to destroy society.  

This is one of those films that people of a certain age will have seen on TV in the 1980s and 1990s. It is tempting to say that it was Cronenberg’s breakout film but in fact, in his extensive oeuvre, Scanners comes after the arthouse scares of Shivers and Rabid, as well as after the box office success of The Brood – and just before the equally loved Videodrome, The Dead Zone and The Fly. This is the one where the head explodes. 

This placing shows: the arty set design is still intriguing, the bleak wintry colours in location shots are beautifully grim. But there’s something quite big-budget about the shootouts and the car chases. 

The film’s look and feel is the best thing about it. Cronenberg’s ongoing fascination with hi-tech corporate unpleasantness and the cold-lit, minimalist aesthetic that accompanies it – minimalist in that 1970s way with loads of curved, molded plastic – is much in evidence. 

This is a new 4K restoration approved by director David Cronenberg. 

It includes: 

• New audio commentary by Caelum Vatnsdal

• Audio commentary by William Beard

• My Art Keeps Me Sane: an interview with actor Stephen Lack

• Method in his Madness: an interview with actor Michael Ironside

• Bad Guy Dane: an interview with actor Lawrence Dane

• The Eye of Scanners: an interview with cinematographer Mark Irwin

• Mind Fragments: an interview with composer Howard Shore

• The Chaos of Scanners: an interview with executive producer Pierre David

• Exploding Brains & Popping Veins: Interview with makeup effects artist Stephan Dupuis

• Monster Kid: an interview with makeup effects artist Chris Walas

• Cronenberg’s Tech Babies: a video essay by Tim Coleman

The release is available in both limited and standard editions. 

The Limited Edition includes: 

• Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Krishna Shenoi

• 120-page book with new essays by Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, Eugenio Ercolani and Gian Giacomo Petrone, Kurt Halfyard, Craig Ian Mann, Francesco Massaccesi, Jessica Scott, Emma Westwood and Heather Wixson

• Six collectors’ art cards

Scanners is out in a dual format 4K UHD and Blu-ray standard and limited editions from Second Sight Films on 31 March 2025.