this is a B movie,no doubt about it.that isn't always a bad thing.i f you have good acting,decent characters,and a decent storyline,it could work.does this movie have any of that?maybe a little.the story is mildly interesting.none of the characters are,except for one.that would be the villain,played by Richard Lynch.Lynch has a certain quality about him that makes him watchable.the rest of the characters,i didn't really care one way or another.the reason for that is the suspect acting.the other thing i didn't like(in fact,it really annoyed me)was the unbelievably cheesy.sound effects/music that was used every time somebody was being scanned.it drove me up the wall.while this is nowhere near the worst movie i have seen,it is closer to the bottom than the top. 3.5/10

A former neurosurgeon named Glock(great heavy Richard Lynch)was put away thanks to cop Harrigan(Richard Grove). Through manipulating a doctor at a psycho ward, Glock escapes, taking up with a "fortune-teller" named Zena(Hilary Shepard). He seeks revenge for Harrigan's putting him away(Glock was conducting "brain experiments" on a group of followers)and, through a series of brainwashing tactics, has civilians killing cops they thinks are various evil concoctions based on their worst fears.Years prior to this, Harrigan was working a beat where a father was going through madness thanks to his overwhelming scanner attacks..this mental throbbing which work as excessive migraines(we see these mini-heads bulge from the poor guy's forehead)as multiple voices from anyone in the general area chime in only adding to his misery. The father hadn't taken medication for his illness for days and his son Sam can only watch in horror as he almost kills not only Harrigan but throws another policeman through a wall. In an unfortunate turn of events, Sam's father is killed because of his attempts at killing those policemen. Without a home, Sam is raised by Harrigan. Sam(Daniel Quinn), now an adult rookie cop, will have to help Harrigan(now a Commander of the police force)stop Glock by temporarily stopping the routine of medication which kept the scanner abilities dormant and quiet. As Sam remains off of them, his mind is slowly coming apart..he must find Glock & Zena before a repeated case of what happened to his father occurs to him. Darlanne Fluegel(TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA)stars as Dr. Joan Alden, someone who will work closely on the case as the voice of reason who tries to keep Sam focused while assisting the police. If things get hairy or appear out of hand regarding Sam and his scanning, she'll try to be a guiding hand in him not taking things too far.Not a bad film, but nothing all that special or memorable. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, but I wasn't that overwhelmed, either. Quinn is actually quite good in the lead and Lynch is at his usual slimy best. There are some okay make-up effects showing how scanning another's mind can lead to the exposing of brain hemorrhage is one keeps the meld on too long. There's a head-explosion which is almost expected in the series. The interesting little gimmick added to the film has Lynch's baddie plated with metal on one side of his brain making it hard for Sam to scan him.

Scanner Cop starts in a grotty Los Angeles apartment block in a flat where a scanner has gone several days without Ephemerol & is going crazy from the pain, his son Samuel (Elan Rothschild) watches on as he screams & hallucinates. The apartment manager has called the police & they burst into the flat, in the ensuing incident Sam's Father is shot dead. Officer Peter Harrigan (Richard Grove) feels sorry for Samuel & together with his wife Margaret (Savannah Smith Boucher) decides to adopt him. Jump '15 Yaers Later' & Samuel Staziak (Daniel Quinn) is following in his adopted Father's footsteps & is now a Los Angeles police officer. Harrigan is now a Commander & is dealing with a worrying case, it seems random totally unconnected civilians are killing police officers for no apparent reason. Hospital orderly Damon Pratt (Gary Hudson) has stabbed officer Dooley (Wayne Grace) to death but appears to be in a comatose state & psychiatrist Dr. Joan Alden (Darlanne Fluegel) can't get anything from him. Harrigan has no choice but to ask his boy Samuel to stop taking his Ephemerol & scan Damon in an attempt to try & give them some clues to go on & stop the senseless killing...Produced & directed by Pierre David this is technically the third sequel to David Cronenberg's original Scanners (1981), although this takes the the basic scanner element & tries to do something a little bit different. The script by John Bryant & George Saunders takes itself very seriously, moves along at a nice pace & is as much a thriller as it is horror. It's a surprisingly decent film with good character's, some nice scenes & overall the whole concept bizarrely works rather well. Samuel isn't presented as some sort of superhero & the film manages a nice balance between someone vulnerable with problems & someone with a unique gift which makes him powerful & frightening. On a disappointing note I didn't think there were enough exploding body parts, I mean the fabulous exploding head is the scene everyone remembers from the original (& the other two previous sequels as well I suppose but the original in particular) & it's equivalent here is very weak by comparison & seems to be there for the sake of it, blink & you'll miss it! I also didn't like the eventual reasoning behind the cop killings, just one single person out for revenge against one cop just felt far too small in scope & throughly routine.Director David does a fine job, Scanner Cop isn't going to win any awards for artistic merit or anything like that but it's competently made throughout. He keeps the story quite tight & he keeps it moving along. The special make-up effects are not too bad but sort of average as we get some bulging veins, a few creatures & a scene where little faces pop out of someones forehead. The obligatory exploding head is less than spectacular & overall the gore level isn't that high.Technically Scanner Cop is OK & it's generally well made. The acting was alright although Quinn looks a little nervous at times. There are a couple of familiar genre faces here, even though he is listed quite high in the opening credits Brion James appears for less than one minute, Aliens (1986) actor Mark Rolston is here, veteran Richard Lynch plays the villain & Hilary Shepard as his sidekick.Scanner Cop isn't a half bad film, it's certainly better than a lot of low budget horror/thriller's that clutter video shop shelves. I think it's well worth a watch if this is your type of film & I personally prefer it to Cronenberg's dull as dishwater original. A sequel Scanner Cop II (1995) was made the following year.

Pretty disposable sequel of sorts to the Scanners series. I've only seen the first Scanners film, which I didn't think was one of Cronenberg's better ones.Anyway, in this one a poor father and son are taking drugs to suppress their abilities as scanners, but have run out for lack of money. The father is going crazy, hallucinating, and becoming violent. The police arrive, and the father gets killed. The boy gets adopted by one of the cops.Years later, the boy is now a cop and his father the Commander. Throughout the city, ordinary people are killing cops without provocation. They're seeing the cops as things they fear. The Commander hopes that his son would be willing to go off his medication to try to use his abilities as a scanner to find out what is going on.There are a couple head explosions (something memorable from the first Scanners), but mostly the psychic powers are used here to read minds, or throw people through the air.There's a Scanner Cop II, oddly also known as Scanners IV when it should seemingly be the fifth one, if this is the fourth. Evidently Scanners is also being remade; really, Hollywood, enough of the remakes of horror movies already!