Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)

Absolutely Fantastic

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It seemed to have been a curse of good 80's films with exploitable theme to sink ever lower depth, cheaper effects and amateurish actors, the more Roman numerals one would attach to them. Remember "RoboCop"? Half-decent sequel, a third part that reeked. "Warlock"? Cult-classic first part, mediocre second, unwatchable third. "Highlander"? "American Ninja"? "Batman"? The list could go on."Scanners III" neatly fits into that mould; the original being a true classic, the second part a cartoonish but enjoyable romp and the third, well, it makes you glad they didn't film a third "The Fly"-film (although an African video-vendor tried to sell me a bootleg of "The Fly III", but that's another story).Short story shorter: a pair of Scanner siblings, one good one who has learned to control his powers and his evil sister, who chemically boosts her powers in order to take over the world, battle it out with the usual Scanner abilities. The powers are stronger, the theatrics – mostly due to the lack of acting abilities – are even more theatrical but the human-factor of the original "Scanners" has left the franchise forever. The original Scanners were mostly portrayed as average people who had to deal both with a power and a disease. One felt for their misery and, through the minimalist approach of original director David Cronenberg, one could almost imagine those people were troubled, but real people. The Scanners of this film seem like comic book heroes (and villains) who might well have fitted in with some cheap TV-production of "Super Friends".This film isn't even cartoon anymore; it's the purest of C-grade straight-to-video Dreck. But there's the golden 80's principle and the producers had a concept there: most of the fans still slavishly rented or purchased the film, same as they did with "Scanner Cop" and "Scanner Cop II". I know I did. And I watched all the RoboCops because, you never know, there might be a shine of former brilliance to surface yet. People, we've all been conned. Will I go watch another sequel or a remake? Sure, I'm an incorrect able sucker for franchises and plan to stick to that – one can always complain later.And by the way: when in East-Africa and they somebody tries to sell you a video-copy of "The Fly III", don't buy it! It's just a cheap horror-film, left on the cutting board table somewhere in Hong Kong, about a woman who stings herself on a mutated plant and gives birth to a giant killer-bug. Trust me: I know what I'm talking about! Four points for the film, one for nostalgia.

The first two Scanner movies were actually palatable... this however reeked of exploitation of a good series name, asinine acting, shoddy special effects, HORRIBLE dialogue and story.Whoever has given this a decent rating has either never seen a decent movie in their lives or is somehow attached to the making/production or distribution of this pile of dog crap. It's movies like this that make Canadian cinema regarded as a joke world-wide.I swear to god this was a (mostly) Government funded vacation for some sleazebags who wanted to go to Thailand without paying for it and attached a movie production to it to get the grants.Avoid at all costs. Not even campy enough for a laugh. Someone here mentioned the scanner 'powers' consisted of making dirty faces at each other until someone died or flew away... pretty much on the money except I'd add doing your best 'retard' conniption fit at the same time. Excellent example of horrible french-Canadian cinema.

First movie is outstanding and second Scanner movie was really good, I really enjoyed both.The movie start of with a party.Then two guys, one of them is a scanner.Alex Monet is showing off, and a friend dies in a tragic accident, so he goes to Tibetan to get away.Meanwhile his siste,r Helena and her friend are walking in ally come underattack and Helena ability come into action.As Helena get home, then her father tells that he got a new drug Eph-3, which she does use even, when her father tells her not too, the drugs take over her and she start acting for evil and want Scanners to take over the world.There is only one person that can stop her, that is her brother Alex, who has to get away from other Scanner, that are trying to kill him.This movie was really poor, I did not enjoy it, this movie not that gory at all or even nasty, they even taken a death scene from first movie and made it look so cheap, other deaths silly and really badly done.There even tired to add some humour in this, which did not work at all, the jokes were not funny at all.The acting wasn't to bad for a 3rd movie in the series. I am going to give this movie 4 out of 10

Scanners were the offspring of women that were given a drug during pregnancy. They had severe mental and emotional problems, but one great power: the ability to blow someone else's brains up if you pissed them off. I did not see Scanners II, but by number III they not only got the ability to use psychokinesis, but to control others actions--even over the television.One brother went to a monastery in Thailand to learn to control his powers, while his father gave his sister an experimental drug that gave her the same powers instantly (but for only 24 hours while wearing a patch). She becomes power mad and uses them to take over her father's drug company and next the world?Her brother finds out about his relatives deaths and returns. His sister has released a bunch of drug enhanced Scanners as hit men to prevent his displacing her.The final battle reveals which approach is stronger--it is not as straight forward as you think.Just like in Scanners (I), not enough of what scanners were famous for--blowing up heads. How expensive can this special effect be anyway?This movie is not a bad waste of viewing time and the sister is not hard on the eyes -- one brief nude scene in a hot tub.