Scanners II: The New Order (1991) and Scanners III: The Takeover (1991)

n

nDavid Cronenberg’s Scanners (1981) introduced us to powerfulnbeings known as ‘scanners’. Scanners can do all sorts of nifty things withntheir powers, for example they can move things with their mind, read people’s thoughts,nprobe your brain and oh yeah, blow your head into smithereens. So of coursensomebody is going to want them, somebody is going to hunt them down. To me, thenoriginal Scanners was an allegory for people who wake up and see the world fornwhat it is, they are intelligent, they are not sheep, they know what’s goingndown, so of course they are chased down by the powers that be for this. Theirnminds are too powerful! It’s one of Cronenberg’s finest films. And like mostnCronenberg films, it’s filled with psychological themes. To me, Scanners was a story meantnto be told in one film, it said what it had to say with the first film and thatnwas that. It’s not the kind of film you want to see a sequel to, the originalnwas good, it shocked, it impacts you, leave it there. But you know hownHollywood works, they like to squeeze ideas till they can’t be squeezed no morenand so this is how we come to Scanners II: The New Order and Scanners III: The Takeovern(1991).

n

n

n Scanners II: The New Order plays with the ideas presented innCronenberg’s film, but goes in another direction; a cheesy direction. In thisnfilms scanners start to surface in the world and dirty politicians want toncontrol and use them for their evil purposes. Same as in Cronenberg’s originalnfilm, in Scanners II we meet a good scanner and a bad scanner. The good scannernis called David and he’s studying to become a vet. He is just learning tondiscover his abilities. On the dark side of the spectrum we got Peter Drak, thenbad scanner who has turned to the dark side of the force and uses his powersnfor evil, like controlling video games with the power of his mind and joining anband of corrupt cops and politicians. Can David stop Peter from helping thencorrupt politicians from reaching power?

n

n

nThe thing with this second film is that it’s a low budgetnstraight to video sequel to a good movie, so you can automatically expect thenquality levels to go down. And yeah, this film technically feels like a lownbudget version of Cronenbergs film, at times it feels like a tv movie, but thenthing about it is that it is actually a fun movie, fast paced and entertaining.nYeah it’s cheesy and yeah it’s got some bad dialog in there, but overall, Inthink this movie is a hell of a lot better than it has any right to be and Inthink a lot of that has to do with the director and the fast paced/gory naturenof the film. The film grabs you right from it’s opening sequence where Drak,nthe bad scanner enters an arcade and starts to control a video game with thenpower of his mind, people freak out, so he goes nuts and starts pushing people withnhis powers. The scene is great, it establishes that this character’s a nutncase! The film keeps going like that all the way through, something exciting ornshocking happening all the time; which is good news for us the viewers becauseneven though the film is low budget, it still grabs you and keeps yournattention, which is not always the case with low budget b-movies like this one.

n

nFilms dealing with telekinesis have always interested me, ifnyou’d like to read more about these films go here. So anyways, of course thisnone had me glued to the screen. The ample gore also got my attention. Cronenberg’snfilm has that famous head explosion that everyone loves and this one delivers ansimilar and equally successful head explosion, but it focuses even more on goryneffects than Cronenberg’s film did. Yes my friends, this film comes to us fromnthat wonderful era in filmmaking when make-up effects were king and so we getntons of cool make up effects! Faces get distorted, heads get blown up and allnsorts of nasty stuff happens. So the high gore level keeps things interesting.nI also enjoyed how they played around with things that the Scanners can do withntheir powers, like controlling somebody from a distance. All in all, this is annentertaining sequel, and it actually has some cool shots and locations. So it’snnot a total waste of a sequel. It’s not a “worthy” sequel to the original, butnas a b-movie you could do a heck of a lot worse. 

n

n

nThen we have Scanners III: The Take Over; which to me takesna nose dive into stupidity. I mean, where the first film tried is best to retainna “serious” tone to it, this second one turns into a pretty stupid film. Weirdnpart is that it was made by the same director and producer, but for some reasonnthis film doesn’t work as well as the second, I think it might have somethingnto do with having less money. Okay, so here’s the thing with these Scannernfilms, they don’t have a continuity to them. They might reference some smallndetail from one of the other films, but for the most part all these films arenstand alone films, unrelated to one another. The only thing that holds themntogether are the scanners and the drug used to control them, the Ephemorol. Sincenthis one is the third film, they now call the drug EPH-3, on the second film itnwas called EPH-2. That’s about as far as we go in continuity my friends. But anyhow,nspeaking of plot, this movie actually has an interesting concept to it. Sure it’snbathed in cheese and bad, bad dialog, but the idea behind the film is actuallyna cool one.  

n

n

nWhile on previous films Ephemerol was administered through a syringe, on thisnthird film it is a patch that you wear on your neck and only lasts 24 hours. Sonanyhow, the main character on the film is this news reporter named HelenanMonet. She starts out really kind hearted and nice, she doesn’t even use hernscanner abilities for evil; but once she starts taking EPH-3 she turns intonthis evil lady who suddenly decides to use her scanner powers to control thenworld! Or something like that. The film isn’t very clear in explaining exactlynwhat she wants to do. So here’s where the cool concept works itself in: sincenshe works on television, she gets this nifty idea that she can use her powersnto control people through television! And her channel gets 75 million viewers…sonif she does things right she can end up controlling them all! Cool idea right?nKind of reminded me of the plot for Batman Forever (1995), where The Riddlernwanted to do the same exact thing. So anyhow, I thought that was a pretty coolnconcept but it makes no sense whatsoever.

n

n

nThe thing with this movie is that it’s so cheesy that I couldn’tnhelp but laugh throughout the whole damn thing. Me and my friends couldn’t stopnwatching, or laughing. In my book this one is a notch below the second onenbecause it’s a terrible script that fails to explain things clearly. Like whyndoes Helena want to suddenly control the world? There’s this laser that doesnsomething to the scanners, but what the hell is it and how does it work? Whonthe hell knows, it just does. It’s a pretty stupid (and therefore funny) film.nTake for example the main character in the film, a scanner named Alex. He endsnup killing a friend of his by mistake during a Christmas party, so in order tondeal with this he pulls a Rambo III and goes to Thailand, to a monastery, tontrain with monks. A scanner training with monks, that’s gotta be good fornsomething. Without a doubt the single worst moment in the whole franchise isnthis moment in which Helena makes this guy dance and strip in the middle of anrestaurant, again, a lame attempt to infuse the film with some comedy. Evennfunnier are the faces that the actors make when they are using their powers!nAfter a while they crack you up. There are many goofs all over the movie, likenactors waiting for the camera to pass by, scenes where you can tell that it’snthe double and not the main actor, visible cables, so yeah my friends, this onenhas goofs galore. Yet another element that makes it hilarious.

n

n

nScanners III isn’t as gory as the second one. For somenreason they decided to downplay the gore and inject comedy into the film, whichndidn’t work at all. The filmmakers had this strange idea to add some evilnscanners that were supposed to serve as comedy relief? Unfortunately theynsimply stand out, as if they belonged in some other movie. How funny were thesenthree scanners? Well, one of them dies inside of a revolving door! The death isnsimply put: cartoony. Another thing that brings this third film down for me isnthat they obviously had less money to make it because there is less ofneverything. For example, the final confrontation, which we’ve come to expect asngory and violent, ends with nothing but a wimper. It was not very exciting ifnyou ask me. I would have to say that the best thing the film has going for itnis Liliana Komorowska, the beautiful actress who plays Helena, she plays herncharacter really over the top, and she has no problems with nudity! Speaking ofnnudity, this film has tons of it!

n

n

nAt the end of the day, Scanners III: The Takeover is one ofnthose movies that is so “bad” you won’t be able to stop watching. Ever wantednto see a scanner blowing up a pigeon with the power of their minds? Well itnhappens here! It’s one of those films where you want to see just how bad theyncan get. And trust me, this one just keeps going and going and going with itsnbad movie self. So yeah, don’t expect a good movie, just a funny goofy one thatnyou can make fun of and you’ll be fine. There’s more Scanner movies…there’s ScannernCop (1994) and Scanner Cop II (1995), both of which I have erased from mynmemory banks. I’ll re-watch them at some point, unfortunately they don’t seemnto be available on DVD, maybe I’ll simply have to watch them on YouTube, whichnI hate to do. I’ve gone on long enough about these movies. I recommend younwatch Cronenberg’s film instead which is the superior of all these films. Justnremember, Scanners II, gory and fast paced semi-decent sequel, Scanners III sonbad that it’s a laugh riot.

n

nScanners II: The New Order (1991): 3 out of 5

n

nScanners III: The Takeover (1991): 2 out of 5 

n

n