Scanners II : La Nouvelle Génération

I have always love the film Scanners and have always loved David Cronenberg, but after Deadringers, I always felt he started to go downhill from a wonderful ride in the horror genre. Scanners was one of his best in his early period, when he was working from original screenplays and wasn't in an adaptation funk at all (ie., Naked Lunch, M. Butterfly and Crash). It was a promising plotline and was very entertaining. It has also become a cult classic. So when I saw this sequel when it first came out, I didn't think it would be as good as it is.

I'll spare you the plotline since you've undoubtably have read the other reviews, but I will comment on the films structure. It works surprisingly well considering the original didn't leave much for a sequel like this one. If one were to truly look at the first film for a sequel, the likely route would have been to have the main characters be on the run from the secret corporate organizations (a plotline used in Firestarter) which could lead to a very boring and predictable outcome. But this film was made ten years later and the plotline ideas can have new twists and it is this factor that makes this film a success.

The opening ropes you in by the way it mimics the opening to the original--homeless, drifting Scanner losses mind in public and gets corralled by the guys in shades and trenchcoats. But its different from the original opening in that Scanners 2 opens with the vagabond Scanner screaming at the city in agony as the mental voices of the population invade his extrasensory mind and drive him crazy. It would be like an itch you can't scratch. I liked this aspect of the opening and it made me realize the filmmaker was a huge fan of the first film. It proved he wanted to be true to the first film and not just make another sequel in name only. The plot device of making the Scanners junkies to mind suppressing drugs was another excellent addition. It further proves the filmmaker's desire to make a good sequel.

If you loved the first film, you have to give this one a try. It is very entertaining, great character development and delivers in the gore factor department.

Although the first sequel does not have an intriguing and thought-provoking script like the original, it does improve in other areas. The movie is slickly made on a low budget, making it look better than the first. It's fast-paced, and the "scanner" sequences are well-staged and deliver a good amount of blood and guts.

Nothing can match the brilliance of David Cronenberg's original Scanners, but this first sequel does a good job of coming close.

The plot is essentially the same. Nice guy scanner doesn't understand his powers, hones his abilities, and eventually enters into a scanning war with an evil scanner. Some details are changed here and there, such as the police chief who wants to use scanners to accomplish a radical new shift in local government, and the long lost sister of the nice guy scanner that enables the hero to "possess" a target as opposed to scan him to death.

Scanners 2, like the original, has a reputation for being terribly gory. In reality, there are only two scenes of true gore, (an exploding head, and a spurting tumor on the back of a criminal's neck) but plenty of people flung against walls from unseen mental forces. A few folks end up with deformed faces, but no blood. The final climactic battle is very toned down, and results only in a burned-out corpse shown briefly.

The plot does have some references to the protagonists from the original film, but it is not necessary to see the first movie before seeing this one.

During a sweeping crimewave, a war is fought for the streets.

I'm not going to obsess over how inferior this is to the original movie. As much as I love that one, I never thought that it needed sequels. So I think an argument could be made that this needed to justify that connection. And it is not up to the task. The writing is beyond convenient, with illogical decisions made, awkward dialogue where two people say things to each other that they already both know for the audience's benefit, and essentially all of the moral ambiguity that made the first one so compelling, completely gone. Cronenberg sought to explore how it might affect someone's life to be born with psychic powers. This was made by people who wanted heads to go boom.

If you have realistic expectations, this one can be fun. It is aggressively average, and as such could be significantly worse. Director Christian Duguay got a lot better after this, but even here, he manages to make the material work better than you might think. The actors portraying the villains really get into their roles and are fun to watch. The effects are good and spread out well.

This features bloody gory disturbing violence. I recommend this to people who wanted more after watching the first one. 5/10.

Scanners II was released in the late 80's or early 90's, it was one of the last true low budget horror films before my town turned into big budget studio depot for films. Scanners II is both visually stunning with some great opening shots of Montreal and has a great comic book style plot. Yeah sure the connection to the first Scanners was kinda cheesy in execution, but this film is alot faster in pace and has more action than the very slow paced Scanners. The FX by Mike Smithson are great and very realistic before our dependence to all that is CGI. But overall the performances are good but nothing to write home about. Overall Scanners II has good cinematography and a clever little story of world domination to entertain fans as well as the casual viewer. I suggest to anyone to check it out and be totally entertained for 100 minutes.