Scanners (1981) Limited Edition 4K/UHD and Blu-ray Box set Review
Scanners (1981) Limited Edition 4K/UHD and Blu-ray Box set Review
SCANNERS Limited Edition 4K/UHD and Blu-ray Box set is set for release on 31 March 2024 and will also be available in Standard Edition 4K and Blu-ray. The groundbreaking special effects and iconic explosive scenes are about to be seen in all their grotesque glory with a brand-new 4K restoration, with the approval of Cronenberg himself.
The set is presented in a stunning rigid slipcase complete with new artwork by Krishna Shenoi and comes packed with a slew of brilliant special features including a new commentary, interviews with cast and crew, including Micheal Ironside. There’s also a 120-page book filled with essays and more. Please see the full list of features on attached.
Drifter Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack – DEAD RINGERS) is plagued by incessant voices in his head, unaware that he’s a ‘Scanner’ – a person with extraordinary telepathic powers, who can not only read minds but literally tear them apart.
When he meets Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan – THE PRISONER, BRAVEHEART), the scientist recruits him and others of his kind to help them adapt to society. But a sinister underground movement of Scanners led by the psychotic Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside – TOTAL RECALL, STARSHIP TROOPERS) have other intentions and the ultimate confrontation of minds awaits.
Director David Cronenberg was in his imperial phase back at the tail end of the Seventies and beginning of the Eighties, with each of his successive movies generating bigger headlines in genre magazines and advertised with increasingly more garish and freakish posters and TV advertising. By the time SCANNERS was released and set up shop in the public conscientiousness, Cronenberg had already transformed the horror genre with his brand of body-horror both repulsing and captivating audiences with titles such as SHIVERS and RABID.
With his 1981 release SCANNERS the advertising folks made no secret that in the film a bespectacled man’s head explodes. It was a bold move, effectively taking what would turn out to be the film’s main talking point and therefore ruining the ‘shock’ for viewers in advance. It did what all good marketing should do though, and it had curious punters packing into cinemas worldwide making it a moderate box-office hit. Where SCANNERS really connected with audiences though was through the advent of home entertainment and V/H/S videotapes which was back then a rapidly expanding market.
It was through video that I first got to see SCANNERS – I would have been aged around thirteen or fourteen at the time – and as I did with other movies that had made a dent on my impressionable mind prior to actually seeing, I was sat there poised with a cushion to hand lest anything onscreen got too much for what I considered (incorrectly) to be my delicate sensibilities.
As it proved too often be the case, my imagination of what I envisaged might happen onscreen was far worse than what I saw. I was also surprised by how cerebral Cronenberg’s SCANNERS was. I had anticipated a pure gorefest and what I got instead was a very well thought out and considered storyline and script with there being only a couple of well executed moments where any gore kicked in. Michael Ironside as the film’s bad guy Darryl Revok who oozes both onscreen magnetism and steals the film from everyone else whenever he features onscreen.
Jump forward to 2025 and my now revisiting Cronenberg’s SCANNERS for this pleasingly special feature-heavy Limited Edition 4K edition, and my appreciation of this sci-fi horror remains undiminished. Watching it again is like catching up with an old friend, the viewing elicited a warm fuzzy feeling that took me back to my younger years and reminded me again of just how ground-breaking and exciting horror cinema was back then. Presented in 4K I am seeing it cleaner and clearer than at any time of viewing it prior and I ended up falling in love with it all over again.
Special Features
New 4K restoration approved by Director David Cronenberg
Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discs
UHD presented in HDR with Dolby Vision
New audio commentary by Caelum Vatnsdal
Audio commentary by William Beard
My Art Keeps Me Sane: an interview with Actor Stephen Lack
Method in his Madness: an interview with Actor Michael Ironside
Bad Guy Dane: an interview with Actor Lawrence Dane
The Eye of Scanners: an interview with Cinematographer Mark Irwin
Mind Fragments: an interview with Composer Howard Shore
The Chaos of Scanners: an interview with Executive Producer Pierre David
Exploding Brains & Popping Veins: an interview with Makeup Effects Artist Stephan Dupuis
Monster Kid: an interview with Makeup Effects Artist Chris Walas
Cronenberg’s Tech Babies: a video essay by Tim Coleman
Limited Edition Contents
Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Krishna Shenoi
120-page book with new essays by Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, Eugenio Ercolani and Gian Giacomo Petrone, Kurt Halfyard, Craig Ian Mann, Francesco Massaccesi, Jessica Scott, Emma Westwood and Heather Wixson
6 collectors’ art cards
