Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)

Scanners 3 is about a woman who discovers her scanner powers which gives her permanent non-stop PMS and wants to kill everyone. Her pansy ass brother must stop her. Same director and same year production (I think) and yet it is vastly inferior to the 2nd installment. What the f***? It's not bad at all, it's just the 2nd Scanners was well shot and this is just, I don't know, stupid. The direction was a little incompetent, the acting was retarded and story was silly and stupid. The action was good though this installment is less gory and not as well executed. Still it serves as good entertainment for those who like their entertainment horrid.

A young female scanner turns from a sweet young thing into a murderous, power-crazed villain after she takes an experimental drug developed by her father. Her brother, who is also a scanner, is the only one powerful enough to stop her.We start out with the standard good and evil plot, brother against sister... but, in all fairness, this is a plot structure that works. From there, it actually gets much more creative, introducing the use of Eastern meditation to control the scanning and the use of TV to more widely broadcast scanning.Some memorable moments are here, too, including the mind-control dance scene, the Taiwanese boxing and plenty of firefights and explosions, including an arm that flies off.As with "Scanners II", this definitely could have been a series, even more than the last film. The ideas developed here really set up a broader picture of good scanners against bad ones, and how such powers could be used not just on a combat level, but to actually infiltrate and dominate society. There is much potential.

'Scanners 3: The Takeover' is actually a bit of a mini-epic. It doesn't have half the budget of the previous film and there are some off-the-wall, kooky performances from almost all of the characters but this is definitely the better – and by better, I mean camp fun - of the 2 films. The film begins with an introduction to Alex Monet, a brash Scanner that has reduced his abilities to a literal party trick. When he absent-mindedly kills his best friend at one such party, he decides, in an effort of contrition, to find a way to better hone his powers. This leads him to the Buddhist monasteries of Tibet. Meanwhile, his sister, Helena Monet, (who is the heir to the pharmaceutical company that is working on a 'cure' for the previously-described side effects of the scanning mutation) is experimenting with said drug, turning her into a power-hungry megalomaniac. Much as the original 'Scanners' introduced the ability to control computers, Helena attempts to control people by passing a 'scanner signal' through pre-recorded video. When Alex returns, it is a cat and mouse game pitting brother against sister.There is no doubt in my mind that the spark that inspired these follow-ups was the singularly iconic exploding head from the original and these sequels do not let down. There is a surplus of gooey gore and a sense that each death is an attempt to outdo the last. If you're after the headier (no pun intended) aspirations of Cronenberg, you are bound to be disappointed with these. If you are hoping to see fountains of blood spewing from the skulls of random characters, this is the place.

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.