Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Scanners Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 21, 2014

David Cronenberg's "Scanners" (1981) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; three original radio spots; the Canadian director's first feature "Stereo" (1969); new documentary film produced by Toronto-based documentarian and visual effects designer and supervisor Michael Lennick; exclusive new video interview with actor Michael Ironside; video interview with actor Stephen Lack; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring an essay by critic Kim Newman. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Where am I?

Scanners are people with great telepathic powers. They can easily read and manipulate other people’s thoughts. They can also force them to do things against their will.

An underground association of scanners led by Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside, Total Recall, Starship Troopers) has started working on a plan to take over the world. Revok has also declared war on Consec, a large research company also with ambitions for world domination, whose leaders have discovered his group’s existence.

Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan, TV's The Prisoner), one of Consec’s top men, locates another scanner named Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack, Perfect Strangers, Dead Ringers), who isn’t associated with Revok’s group and is not yet fully aware of his telepathic powers. After a series of tests and discussions, Dr. Ruth convinces Vale to confront Revok and destroy his group.

Dark and once very much ahead of its time, David Cronenberg’s Scanners is an interesting hybrid of a film. At its core it is certainly a horror film – it is unapologetically graphic and intense. But behind its graphic visuals there is a prophetic warning about an upcoming reality where large corporations with unlimited resources could do some very bad things if left unmonitored.

The film is somewhat uneven, especially during the first half, where all of the key players and their agendas are identified. Dr. Ruth’s sessions with Vale, for instance, feel protracted. The obvious is discussed with puzzling attention that leads one to believe that the narrative could be a lot more complex. But it is not. The more time one spends with Vale, the more one begins to realize that his journey will follow a very familiar route.

The finale is also underwhelming. The visual effects are good, but the moral dilemma Vale faces never becomes intriguing. It also feels like everything is rushed rather than carefully put together. Cronenberg once stated that Scanners was a very frustrating film to make because a lot was rushed during the production process. I think that the finale clearly proves that he was sincere.

Despite its various flaws, however, Scanners is still worth seeing. For example, the sense of heavy paranoia that permeates the film is great. The nameless assassins that go after Vale and his temp partner (Jennifer O’Neill, Summer of '42, A Force of One) also create an element of surprise that push the film closer to the thriller genre (this reviewer thinks that there are some obvious similarities between Scanners and Sydney Pollack’s 3 Days of the Condor). Also, it is the exploding head sequence the film is remembered for, but it is the terrific phone booth sequence everyone should have been talking about. It is absolutely brilliant. The fact that Cronenberg thought of it and then filmed it in the early 80s, long before the internet was around, is quite incredible.

Scanners was lensed by Canadian cinematographer Mark Irwin, who after Scanners would also work with Cronenberg on Videodrome (1983), The Dead Zone (1983), and The Fly (1986). The film’s minimalistic and very atmospheric soundtrack was created by multiple Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Crash, The Game).

Note: In 1981, Scanners won Saturn Awards for Best International Film and Best Make-Up (Dick Smith).

Scanners Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, David Cronenberg's Scanners arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

Please note that the screencaptures included with our review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-19: Scanners
2. Screencaptures #23-29: Stereo

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Supervised by director David Cronenberg, this new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from a 35mm interpositive at Vision Globale in Montreal; the color grading was done at Deluxe Toronto. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise management. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm Dialogue/Music/Effects magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX 3.

Transfer supervisors: David Cronenberg, Lee Kline.
Colorist: Chris Wallace/Deluxe Toronto.
Scanning: Vision Globale, Toronto."

The basic characteristics of the new and supervised by the Canadian director high-definition transfer have little in common with those of the high-definition transfers which British distributors Second Sight and Australian distributors Umbrella Entertainment used for their local Blu-ray releases of Scanners (see our reviews of these releases here and here). Excluding the identical framing -- all three labels present the film in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 -- all of the important characteristics we typically address in our reviews appear drastically different. On the supervised high-definition transfer brightness and contrast levels are significantly toned down. As a result a number of the daylight sequences look quite different (compare screencaptures #8, 11, and 12 with screencaptures #8, 15, and 17 from our review of the UK release). There are substantial discrepancies in the area of color reproduction as well -- there is a wider range of softer and significantly warmer colors, with variations of reds and browns, in particular, being far more prominent on the Criterion release. On all three releases that I have seen, however, the colors appear healthy and very natural. Furthermore, there are no traces of compromising deraining or sharpening corrections. Rather predictably, the film has a solid and very pleasing organic appearance. Depth and clarity are very good (see screencapture #2), but shadow definition is different on all three release. Overall image stability is excellent and there are no serious transition issues to report in this review. Lastly, the encoding is slightly superior on the Criterion release -- this becomes fairly obvious during select close-ups and some of the indoor footage. To sum it all up, this is a notably different presentation of Scanners which will probably inspire some very interesting discussions. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Scanners Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

I prefer the original mono track (the Australian release, for instance, has only a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track). Depth and clarity are very good and there is a good range of nuanced dynamics that allow the modest soundtrack to open up the film in all the right places (see the gallery sequence with the statues). The dialog is crisp, stable, and very easy to follow. Also, it appears that some additional work has been done to clean up and rebalance the audio.

Scanners Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Scanners. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Radio Spots - three original radio spots for Scanners. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

• The Scanners Way - in this new documentary film, director of photography Mark Irwin, special makeup artists Stephan Dupuis and Chris Walas, special effects supervisor Gary Zeller, and visual effects specialist Rick Baker discuss the special effects in Scanners, the film's financing, the shooting process, and David Cronenberg's directing methods. The documentary was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2014 by Michael Lennick, a Toronto-based documentarian and visual effects designer and supervisor (Videodrome). In English, not subtitled. (23 min, 1080p).

• Mental Saboteur - in this brand new video interview, actor Michael Ironside, who plays Darryl Revok, discusses his collaboration with David Cronenberg on Scanners and the Canadian director's body of work, the film's message (the actor states that he always viewed Scanners as an intelligent political statement), and his career. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in 2014. In English, not subtitled. (20 min).

• The Ephemerol Diaries - in this video interview, actor Stephen Lack, who plays Cameron Vale, discusses the character he plays in Scanners, Dick Smith's special effects, the shooting of the film in Montreal, etc. The interview was produced by Subkultur Entertainment in 2012. In English, not subtitled. (15 min, 1080p).

• The Bob McLean Show - presented here are excerpts from the March 10, 1981, episode of the popular CBC talk show in which David Cronenberg discusses Scanners with Bob McLean as well as some of the films he directed prior to it. At the time Scanners was the first Canadian film ever to occupy the top spot at Variety's box office chart. In English, not subtitled. (12 min, 1080i).

• Stereo - David Cronenberg completed his first feature, Stereo, in 1969. It is about experiments in artificially created telepathy, and stars Ronald Mlodzik, Jack Messinger, and Iain Ewing. B&W. In English, not subtitled. (63 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - illustrated booklet featuring an essay by critic Kim Newman.

Scanners Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Criterion's upcoming Blu-ray release of Scanners, David Cronenberg's breakout hit in the United States, will likely inspire some very interesting discussions because it uses a restored and supervised by the Canadian director high-definition transfer whose basic characteristic have little in common with those of the high-definition transfers used by Second Sight in the United Kingdom and Umbrella Entertainment in Australia for their local Blu-ray releases of the film. (I personally like the new presentation quite a lot). Additionally, Criterion have provided some excellent new and exclusive supplemental features, as well as David Cronenberg's first feature, Stereo. What all this means is that the biggest fans of this cult film will probably have to consider purchasing multiple Blu-ray editions because there are so many good supplemental features that are exclusive to different markets. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.