Scanners III: The Takeover (AKA Scanner Force)

Dir: Christian Duguay

1992

**

Scanners II: The New Order was an unnecessary sequel to the 1980 classic. Scanners III: The Takeover was taking the flimsy story way too far. For some reason it was called Scanner Force in the UK but we all knew what it was – the sequel no one asked for. That said, I think director Christian Duguay realised his mistakes and knew that at this point, people just wanted to see heads explode and that is exactly what he gave us. It is more horror than sci-fi and, dare I say it, is so bad that it is actually quite good. Maybe even better than Scanners II, but only for the fact that it takes itself far less seriously. One again it was a straight to video release. The film opens with a scrolling caption informing us of what scanners are for all the people who like to start a trilogy at the end. The story begins at a Christmas party. Alex Monet (Steve Parrish) and his best friend are talking to some girls. The conversation turns to scanners. The girls admit that they don’t believe they actually exist so Alex, who  is a scanner, is pushed by his friend to prove the girls wrong. So using his psychic abilities, he moves his friend backwards with only the power of his mind. Being a seasonal party, a drunken reveller pats Alex on the back, surprising him and making him lose control of his powers. His friend is thrown back violently and out of the balcony doors, over the guard rail, and to his death twenty odd floors to the pavement below. Officially it is ruled an accident but it weighs on Alex mind. He decides to leave and thanks to a montage we learn that he has traveled all over the world and finally decides to settle at a monastery in Thailand so he can learn to control his powers. Meanwhile back home his sister Helana Monet (Liliana Komorowska) is trying to lead a normal life, even though she suffers severe pain and headaches. Alex and Helana’s adoptive father, Dr Elton Monet (Colin Fox), is the owner of a large medical research company and is trying to invent a drug in the form of a patch which releases the drug into the bloodstream through the skin, hoping it will help cure all scanners of the pain they suffer. He tells Helana about this drug, and that at this stage it's highly experimental and hasn't been tested properly. One night when the pain becomes unbearable Helana tries the drug and immediately the pain disappears. The next morning while enjoying an alfresco breakfast, a bird poops on her hand. Angered, she stares at it and using her scanner powers makes it explode. While she has used her scanner skills before in self-defense, she has never used it out of revenge or spite. The drug seems to have changed her from a good scanner to a bad one over night. Later that night she visits Dr Baumann (Harry Hill – no, not that Harry Hill, another Harry Hill) who is performing experiments on scanners. She frees all the scanners in his care and gives them patches so she can control their psychic powers too. From then on she sets her evil plan for world domination - and why not. The family lawyer Micheal (Daniel Pilon) becomes suspicious and tracks Alex down. He convinces Alex to come back home and sort his family laundry. Once back, Helana realizes that Alex can stop her so she uses other scanners to try and kill him. Alex survives and enlists the help of research scientist and Helana's best friend Joyce Stone (Valerie Valois). Together they discover Helana (who luckily works at a television studio) is going to spread her mind controlling signals using video which she plans to transmit into tens of millions of American homes through their televisions. Can Alex stop her? Yeah, of course he can, and he does. It is somehow both flat and over the top, with only a few exploding heads and Liliana Komorowska ridiculously camp performance to enjoy. The rest of the film is firmly in so bad it’s good territory, although I did appreciate the attempted humour. It’s trash but its entertaining trash and far easier to watch than the last Scanners film. The nude scene was unashamedly unnecessary but much appreciated as a twelve-year old boy. The trilogy was over after this but it did have a sort of spin-off in the form of Scanner Cop and Scanners: The Showdown (AKA Scanner Cop 2). These ‘straight to video’ films were helmed by Pierre David who is best known for executive-producing the original Scanners, as well as other iconic films directed by David Cronenberg, such as Videodrome and The Brood. Not as bad as you might think but still pretty bad.