A late Monster Sketch Monday! It’s been so long I forgot how long doing this takes – and of course I couldn’t figure out what to draw, either. Eventually I remembered that Scanners came out in January of 1981! While it was tempting to go with the classic head explosion, I decided on a more subdued scene featuring Michael Ironside as Darryl Revok. (Yes, if you haven’t seen it, this is more subdued than the head explosion.) This will be a bit of an abbreviated post, but I’m hoping to get back to doing these every couple of weeks.
Scanners is one of my favorite David Cronenberg films, and despite the star being a little underwhelming it’s a film full of a bunch of things I loved as a kid. Psychic powers and gore. (I think Stephen Lack as Cameron Vale is going for a sort of “blank slate” personality, but it makes it hard to give a crap about what happens to him.) The special effects (except for that head shot) might be a bit dated now, but they were top notch at the time. I even loved the “hacking a computer with your mind” scene, with “hot melted plastic” running out of the phone as things go awry.
While Cameron is the star, if I’m honest it’s the villain, Revok, who always stood out to me. Part of that is Michael Ironside, who is just always good value as an actor, no matter what he’s in. Part of it is the whole sinister plan, involving seeding scanner babies into the population at large with the plan of creating an army to take over the world eventually. That’s long-range plan stuff, not something you always see in a screen villain – who always seem to want to take over the world right now.
The major confrontation between Revok and Vale at the end is the capstone to a cool film, with bulging veins, bursting blood vessels and explosions – all courtesy of a late entry by FX legend, Dick Smith. That’s the focus of my sketch today. (It’s always cooler in my head than on screen, though.) There’s also a great, weird soundtrack by Howard Shore and an appearance by The Prisoner himself, Patrick McGoohan. All in all, a great bit of 80’s horror fun.
