An old Cronenberg featuring Patrick “The Prisoner” McGoohan, what more do you want? The “scanners” from the title are people with a psychic abilities. The story reminds of Cronenberg’s more early films “Stereo” and “Crimes Of The Future”. McGoohan is a doctor (Paul Ruth) who is specialised in the scanners and who works for the government. The government had no program for the scanners and thus an underground has been formed. An old acquaintance recruits scanners and those who refuse do not live to tell. Ruth finds the last unrecruited scanner and wants him to infiltrate the underground group. “Scanners” is not as dark and weird as some other of Cronenbergs oldies, but it contains some funny horror elements and an interesting story with a couple of twists that would later become obligatory in modern cinema. Also he managed to film at some futuristic locations and the use of computers is wonderfully dated. Recommended!
