SCANNER COP (1994)

 

DIRECTED by Pierre David

SCREENPLAY by Pierre David, George Saunders & John Bryan

STARRING  - Daniel Quinn as Sam Staziak, Richard Grove as Commander Peter Harrigan,  Darlene Fluegel as Dr. Joan Alden,  Mark Rolston as Luitenant Harry Brown,  Richard Lynch as Karl Glock,  Hilary Shepard as Zena

PLOT - Young Sam Staziak and his father are Scanners - humans born with uncanny telekinetic/telepathic abilities. Abilities which can slowly drive a Scanner mad if left untreated by specialist drugs. 

Sam's father is driven insane by his abilities and nearly murders a police officer - Peter Harrigan. Sam saves Peter but in the process Sam's father is shot dead. Grateful to the now orphaned Sam for saving his life, Peter and his wife adopt Sam and give him a loving family home.

Years pass. Sam is now a grown man who has followed in Peter's footsteps and become a rookie police officer (Peter himself has since been promoted to local police commissioner).

However, trouble is brewing. A mad psychiatrist known as Karl Glock has a score to settle with the police. To gain vengence he has started hypnotising civilians to attack and kill police officers on sight, making them imagine thier worst nightmares to incite them to kill. Only Sam's abilities as a Scanner can help track down and aprehend this psychopath, but will it be at the cost of his own sanity ?...

PERFORMANCES  - At first Daniel Quinn in the role of Sam gives the impression that he's going to be quite a bland main character. His Scanner abilities are interesting for sure (especially if you've watched David Cronenberg's original or the two sequals that precede this entry) but the character himself seems a bit basic. He's a quiet, polite, nice chap but doesn't seem to have much of an edge to him. Thankfully that changes as the story progresses.

For the character of Sam goes on a "journey" as people like to say nowadays (hate that clichéd phrase by the way, I'll try to never use it again). We see Sam's first day on the police force and he's as nervous, gawky, niave and eager to please as anybody is on thier first day in a new job. He very soon gains the respect of his colleagues though and we get to see Sam's confidence as a cop grow as a result. This is actually quite subtle and layered character building for an early 90's straight to VHS B-movie and is actually nice to see.

From there the main story kicks in. Sam's confidence and competence grows and eventually he's drafted in on the case of the cop killing epidemic that's sweeping the city. He initially refuses, as taking the case would mean stopping taking the drug that suppresses his super powers and would risk putting his own sanity in jeopardy. Sam relents when his partner is killed by an insane brainwashed civilian and vows to use his powers for the greater good. Its classic superhero comic book stuff.

Once the gloves are off and Sam starts to use his powers Quinn's performance slowly ratchets up several notches. The more desperate and fearful of his own abilities Sam becomes, the more intense (and watchable) Quinn's performance becomes in turn. Sam goes through Hell (literally at one point) but eventually saves the day. The confidant, assured veteran cop we see at the movie's close is a far cry from the green rookie we see at the beginning. Good stuff.

Quinn's performance is backed up by Richard Grove as his adopted dad Peter. Grove is apparently a B-movie veteran (he's good in this) but I wasn't aware that I'd previously seen him in anything, until I watched a video on YouTube about this movie that pointed out that Grove played Henry The Red in Sam Raimi's Army Of Darkness. I'd never have known it was him from looking at him as he looks COMPLETELY different in this film (even though Army Of Darkness is one of my favourite films that I've seen hundreds of times and practically know line for line, and this was only filmed a couple of years after Army). You learn something every day, I'll keep more of an eye open for him in future.

Sam has a quasi/"sort of" love interest in the film in the shape of Darlene Fluegel as Dr. Joan Alden. Joan is tasked with keeping an eye on Sam's health as he uses his abilities to crack the case. A chemistry definitely develops between the two but they never actually end up getting together (at least not that we see), so this subplot feels a bit pointless in the long run.

Another B-movie veteran plays the main villian  - Richard Lynch as Karl Glock, the psycho psychiatrist with a grudge. Lynch is best known (to me at least) for his work for Charles Band's Full Moon pictures appearing in various entries in the Puppet Master and Trancers series. He's got a great face for playing a villian, he's got this weird young/old look about him, sort of like a young man made up by prosthetics to look like an older man...but no - that's his actual face. 

Glock, it turns out, has a grudge against Peter (and the police in general) for thwarting some immoral experiments he was carrying out on patients several years ago. As a result of this he was imprisoned in a mental asylum but has since escaped. He's looking to destroy not just Peter but the entire local police force at his command (surely this is a bit of a pointless task, as even if he succeeded there would only be more along to replace them ? Aw well, ours is not to reason why the motivations of your average megolmaniac B-movie super villian).

Glock is the type of baddie who will tie you up and explain his plans to you before killing you and just loves the sound of his own voice. A good fun villian then.

Glock is aided and abetted by Zena (Hilary Shepard) a sexy goth chick who helps him capture people to brainwash into becoming killers. She seems to have a bit of fetish for wearing lots of black leather and leaving Tarot cards at crime scenes (like some kind of Batman villian). She's also clearly insane (I'm guessing Glock busted her out of the same asylum for the criminaly insane that he was in), there's several scenes where she laughs and laughs and laughs (at length) like an utter lunatic. She's great.

SFX - We're in classic "practical effects" territory here. In the opening scene, Sam's dad gets driven insane by his Scanner powers and hallucinates the faces of screaming babies erupting from his forehead (a bit like Freddy Krueger's chest of souls in Nightmare On Elm Street part 4)...

 

Veins pop disturbingly and faces contort left, right and centre when Sam uses his Scanner powers...

We also get some nicely done hallucinations, where we seen Glock's victims own worst fears including a giant insect and a rather nice Zombie.

VIOLENCE  - Lots of shootings, stabbings and beatings as the brainwashed citizens indulge in a spot of cop killing.

After being taken into custody several of the brainwashed victims then take thier own lives (a post hypnotic suggestion by Glock perhaps ?), one bloke cuts his own throat on a broken window pane.

Various perps gets blasted telekinetically through the air by Sam.

Zena gets a great death scene. On the run from Sam she gets knocked down by an ambulance (probably the best vehicle to get knocked down by really, as you'd assume you'd at least be guaranteed instant medical help, but nope - the paramedics just sit there like a pair of Lemons as Zena dies in Sam's arms). But...here comes the clever bit. As Zena lays dying Sam enters her mind (to find out Glock's whereabouts). As a result, Sam is inside Zena's mind as she dies and literally GOES TO HELL !!!!! Its utterly insane and brilliant and comes completely out of left field. Up till now this has been a sci-fi thriller then all of a sudden it turns into a Hellraiser movie for five minutes. 

Hell looks like the insane asylum (presumably its Zena's own personal Hell). We get a whistle-stop tour and see various inmates/damned souls being punished for thier sins, including one guy who appears to be having his brain "peeled"...

Sam corners Zena and then uses his powers to make her head explode (in a nod to the famous scene in the original)...

Presumably (seeing as this is Hell) this will now keep happening to Zena for all eternity.

Once out of Hell, its time for Sam vs Glock in the final battle.

Glock (falsely it turns out) believes himself to be immune from Sam's powers (due to a steel plate in his skull). This holds Sam back for a bit, long enough for Glock to get a few good licks in, but eventually he ruptures Glock's steel plate and eventually explodes his brain.

A nearby nurse gets sprayed with brain matter and yelps like she's just trodden in a pile of dog shit, which is pretty funny.

RATING - I wasn't expecting a lot from this as I liked the original but found it a bit pretentious at the same time, so I went into this with pretty low expectations.

I was pleasantly surprised. Its well acted, well scripted, has some good characterisation and has some brilliantly warped scenes (the part set in Hell is great).

For the fourth "straight to video" entry in a long running series, it's really a lot better than it has any right to be, and for that I'm giving it 4 brain bursting officers of the law out of 5.

I'd have liked to see maybe a few more crooks get thier heads cracked apart but otherwise I can't really fault this. A good solid blend of sci-fi/horror/comic book style fun. Recommended.

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