Scanners II: The New Order

It is telling that this superfluous sequel to Cronenberg's mind-blowing 1980 movie opens, not with an exploding head, but with a psycho scanner using his telepathic powers to trash a video games arcade. The plot suggests a computer game called 'RoboCop meets the Scanners', while Duguay's visual style consists entirely of pop promo clichés. For years, Dr Morse (Butler) and ambitious police commander Forrester (Ponton) have been trying to harness the scanners' powers, frustrated by the addictive drugs needed to control their volatile guinea-pigs. Then they stumble upon 'clean' scanner David Kellum (Hewlett), a naive country boy whose latent powers they plan to use to fight crime and instigate a fascistic New Order. The cast is anonymous, the plot confused and sluggish; only Michael Smithson's cheap, inventive special effects warrant attention.