Scanners | 1981 | Canada | David Cronenberg

Scanners is arguably the film that really catapulted Cronenberg’s work into the public eye, showcasing his genius penchant for bleak dystopias, shadowy conspiracies and terrifying alterations to the functions of our bodies. An isolated man known as Vale is aware of his own strange powers, only to be approached by a company called ConSec, a private military company headed by Dr. Ruth, who tells Vale of ‘scanners’, people with the ability to use telepathy, telekinesis and other forms of mental projection. A rogue scanner named Revok is supposedly gathering followers to assist in a deadly plot against mankind, which Vale is tasked with stopping, but the truth behind the scanners’ origin may just pose a moral quandary. Famous now for a sequence where a scanner’s head is graphically exploded in front of a public audience, this fame was also responsible for the film’s placement on the Section 3 list.