The Scanners return (Scanners II - The New Order (DVD))

Member Name: raypdaley182

Product:	Scanners II - The New Order (DVD)
Date:	02/05/09 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The corruption idea is pretty cool

Disadvantages: Not many new ideas

The great thing about the original Scanners movie is it was a totally new idea combining elements of horror & science fiction with telepathy & telekinesis which gave the sinister but rather compelling story of good versus evil and brother against brother. Throw into that mix one of the first film roles for the awesome Micheal Ironside (as the evil brother) as well as the great film making ability of David Cronenburg and it made for a great underground cult horror 80's video nasty.

The Scanners ability was caused by pregnant mothers taking a drug called Ephemerol, the child becoming a Scanner was its side effect. In this 2nd movie we mainly follow a lone good Scanner called David Kellum who it turns out is the son of the 2 surviving Male & Female Scanners from the original movie, he struggles to contain his power as we also see the exploits of a bad Scanner called Peter Drak.

Kellum and Drak are recruited by an organisation who are working on new drugs to help Scanners and Kellum is used to help corrupt officials gain power & wipe out their opposition, Kellum is an innocent naive man who only sees he is being used after Drak tells him to scan their boss.

When Kellum decides he no longer wants to help in their nefarious ways he goes into hiding returning to the home of his parents who he discovered adopted him and learns the truth about his Scanner parents (this is the only real link to the original movie apart from the Scanner abilities & history).

Drak & a corrupt cop hunt him down and kill his adopted parents leaving 1 seriously pissed off Scanner who decides to bring down the organisation who have turned him into a wanted man after framing Kellum for the murder of the Mayor.

There is a nice storyline about Kellums secret sister and we discover her ex-boyfriend was also a Scanner being experimented upon by the same company who hired Kellum & Drak. There is a really good climatic Scanner versus Scanners battle and the truth about who killed the Mayor and how power had been seized finally comes out into the opn by a rather unusual method which is great to watch if the effect is a little weird.

It's not a great movie as its not as original as the 1st Scanners, characters are ok but it doesn't do a great deal to expand the Scanners universe or the potential future movies. The effects are a bit dated now but its still worth the look if you enjoyed the original.

(this review also appears on ciao)

Summary: More Scanners