Trancers (1984) (classic film review).
‘Trancers’ is one of my favourite films. I’m still planning to watch the rest of the films in the series. It’s now been released in Ultra-High Definition on this side of the pond with some extras after only being that way stateside until now.
Jack Deth (actor Tim Thomerson) is a detective trooper in 2247 tracking down the last of the trancers created by the now deceased Whistler (actor Michael Stefani). Trancers are weak-minded individuals who, when confronted, turn extremely violent. When he’s told to take on different assignments, he quits. That changes when he is told that Whistler is alive in 1985 and is killing off the ancestors of members of the council in Los Angeles.
Apart from the two remaining councillors, Deth is the only other person they know who had ancestors back then in LA, and they can mind-transfer him back with the means to bring himself and Whistler back with a suitable injection. The aforementioned felon’s ancestor is a police lieutenant. Deth’s ancestor was a photographer. He arrives as his ancestor Phil and finds he’s had a one-night stand with Leena (actress Helen Hunt), and while adapting to our modern day, he takes her to her job as a Santa helper. Things change drastically when Santa turns out to be a trancer, and Leena believes where he came from.
It’s already too late to rescue Chairman Spencer’s (actor Richard Herd) ancestor and preserve his life. Chairman Ashe (actress Anne Seymour) has an ancestor called Hap Ashby (actor Biff Manard), a former baseball player who is now a drunken bum. They rescue him, but Whistler and his cops are in hot pursuit. The rest is spoiler, intense, and black-humoured. Dry hair’s for squids. While I was polishing this review, a thought occurred to me. If Ashby is an old drunk, then his offspring must have been born earlier, so his death wouldn’t have affected Ashe’s future self.
The future is interesting. New York is underwater with only the skyscrapers sticking out of the sea. Deth is dressed and acts like a 1940s cop in the future and our present. Whistler has scary eyes. You can believe he can take over the weak-minded. It’s just a roller-coaster movie that works in SF on a low budget with such a good idea.
The audio commentary is with director Charles Band and actor Tim Thomerson. Their dads and Helen Hunt’s father all played bums in the film. Between them, Thomerson remembers more detail than Band does. Telma Hopkins, who played Engineer Raines, was also a member of the Dawn pop trio. The UHP is taken off the original recently found negative. Brand acknowledges spending four days at the office, filming at night, and falling asleep on the final day, which could potentially account for his hazy memories. I would correct them both about other films being made where the future mind goes back into the past; I think the 2012 film ‘Looper’ is probably the closest to it. A time-slowing device was also used in ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’s Sasquatch two-parter two years later. As Helen Hunt was noted as being 50 when this was recorded, this had to be done in 2011. A fun commentary.
‘Trancers: City of Lost Angels – Short Film’ runs at nearly 25 minutes and 3 years on from the film with the original cast and filmed by Charles Band. A psychotic violent assassin in the future escapes prison and sends herself into the past to kill Jack Deth.
‘Down The Line: Trancers – Video Essay’ is a British assessment of the film and its director Charles Band, including written comments from various reviewers.
‘Trancers – Making Of’ featurette runs at nearly 15 minutes and was recorded in 2014. Loved Charles Band’s collection in the background. Tim Thomerson also notes he wasn’t an SF fan. Some fascinating insight from the writers Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo.
A 3-minute trailer, which is, well, a trailer.
Four interviews. The first is ‘Dancing With Trancers – Interview With Director Charles Band’, which runs at 15 minutes and goes over a little about his company and distribution by Paramount and then into ‘Trancers’. The spec script had been handed to him, and he and his wife, Debbie, vetting it, thought it was terrific. Band treated it as a film noir and was going to do it in black and white but ended up in colour.
The second, ‘It’s All A Daze – Interview With Ted Nicolaou’, runs at nearly 12 minutes and features the editor on the film and covers a lot of details and accolades.
The third, ‘A Living Daydream – Interview With Chris Alexander’ from 1994, runs at nearly 18 minutes. He’s a writer and fan of the film, seeing it first on TV as ‘Future Cop’.
The fourth, ‘Archive Interview With Actor Tim Thomerson’, is only 2 minutes long but really with a lot of other people, including Helen Hunt, before moving up to 2013 and the ‘City Of Lost Angels’.
As you can tell, I enjoyed this film, and you get a lot of extras as a complete collection. Don’t be a squid and have a long minute.
GF Willmetts
March 2025
(pub: 101 films, 2025. 76 minute film with extras. Price: £24.99 (UK) ASIN: ASIN: B0DX1YMS2L)
cast: Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Michael Stefani
check out website: https://101-films-store.com/products/trancers-uhd?srsltid=AfmBOoqJTXHx0g3dVhpDZ8UInhUrIVCQwa4zfffmJeJ67RS2vguscHSJ
