Scanners Review - Off The Shelf Reviews 

I spent 4 years of my life in film school and every time I watch an OTSR video I'm astounded at the amount of time and research you put into these reviews. It's like being back in class again. Never stop lads.

Michael Ironside...the essential bad guy actor for every movie director. Thanks lads keep up the great work.

I think even Cronenberg said if he was to have the chance to do this movie all over again, he'd have made Ironside the protagonist. Great stuff guys.

As a teenager watching this on the sly with my friends in the eighties on vhs it was an incredible experience (As was An American Werewolf in London) I’m telling you we weren’t prepared for that kind of thing back then 😱

Was never bored for even a minute of Scanners

Hello lads hope all is well, glad to see you do another Cronenberg flick 😀 as always well done and man Micheal Ironside is brilliant in anything! He always makes me laugh in starship troopers.

The box art for this movie haunted me as a child.

I think Stephen Lack's lack of personality helps the character as he's effectively a Tabula Rasa designed to be a weapon. Of course, this could be a coincidence.

This is probably my favourite Cronenberg film. Also, Ian.....scanning...... IAN YOU DIRTY SOD! xD

I love this movie. One of my favorite Cronenberg movies. Damn near shocked by your review! Figured you guys would love it too. Not a perfect movie but a full fledged classic imo! Thanks for the videos guys! Cheers!

Highly anticipated review! I love this channel, so underrated.

Loving the t-shirt game this week. Iain's especially is iconic 😂

This film needed to be added to the OTSR catalogue and it was worth the wait 👊

Being a huge Cronenberg fan since the early 80's I really enjoyed Scanners when I first saw it. Even compromised Cronenberg is better than most other filmmakers. The Fly is great but his best film would easily be Naked Lunch. The fact that he made that film at all is amazing. Dead Ringers would also outdo The Fly and Videodrome and A History Of Violence are up there as well. Frankly I've never seen a bad film of his except for maybe Crash which really didn't work very well and M.Butterfly which was not what it could have been. I'm such a fan though that I even like his racing film,Fast Company. Lol. Still he's in the short list of best directors just edging out David Lynch. Sadly he's gotten sick of the film industry,which given Hollywood's garbage over the last 10 years or so,is understandable.

Seems like The Dead Zone is always forgotten about in Chronenberg’s filmography since it has very minimal body horror, but IMO it is a masterpiece that doesn’t get the respect it deserves when compared to his other films.

awesome review sirs! Think this is special in my mind as I saw it as a kid (VHS store) along with all the others like Videodrome etc. I knew Michael Ironside as "Tyler from V" so I think I rooted for him the whole time. You are correct however, I remember very little about it at all, even that ending!

That fireworks part... LOL!

Can't say that I am on board with your take on this movie (the clue is in my name) but a fun watch never the less.

Just saw scanners for the first time tonight and this was a great follow up!!

Whenever I hear that Revok line "... band of cripples" I've never not been able to imagine a a Punk band consisting of very angry people in wheel chairs playing the most viscous grind-core. 😆😆😆😆

Cronenberg is my fav Horror director and Scanners my fav of his films. Such a unique film, effects, sound effects, story, music, acting, art work, atmosphere, ending on and on this film is one of the all time great horror masterpieces, of course the Head pop and the Scanner showdown are legendary with Dick Smith effects

No one wraps up a review quite like Gary.

I'm surprised you didn't mention that the drill scar between Revok's eyes was gone after Cammeron won the battle :)

Hell yeah! More Cronenberg!

I used to think Cameron was played by the same actor who played Flyboy in Dawn Of The Dead too. They look and sound almost the same.

Great review, this is my favorite of Cronenbergs films, but I can totally understand why this one isn’t for everyone

Brilliant channel guys , am bingeing all your videos and was only watching scanners the other day ! I think you guys should do brightburn aswel 👍👍 you guys a great duo work’s amazing the back and forth , the blade runner one had me in stitches at the end

Great review as always guys. I agree with Iain, Scanners really does need a remake to bring it up to date, to enhance and expand on some of the Scanner concepts teased at in the film but never really explored, a decent lead actor, and most importantly must have practical FX for the exploding head...CGI just wouldn't do it justice.

I watched this movie when I was 9 years old. It scared the shit out of me. Probably why I remember it so well.

Scanners is criminally underrated.

I was born in 65 so by the time special makeup effects started to become more complex and imaginative and technologically innovative and just plain gnarly and wicked and amazing, I was 10 and for me it all began with Jaws in 1975 and things just grew from there. The 80's were an incredible time to be a teenager and young adult and those were the true Golden Years of special makeup fx. As for Scanners, and the infamous exploding head scene, I've never watched a making-of about the movie except for maybe a short bit about the fx overall but I don't remember. I'm thinking that Cronenberg must have been ordered by the studio to not make the scene any gorier than it is, otherwise why not show Revok covered in blood and flesh and brains, and show the table and curtains and walls covered in it too? If there is ever a remake, I'd want to see that. Imagine how wicked Ironside would have looked in that scene all bloody and in the next scene where he scans those other guys and makes them kill each other then themselves, still bloody.

Great review, thanks guys. Off The Shelf forever

My Dad bought this on Betamax back in the day, great film, nice slow tense pace 👍

Scanners!!!!Finally! Great review, as always,guys!

The guy who has the house full of artwork reminds me of Brad Pitt's character in the movie 12 Monkeys...

OTSR Thursday! 🎉 Yes! It's Scanners today, Shelfers! Have a good day/night everyone! 👊👊👊

Another great review guys! 👊 Some say these scanners effects are also commonly found in viewers of any Neil Breen film 😂

Scanners is one of my favorite movies from the 80’s. I believe Stephen Lacks performance as Vale wasn’t bad. It may not have been great either, but I think he deserves a passing grade. He was playing an isolated, socially awkward homeless man with mental issues. His communication with others would most likely of been a little difficult. Anyway, he’ll never win an Oscar but in my eyes for this character he did just fine.

Sorry Ian and Gary but Scanners is an excellent movie the score the effects and performances,I get it regards to the main Lead but I dont think he's that bad and Michael Ironside what a performance top notch.

Good old Michael Ironside

Please watch A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. They're Cronenberg's dip into the crime genre. Though the violence is subdue for a Cronenberg movie, it's still really graphic among other crime films.

RU-vid is really screwing you guys, subscribed and notifications turned on but I still got to look for you.

Will echo a few comments on here , surprised by your take on this movie as its so enjoyable but still a fun review all the same.

Yeah! I'm surprised at this review. Scanners is my favorite David Cronenberg classic movie and is technically the best despite its off screen problems. It's better than the Fly which i think it's good too but special effect heavy but not much nothing else.

Great review guys. Big fan of this movie despite it's many flaws ( I actually saw this in the theatre) I think writing the script on the fly along with the myriad of production nightmares DC had to put up with diminished the film somewhat (a problem repeated with his brilliant Spider) and Lack always gets a drubbing but I think this is not entirely his fault ( he really CAN act, watch The Rubber Gun sometime) Ironside's Revok is such a great villain, between this and Visiting Hours (hint should review sometime) they made me a lifelong fan. Dick Smith's F/X still hold up pretty well upon review as well. Good if not great Cronenberg 🤠🤟

There is a movie waiting to happen based on Jennifer O'Neill's life. That lady has been through some DARK shit....

I love your shirt iain looks awesome

Joe Begos’ The Mind’s Eye is a nice spiritual successor to this film

Always said to myself I was going to watch this. But never did, and probably never will. Great review.👏👏

Like mentioned, the movie was written as they went along so I wonder how much guidance Lack was given. I’ve heard Tarantino praise Lack’s work on The Rubber Gun. I’ve yet to watch that but I’m curious to see if he came off any better. It’s a movie he wrote so maybe he had a better idea on how to portray his character.

70's -80's exploding cars? Sounds like Pinto-ism. The movie? At least Michael Ironside got his start here. And really, Cronenberg too, though he had made 3 movies by then.

.. I don't know why Steven gits so much stick for this role ! ... He does a great job imo! And looks the part !

This film had potential, is a good concept, but you feel how disjointed it is. Cronengber was clever to put that shocking cool scene at the begining to hook you, but after that the movie lose momentum, going all over the place while you follow this bland character, and the movie dont explore the really interesting aspects of the scanners, leaving you unsatisfied with the film.

Partly Cameron Vale goes on this mission because Dr Ruth gave him some sanity and also a feeling of importance, but also an innate sense of rightness and compassion. He has a certain child like vulnerability which is in stark contrast to Revok who is Highly planned, organized evil and massively confidant from years of getting his way and killing whoever gets in his way. But both Cameron and Revok were made functional via Ephemerol

The head blowing up is still memorable!! I like the movie personally! Good review boys!!

0:20 great my head burst. Thanks for that. 😠

MADE MY DAY BOIS!!

would you say Stephen's performance is Lacking?

Gary please tell me where you got your kick ass silent Hill 2 t shirt !!!!!! It's so awesome!!!😁

Great review guys, this film scared the hell out of me as a kid, this and squirm! Can you do a review on squirm? would love to hear your thoughts.

Harsh on Stephen lack guys, you do realize his character is a previously isolated guy who can barely interact with people since he is constantly inundated by peoples thoughts, who is now coming out of his shell due to the drug Ephemerol that allows him to have interactions, because he never really developed much of an identity prior to Dr Ruth's helping him. So yeah he's not all slick like Revok, but rather believable considering the state he's been in much of his life until very recently sent out as a spy, maximum Power, minimum personality. I like some vulnerability in certain characters not all the heroic nonsense thrown about in so many films, though Cameron Vale is a hero and has a high level of Compassion

Great job guys as usual! How about reviewing Hell Comes To FrogTown. Would love to hear your thoughts! PS I just put in my order for an Ian shirt!

of course Revok was directing the assassins scanner style, he is a master of his abilities and Cameron was hardly functional with his abilities and has his own way of moving his head and directing the energy flow under emergency duress against several armed attackers. Very clear and cool ways of demonstrating power flow in various situations and various people much like athletes have different body movements/styles etc

🙌🏻 🙌🏻

I wonder if Brian de Palma's The Fury is any better.

Now that you're on Cronenberg, when are you gonna review "A history of violence"?

Lack was a bad actor but I'm a huge fan of this movie since I saw it in first-run the drive-in as a kid - can't deny the great Dick Smith special FX, the godfather of modern FX that taught, Baker, Bottin, Winston, and Savini 🙂 also the very synthy score by Shore is really cool

I finally watched this movie for the first time tonight, and although I still thought that it was mostly pretty decent, I'm glad I'm not alone in disliking Stephen Lack's performance.

To me David Cronenberg best movie is The Dead Zone.

27:17 - 😆

You should review "POSSESSION" by Andrzej Zulawski with Sam Neil and Isabelle Adjani. One of the most disturbing movies EVER made!

Iain,when you scannered your intro,you made my head explode.That’s just rude,man.How about doing a reaction to Turbo Kid and/or Psycho Goreman(or did you already do these?).

Don't kill me, but this is worthy of a reboot.

Pierce is essentially.... blown away.... GUYS hahaha

I've heard that Stephen Lack is a great actor in other things. So maybe he was directed to act like this?

You should do ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK/L.A.

A watchable psyche/ government conspiracy flick. @ times a little dry. Michael Ironside & Patrick Mcgoohan are very good as usual. I’m a fan of David Cronenberg’s horror films. The other “Scanners” movies are unwatchable...don’t bother. Oh, great head explosion by the way...

Are you gonna do The Matrix?

I disagree you on cameron vale in this movie his emotionless performance really makes his character ambiguous first of all and its said in the film that scanners are strange borderline crazy people on the fringes of society and his performance really gets that across

WOOOOOO!!!! man... I hate that youtube doesnt allow GIFS in the comments. So... Instead... Just PRETEND that I just posted a gif of James Brown... from Blues Brothers... screaming "Hallelujah!!!" CUZ THAT'S HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW!!

Personally i like Scanner Cop best from the franchise but still a good review gents

No love for Videodrome?

Aw yiss

Stephen Lack is like a wax dummy that realizes he's just come to life in this film. STEPHEN LANG would've been better in this role.

Finally!

It’s a good job I don’t have Scanner powers on those I despise- Oh my goodness it would be a blood Bath 😷💥😷💥😷💥😷💥😷💥

Brightburn review 😎☠

I agree Scanners is a bit drab and dull compared to other Cronenbergs. Structure was never his strong point, so making the movie up on the fly might have made it more rambling than usual. And I find it visually uninteresting. Cronenberg can make banal spaces interesting, but in this case the scenes don't get the necessary lift. Also, the film lacks the interesting female characters of his other films. All that said, I am not the greatest fan of The Fly either! But both these movies are better than Dead Ringers.

👏💎

Prefer Rabid,Shivers & Videodrome personally. This was a lesser film IMO Sorry Gary but I always thought The Fly was meh, the special effects were impressive.

I heartily recommend Scanners, not the sequels at all. I find your lack of faith in this movie disturbing!

*Turn Up!*

Only good thing in this film is the exploding head scene apart from that it is boring

Makes you wonder about the criteria to be in the criterion collection I can't tell if the top is drunk or high

Omg cant wUt to lisren 2 rhis i love u guys

👍🎬🎥👊

What a great sci-fi horror trilogy, much better than garbage Neverending story. 😎

Stephen Lack had a lack of talent and charisma He is the main weak point of the movie

Wake and bake 💨 ... better late than never!!

No... exploding heads is the least interesting thing about Scanners... that was an incredibly dumb thing to say, Ian.