Scanners (1981)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane, Jennifer O’Neill, Michael Ironside, Robert Silverman, Mavor Moore, Fred Doederlein, Louis Del Grande. [R]

Company doctor McGoohan trains a telepath (Lack) with psychokinetic capabilities (called a “scanner”) to harness his powers so the young man can thwart a renegade scanner (Ironside) and his cabal of assassins determined to rid the world of their fellow “brainwave warriors.” In his most polished and commercial project to that point, director Cronenberg doesn’t fully abandon his body horror bread-and-butter while delivering an out-and-out thriller with a radical mind and science fiction overtones. The hero is wooden, and the pic bogs down a bit with plot and superfluous criss-crossing complications in the middle; at its best on both ends, or whenever McGoohan or Ironside are onscreen, or at any point in which the terrific (and terrifically gruesome) makeup effects take over. Spawned a couple of sequels and a spin-off movie (Scanner Cop, which had its own sequel).

71/100