Scanners III: The Takeover (1991) (film review).
Don’t play party games with scanners. Alex Monet (actor Steve Parrish) flees to seek Zen harmony in Thailand rather than face being institutionalised after accidentally throwing a friend telekinetically through a high window. Mind you, it’s effective to beat muggers with Helena Monet (actress Liliana Komorowska) and Joyce Stone (Valérie Valois) find. Dr. Elton Monet (actor Colin Fox), who fostered both of them, has a potential new patch EF-3 to keep scanner power in check but needs to have it checked first. Except he foolishly leaves his briefcase at home, and Helena tries it out. It doesn’t stop her power but gives her control with no side effects, and she likes it as she causes her boss to strip in a restaurant.
She also visits the Baumann Institute, wipes out its personnel who once tried to control her, and shares the patch with the inmates. She also drowns her foster father and convinces lawyer Michael Powell (actor Daniel Pilon) it was a heart attack.
Powell goes to Thailand looking for her brother, who has been there for two years, unaware that another scanner has followed him, trying to convince Alex to come home. The rogue scanner controls surrogates and kills Powell; they, in turn, are stopped by Alex, and he kills the rogue. The Buddha master convinces him to go home to put things in order.
Helena believes Alex is dead, seizes control of the company, and initiates her plan. Of course, things are not quite that way. Let the set piece gurning begin. The thing is, the rogue scanners also carry guns, and everyone forgets they are also susceptible to bright lights. ‘Scanners III: The Takeover’ was designed for action but little else. Just don’t examine too closely.
Of the extras, ‘Inside Scan: The Take Over,’ running at 5½ minutes, as Alan Jones goes over the details.
In some respects, this third film is a warning against people with psionic abilities. Whether they would act without constraint in real life is debatable.
GF Willmetts
December 2024
(pub: Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2005. 1 DVD 96 minute film with extras. ASIN: ABD4408).
cast: Liliana Komorowska, Steve Parrish, Daniel Pilon, Valérie Valois.
