Picture this: a crowded corporate boardroom, fluorescent lights buzzing, suits shifting uncomfortably in their chairs. Then — boom — a man’s head detonates like a watermelon at a Gallagher show. Veins bulge, eyes roll back, and the room erupts in panic. That single moment, the infamous cranial fireworks, is the scene that branded Scanners into VHS lore. It’s the one everyone remembers, the one that made Cronenberg’s name synonymous with psychic carnage.

But Scanners, directed by David Cronenberg, is more than just a head‑exploding party trick. It’s the film where Cronenberg pivoted from the grotesque horrors of the flesh (Rabid, The Brood) to the equally terrifying battleground of the mind. Starring Stephen Lack as the dazed, reluctant hero Cameron Vale, Michael Ironside as the snarling rebel Scanner Darryl Revok, Patrick McGoohan as the shadowy Dr. Paul Ruth, and Jennifer O’Neill as the underwritten love interest, the cast is a strange cocktail of intensity, detachment, and pure menace.

Cronenberg’s premise is gonzo nightmare fuel: imagine your brain as a busted radio, picking up every frequency at once. No tuning, no escape, just static and screaming voices. That’s life as a Scanner. And of course, the Canadian government has been running shady experiments on pregnant women, creating psychic mutants in the process. Vale, scooped up by Ruth, is trained like a Cold War sleeper agent and pointed straight at Revok, who’s basically Magneto with a migraine.

The showdown between Vale and Revok is pure VHS‑era spectacle. Dick Smith’s effects shine: bubbling skin, eyes rolling back like pinballs, veins swelling like garden hoses. Cronenberg keeps the focus tight—not the fate of the world, but two men locked in a psychic death match. It’s personal, claustrophobic, and weirdly intimate.

Ironside steals the show, chewing scenery with the kind of feral energy that makes you believe he could actually melt your brain through the screen. Lack, by contrast, floats through scenes like a confused philosophy major who accidentally wandered into a spy thriller. McGoohan brings gravitas, while O’Neill is stranded by a script that treats her like a mixtape forgotten in the glove compartment.

And here’s why the Second Sight release matters: this isn’t just a reissue, it’s a resurrection. A director‑approved 4K restoration with Dolby Vision HDR, bonus interviews, and archival materials that drag Scanners out of cult obscurity and into the horror canon. It’s cultural preservation — taking a low‑budget Canadian B‑movie and giving it the Criterion‑level treatment it always deserved. For Gen Xers who grew up rewinding that head‑exploding scene on VHS, this release is vindication. For new audiences, it’s proof that Cronenberg’s psychic freak‑out still hits harder than a Jolt Cola buzz.

Scanners is Canadian B‑movie antics at their weirdest: paranoid, low‑budget, and unforgettable. Cronenberg proved he could make horror both quiet and loud, cerebral and visceral. And yes, heads explode — but the real terror is realizing your own thoughts might not be yours anymore.

Limited Edition 4K UHD & Blu-ray

Home Video Distributor: Second Sight Films
Available on Blu-ray - 
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English
Video: HDR with Dolby Vision
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM Mono 1.0
Discs: 4K Ultra HD; Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set
Region Encoding: 4K region-free; blu-ray locked to Region B

Heads explode. Minds melt. Governments panic. David Cronenberg’s Scanners isn’t just another horror flick — it’s the psychic freak‑out that redefined paranoia for the VHS generation. Starring Stephen Lack, Michael Ironside, Patrick McGoohan, and Jennifer O’Neill, this Canadian cult classic drags you into a world where telepathic mutants wage war with their minds, and the only thing louder than the static in your head is the sound of a skull detonating in a corporate boardroom. Now restored in director‑approved 4K with Dolby Vision HDR, Second Sight’s definitive edition unleashes Dick Smith’s legendary effects in blistering detail. Packed with new interviews, commentaries, and archival features, this release transforms Scanners from midnight‑movie oddity into a canonized artifact of horror history. Slip it into your collection, crank the volume, and prepare for the migraine of a lifetime — because once you’ve seen Scanners, you’ll never trust your own thoughts again.

VIDEO

Second Sight’s Scanners video release is a full‑throttle resurrection of Cronenberg’s cult classic, blasting past its VHS‑era reputation with a director‑approved 4K restoration that makes Dick Smith’s infamous head‑exploding effects look sharper, nastier, and more surreal than ever. The set isn’t just about polish — it’s loaded with new interviews, commentaries, and archival features that reframe the film as a turning point in Cronenberg’s career, shifting from body horror to psychic paranoia.

Packaged in a rigid slipcase with newly commissioned artwork, this edition transforms Scanners from Canadian B‑movie oddity into a canonized artifact of horror history, giving Gen X gorehounds the vindication they always wanted and new audiences a pristine entry point into Cronenberg’s twisted universe.

AUDIO

Second Sight’s Scanners audio restoration is just as vital as the visual upgrade, pulling the film out of muffled VHS hiss and into crisp, unnerving clarity. The remastered soundtrack amplifies Howard Shore’s early score, giving its eerie pulses and industrial hums the weight they always deserved, while dialogue that once sounded like it was recorded in a broom closet now cuts through with precision. The infamous head‑exploding scene doesn’t just look sharper — it sounds sharper, with every vein‑bulging groan and psychic shriek rendered in unsettling detail.

By cleaning up the audio and presenting it in lossless formats, Second Sight ensures that Cronenberg’s paranoid nightmare isn’t just seen, but fully heard, transforming Scanners into a sensory assault that finally matches the director’s original intent.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• Second Sight’s Scanners release includes multiple commentary tracks that contextualize Cronenberg’s film from different angles — critics, historians, and crew voices all weighing in on its legacy.

Special Features:

Second Sight didn’t just remaster Scanners — they built a paranoid museum around it. The extras are stacked like a mixtape of Cronenberg lore: fresh interviews, archival deep cuts, and scholarly dissections that drag this Canadian B‑movie oddity into the horror canon. It’s the kind of package that makes you feel like you’re rifling through a Gen X zine, uncovering every weird footnote and VHS‑era anecdote. The features don’t just explain the film — they contextualize it, proving Scanners was never just about exploding heads, but about Cronenberg’s evolution into the master of psychic paranoia.

• approved 4K restoration with Dolby Vision HDR

• New audio commentary tracks from film historians and critics

• Fresh interviews with Michael Ironside, Stephen Lack, and crew members

• Archival materials including behind‑the‑scenes footage and production stills

• Documentary featurettes exploring Cronenberg’s shift from body horror to psychological terror

• Howard Shore score appreciation with isolated audio tracks

• Rigid slipcase packaging with newly commissioned artwork

• Booklet essays

	Movie
	Video
	Audio
	Extras
Composite Blu-ray Grade

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 103 mins
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: David Cronenberg
Cast: Jennifer O'Neill; Stephen Lack; Patrick McGoohan
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Their thoughts can kill!
Memorable Movie Quote: "Freak of nature, born with a certain form of ESP; derangement of the synapses which we call telepathy."
Theatrical Distributor: Avco Embassy Pictures
Official Site: https://secondsightfilms.co.uk/collections/latest-releases/products/scanners-limited-edition-4k-uhd-blu-ray-pre-order-available-march-31st
Release Date: January 14, 1982
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: March 31, 2025
Synopsis: After a famous author is rescued from a car crash by a fan of his novels, he comes to realize that the care he is receiving is only the beginning of a nightmare of captivity and abuse.