Telépatas III

It seemed to have been a curse of good 80's films with exploitable theme to sink ever lower depth, cheaper effects and amateurish actors, the more Roman numerals one would attach to them. Remember "RoboCop"? Half-decent sequel, a third part that reeked. "Warlock"? Cult-classic first part, mediocre second, unwatchable third. "Highlander"? "American Ninja"? "Batman"? The list could go on.

"Scanners III" neatly fits into that mould; the original being a true classic, the second part a cartoonish but enjoyable romp and the third, well, it makes you glad they didn't film a third "The Fly"-film (although an African video-vendor tried to sell me a bootleg of "The Fly III", but that's another story).

Short story shorter: a pair of Scanner siblings, one good one who has learned to control his powers and his evil sister, who chemically boosts her powers in order to take over the world, battle it out with the usual Scanner abilities. The powers are stronger, the theatrics – mostly due to the lack of acting abilities – are even more theatrical but the human-factor of the original "Scanners" has left the franchise forever. The original Scanners were mostly portrayed as average people who had to deal both with a power and a disease. One felt for their misery and, through the minimalist approach of original director David Cronenberg, one could almost imagine those people were troubled, but real people. The Scanners of this film seem like comic book heroes (and villains) who might well have fitted in with some cheap TV-production of "Super Friends".

This film isn't even cartoon anymore; it's the purest of C-grade straight-to-video Dreck. But there's the golden 80's principle and the producers had a concept there: most of the fans still slavishly rented or purchased the film, same as they did with "Scanner Cop" and "Scanner Cop II". I know I did. And I watched all the RoboCops because, you never know, there might be a shine of former brilliance to surface yet. People, we've all been conned. Will I go watch another sequel or a remake? Sure, I'm an incorrect able sucker for franchises and plan to stick to that – one can always complain later.

And by the way: when in East-Africa and they somebody tries to sell you a video-copy of "The Fly III", don't buy it! It's just a cheap horror-film, left on the cutting board table somewhere in Hong Kong, about a woman who stings herself on a mutated plant and gives birth to a giant killer-bug. Trust me: I know what I'm talking about! Four points for the film, one for nostalgia.

During the Christmas party in her apartment, Joyce Stone (Valérie Valois) welcomes the stepbrothers Helena Monet (Liliana Komorowska) and Alex Monet (Steve Parrish), who is her boyfriend. Alex's best friend asks him to demonstrate his abilities of scanner and during his demonstration, Alex is distracted by a guest and accidentally kills his friend. Alex is considered non-guilty but decides to travel to a monastery in Thailand to learn to control his powers.

Two years later, Joyce and Helena are attacked by a gang in an alley and Helena activates her ability of scanner to save them. She has a severe migraine associated to the sound of voices and her stepfather Elton Monet (Colin Fox) shows an experimental EPH-3 patch that he is developing in his company to be used in scanners. Helena offers to be the guinea pig, but he does not accept the offer since he is still studying the side effects. During the night, Helena opens his wallet and secretly uses the EPH-3. Immediately her migraine disappears and she feels good; however her personality changes to an evil person. She humiliates her boss Mark Dragon (Peter Wright), who is the owner of the TV network where she works, and later she destroys him to assume the control of the television; she kills Elton to assume the control of his company and research; she kills Dr. Baumann (Harry Hill), who conducted painful experiments on her when she was a teenager. Meanwhile Alex's lawyer and friend Michael (Daniel Pilon) travels to Thailand to warn Alex about the changes in Helena but he is murdered by a scanner sent by Helena to follow him. The Monk (Sith Sekae) gives a final training to Alex and he returns home. Will Alex succeed to control Helena?

"Scanners III: The Takeover" is not a bad movie as indicated in the IMDb Users Rating; actually it is a good sequel of Scanners. The plot is well constructed through a tight screenplay; the story has a great villain; the acting is reasonable for a movie directly released on video. The transformation of a sweet woman into a powerful villain is a great idea and there is also humor, like when the gang is thrown into the garbage truck or her boss dancing in the restaurant; or Alex waking up and walking in the morgue. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Scanners III - O Duelo Final ("Scanners III: The Final Duel")

'Scanners 3: The Takeover' is actually a bit of a mini-epic. It doesn't have half the budget of the previous film and there are some off-the-wall, kooky performances from almost all of the characters but this is definitely the better – and by better, I mean camp fun - of the 2 films. The film begins with an introduction to Alex Monet, a brash Scanner that has reduced his abilities to a literal party trick. When he absent-mindedly kills his best friend at one such party, he decides, in an effort of contrition, to find a way to better hone his powers. This leads him to the Buddhist monasteries of Tibet. Meanwhile, his sister, Helena Monet, (who is the heir to the pharmaceutical company that is working on a 'cure' for the previously-described side effects of the scanning mutation) is experimenting with said drug, turning her into a power-hungry megalomaniac. Much as the original 'Scanners' introduced the ability to control computers, Helena attempts to control people by passing a 'scanner signal' through pre-recorded video. When Alex returns, it is a cat and mouse game pitting brother against sister.

There is no doubt in my mind that the spark that inspired these follow-ups was the singularly iconic exploding head from the original and these sequels do not let down. There is a surplus of gooey gore and a sense that each death is an attempt to outdo the last. If you're after the headier (no pun intended) aspirations of Cronenberg, you are bound to be disappointed with these. If you are hoping to see fountains of blood spewing from the skulls of random characters, this is the place.

Let me start out by saying that this is a wonderful film. When I rented this movie initially I thought that it was going to be one of those low budget action films with awful special effects, terrible dialogue, terrible plot and gratuitous nudity (like the highlander movies). I was dead wrong.

Scanners III is a wonderfully cerebral film, chock full of allusions and references to American folklore, popular science fiction novels of the past century (i.e. 1984 and just about everything by Michael Chricton), Huey Lewis and The News song lyrics (I've got a brand new drug) and the religion and philosophy of the Algonquin Indians. What an analytical treat!!

As the iconography in this film suggests, American culture is dominated by the media, the pharmecutical companies, and cheap dares we do to impress girls on Saturday nights. We are soulless zombies, only acting on impulses that have been passed down to us by our parents. If we only used our heads (as Alex Monet does in this film (monet is an obvious reference to the french impressionistic artist...there are many more delicious reference-goodies in this gem!)), we could overcome the social and mental chains that are hindering us from developing as a society.

The film is beckoning us to cast away homburg hats and black suits of the nineteen forties for more casual clothing, eschew hot concentual sex with busty mental-hospital nurses for passionate lovemaking with loved ones, to send christianity and all of western society to the junkyard and take up Tibetan Buddhism, the only religion that has the capability to give one enough strength to overcome one's weaknesses. In no way is this film just another sequel to David Cronenberg's far inferior film Scanners. This is a treatise on how to live life successfully. I urge you to watch it immediately.

I remember throwing in the towel on the Scanners series after being particularly underwhelmed by Scanners 2: The New Order, and subsequently kept my distance when Scanners 3: The Takeover, Scanner Cop and Scanner Cop 2 (aka Scanners: The Showdown) all appeared on the video rental shelves. Maybe I was a little premature on calling time on the series though, as finally catching up with it nearly thirty years later, Scanners 3: The Takeover unexpectedly turned out to be lots of fun.

Colin Fox (star of the legendary Canadian horror soap opera 'Strange Paradise') essentially has the Patrick McGoohan role in this one, playing the scientist father to a pair of scanner siblings. The son, Alex grows up to go all Rambo 3, attempting to find himself by living among Buddhist monks. Daughter, Helena on the other hand becomes the Guinea Pig in her father's experiments which transform her from the meek and mousy type to a megalomaniac vixen who uses her scanner powers to climb the corporate ladder.

After two sombre sequels, Scanners 3 really beats you about the head with the silly stick, as naughty Helena uses her scanner powers to make a chauvinistic colleague perform a striptease at a well-to-do restaurant, forces a talk show host and his star guest to make horny fools of themselves on live TV, while a pigeon learns the hard way that it is not wise to poop on a scanner. Helena also has male scanner followers, who once mobilised, start dressing like prohibition era gangsters, and an oversexed nurse scanner who seems to think she is acting in a parody of a porn film.

Considering how tonally different this all is to the first Scanners film, there is a surprising amount of callbacks to early Cronenberg movies here. The flirty behavior on the live talk show recalls the James Woods/Debbie Harry antics of Videodrome, dead bodies end up in a garbage truck à la Rabid, and on the basis of this and Rabid (original and remake), Canadians must really have it in for men dressed as Father Christmas.

As Helena, polish actress Liliana Komorowska drops into the film with all the subtlety of a megaton bomb, playing a mixture of Joan Collins and Donald Trump, while sporting an accent so thick that it feels like she was on a one woman war against the English language. The long-of-name Komorowska easily overshadows the bland 1990s pretty boy playing her sibling/adversary, as the series ventures into the era of male ponytails, corporate villains, erotic thrillers and yes even kick-boxer movies.