Scanners (1981, Canada)

I have to admit my shame – I had never seen Scanners from start to finish until last night. David Croenenberg’s horror yarn about telepaths who can make your head blow up if they try real hard is both a literal and a stylistic middle point between the director’s more developed films of the 1980’s and 90’s, such as Videodrome, and his earlier work, like The Brood and Shivers. (All of which are awesome in their own way, but Videodrome is when Croenenberg really comes into his own.) Partly this is due to his developing visual, audio, and thematic style – though, as usual, the danger lurks within – but it’s also aided by a ambivalent performance from the late, great Patrick McGoohan as Dr. Ruth, a military-industrial psychologist who may or may not be on the side of good. Most of the performances in Scanners are fairly straightforward, even bad, but McGoohan rises above, partly perhaps because he doesn’t have to stare at anyone while subtly vibrating his head and rolling his eyes back into his head. Also notable is the awesome Michael Ironside as the evil scanner with a nefarious plan for Canadian domination. Scanners is early Croenenberg at its most Croenenbergarian.