Scanner Cop 2 - The Showdown

After pitting psychic policeman Sam Staziak (Daniel Quinn) against a non-scanner in Scanner Cop, it's back to the old 'good scanner vs bad scanner' formula for this follow up. The villain of the piece is Karl Volkin (Patrick Kilpatrick), who uses his psychic powers to suck the essence from other scanners, making himself more powerful with each victim, his final target being Staziak, with whom he has a score to settle.

Despite a rather predictable plot and so-so performances, Scanner Cop II is a reasonably fun piece of straight-to-video silliness, director Steve Barnett keeping things moving along at a decent pace, delivering several effectively gruesome set-pieces along the way. Volkin's attacks are the highlights of the film, the evil scanner causing his victims to rupture and melt into unrecognisable gooey piles of flesh, the impressive special effects by makeup man John Carl Buechler. There's also a fun scene in a warehouse where the bad guy almost gets the better of Staziak, using his brain power to control forklift trucks. Of course, Staziak ultimately wins the day, tricking the villain into using up all of his ill-gotten power before giving him a taste of his own medicine, with explosive results (it's a scanners film... there had to be an exploding head somewhere, and it's a messy one!).

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

While the loss of an interesting story is a shame, Scanner Cop II more than delivers plenty of genre highlights, offering an unpretentious, exhilarating and straightforward cat-and-mouse chase between a likeable hero and a loathsome villain. Director Steve Barnett brings us a grislier take on the Scanners universe, one with copious amounts of visceral violence that works wonders in the production's limited budget and unrefined style. It's not an escalation of Sam's cop story, but the film enjoys creating a mess, finding its happy place in blood and guts. Daniel Quinn once again turns in a good performance as our hero but like the previous film, it's stolen by the villain, this time played with excruciating sadism by Patrick Kilpatrick. Backed by another funky synth score, this time by Richard Bowers, Scanner Cop II introduces a bit of levity amidst the grim nature of its story, it isn't exactly groundbreaking but it does put on a major show of force when it comes to scanners and their destructive ways.

I enjoyed SCANNERS 2 and SCANNERS 3, which I thought had effective spins on the original SCANNERS movie. Recently I saw SCANNER COP, and I enjoyed that movie as well, so I eagerly rented SCANNER COP II when I found it at my local video store. Unfortunately, this entry in the series, while not really awful, is disappointing all the same. I will admit that the movie never has a boring moment, and it boasts some good make-up effects and other gory moments. Despite this, the movie comes across as quite cheap at times, with shabby sets or locations that look like they were shot in abandoned warehouses. There is also a subplot involving the hero's long- lost mother that seems awkwardly tacked on, and is hardly worked on for the most part. The biggest problem is that much of the movie seems to be repeating itself, with the villain doing the same things over and over. If you've seen the other entries in the series, you might as well watch this, but definitely keep your expectations low.

Karl Volkin (Patrick Kilpatrick) is a vengeance-crazed Scanner who's escaped from prison, and is hellbent on striking back at heroic Scanner cop Samuel Staziak (Brad Dourif look alike Daniel Quinn). What he does to work towards this end is suck the life out of other Scanners, leaving them twisted, burning hunks of flesh. He hopes to become even more powerful than his nemesis, and stops at nothing.

This is actually a pretty good B movie, made with competence (if not flamboyance) at every level. Its story, concocted by Mark Sevi, is ultimately very routine, but director Steve Barnett does keep us entertained. It's amusing, as it always is with these movies, to watch actors make all manner of faces as they unleash their devastating mental abilities. Volkin leaves quite the trail of bodies behind him, so viewers can take comfort in a respectable body count, as well as some reasonably impressive (if protracted) makeup effects sequences devised by John Carl Buechler and his company.

The cast gives it their best effort. Quinn is a decent enough good guy, but he's outshone by veteran movie villain Kilpatrick, who's fun to watch. A number of recognizable actors pop up along the way, although Robert Forster is given precious little to do as Staziaks' superior officer. Khrystyne Hage ('Head of the Class'), Stephen Mendel, Brenda Swanson, Jerry Potter, and Jewel Shepard ("The Return of the Living Dead") co-star, while Eugene Robert Glazer ('La Femme Nikita'), Allan Kolman (Cronenbergs' "Shivers"), Aaron Lustig ("Bad Channels"), and none other than Kane Hodder have small parts.

A worthy follow up to "Scanner Cop".

Seven out of 10.

Both "Scanner Cop" and "Scanner Cop 2" can be used as examples to contradict people if they claim that cool and amusing horror movies didn't get made during the 1990s. They may not be masterpieces, but these spinoffs to David Cronenberg's magnificent classic "Scanners" (1981) are action-packed, entertaining, and extremely gore!

Troubled Scanner and young Brad Dourif lookalike Sam Staziak once more needs to control and wisely divide all his powers, this time to defeat a maniacal scanner - Karl Volkin - who found a method to literally drain and absorb the abilities of other Scanners. Volkin is buffing up to confront Staziak because he killed his brother by using his scanning skills during a police intervention.

The script of "Scanner Cop 2" isn't groundbreaking or particularly clever, but it does offer an unpretentious, exhilarating, and straightforward cat-and-mouse situation between a likeable hero and a loathsome villain. The latter, played by Patrick Kilpatrick, is responsible for several of the most sadistic, excruciatingly painful, gooey, and splattery murder sequences of the entire 90s decade. What Volkin does to his fellow Scanners to obtain their abilities is beyond sadistic, as he drains and pulverizes them like a vampire without teeth. Their skin burns, their entire body melts, and their corpses remain behind unidentifiable. Special effects and make-up wizard John Carl Buechler must have tremendously enjoyed himself during this assignment. What makes it extra cruel is that most of these people didn't even (ab)use their scanner skills and were trying to lead a normal life.