SCANNERS III: THE TAKEOVER is the last of the trilogy and it's refreshing to see that it's still introducing interesting ideas and plot thematics to the series; the one thing you can say about these films is that they don't repeat themselves. Christian Duguay returns as director for another fresh adventure about a new kind of mind-control patch that controls all of the negative aspects of 'scanning' - but has unforeseen consequences to boot. There's a new female villain, and the only one to stop her is her scanner brother who's fled to a Buddhist sanctuary in Thailand for some much-needed r&r.
THE TAKEOVER focuses much more on the comedy and action this time around, with a lot of creative duels and set-pieces and at least one crowd-pleasing head explosion. It's a bit unusual to see so much humour here, with the villain dropping regular wisecracks a la Freddy Krueger and lots of goofball moments, but at least it's lively and never dull. The action has a B-movie feel but with a welter of FX work and death, it's always entertaining, and I found particularly interesting the anti-feminist subtext (the perils of a female executive in the boardroom?) and the use of broadcast television to sinister effect; this feels like a SCANNERS meets VIDEODROME crossover at times.
THE TAKEOVER focuses much more on the comedy and action this time around, with a lot of creative duels and set-pieces and at least one crowd-pleasing head explosion. It's a bit unusual to see so much humour here, with the villain dropping regular wisecracks a la Freddy Krueger and lots of goofball moments, but at least it's lively and never dull. The action has a B-movie feel but with a welter of FX work and death, it's always entertaining, and I found particularly interesting the anti-feminist subtext (the perils of a female executive in the boardroom?) and the use of broadcast television to sinister effect; this feels like a SCANNERS meets VIDEODROME crossover at times.