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OVERALL
BEASTS
BREASTS
Director: Christian Duguay
Writers: David Cronenberg (characters)
B.J. Nelson (written by)
Cast---
David Hewlett ...  David Kellum  
Deborah Raffin ...  Julie Vale
Yvan Ponton ...  Commander John Forrester
Isabelle Mejias ...  Alice Leonardo
Tom Butler ...  Doctor Morse  
Raoul Trujillo ...  Peter Drak
Vlasta Vrana ...  Lt. Gelson
Murray Westgate ...  George Kellum
Doris Petrie ...  Susan Kellum

Runtime: USA:104 min
SCANNERS II: THE NEW ORDER (1991)

I've got to start off by saying that I was severely disappointed by this sequel. I absolutely loved the
original, with it's mix of horror, espionage and compelling storyline. But this film eschews all that and
becomes sort of a sci-fi political thriller. Sounds cool, right? If only the film were as interesting to watch
as the first. Director Christian Duguay and writer B.J. Nelson take over for Cronenberg, who had moved
on to greener pastures, and deliver a boring TV movie.

  The film begins when a homeless guy in dreadlocks busts up a video arcade with his...mind! He is
arrested by a special branch of the police run by Commander Forrester. Forrester is well aware of
Scanners and plans on using them to institute a supposedly "new order" in the world and rid it once and
for all of crime. Drak, the homeless guy, is taken to the lab of Dr. Morse, who is a special
Scanner-doctor, helping them hone their talents. But his experiments have gone wrong and the drug
that was supposed to control his subjects has now made them drug-addicts. Drak, even though he is
crazy and uncontrollable, just may be the only Scanner useful to them.

  Then we meet the film's hero, David. In his first scene he lands some sweet ass by getting Alice to ask
him out and make-out with him in the next scene. Incidentally, for fans of Splatter, Alice is played by a
slightly older Isabelle Mejias, who was the incestuous sociopath in the excellent film Julie Darling. If you
haven't read that review, find it in the Splatter List. Anyway, David is a Scanner and he is soon found out
by Forrester, after he toasts a couple of guys trying to rob a convenience store. David actually wants
help so he agrees to play nice with Dr. Morse and is used by Forrester to get his new order set up. He
starts to think that something may not be right when he is forced to Scan the mayor and have her chose
Forrester as the new chief of police after the old chief mysteriously commits suicide.

  David escapes, knowing something wrong is going on and flees back to his parents house. There they
tell him he was adopted and his parents are actually Cameron Vale and Kim Obrist, the heroes of the
first and better film. He is followed by Drak and another cop, who want to snip the loose end that David
represents, but David eludes them as best as possible. He soon discovers that not only was he adopted
but he has a sister. He reunites with her and they return to Morse's lab to close down the Scanner rehab
center, release the Scanner drug addicts and put an end to the new order that the evil and
power-hungry Forrester has begun to set up. The only problem is that Drak is waiting for them and
David just may need a little help to get the job done.

  With a Scanners movie, you expect tons of scenes of people staring intensely at each other. Well, this
movie delivers that. It also serves up an interesting plot with the cops using Scanners to make the world
in their image, however it manages to offer all this in a very uninteresting and unemotional way. The first
movie was a masterpiece, despite Stephen Lack's wooden style of acting, because you were hooked
from the beginning and the film kept you on the edge of your seat. This time around, the acting is better,
but the characters are mild and the direction is flaccid. The end does pick up some steam, but only
slightly so. The effects are unimpressive until the ending, when things really start getting juicy. But
combine the limp storytelling, the dragging plot, the dopey characters, and the lack of nasty, gory effects
until the end and you get two coffins for this unimpressive sequel...and that's being nice. Still, it was nice
to see Isabelle a little more grownup, and this time, as far as I know, her character didn't want to fuck her
dad so that's a step up in my book.


                                                                          

                                                                                                    - Jose Prendes
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Scanners II: The New Order (1991)
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