Don't lose your head - Scanners (1981)

Perhaps even more than horror, as a child science fiction was a huge part of my life and interests.  Although the two genres are very closely linked, maybe it is more acceptable to parents for their kids to be in to aliens or little green men than knife wielding killers covered in blood.  Unbelievable.  Scanners is one of those movies that blur the line between sci-fi and horror because if its gore.  It's present day (in the 1980's) and there is a seemingly growing group of powerful psychics and mind controllers called Scanners.  Now a group of scientists take up the services of an informant to destroy them.

Scanner Cameron has been captured by a Doctor Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) and his skills are honed so that he can track down other, more evil scanners. A revolution is happening and they want to take over the world, producing more scanners for their army.  It later becomes apparent that their quirks are in fact the result of a medical experiment conducted on their mothers while they were in the womb.

Cameron is like a child in his affectation, surprisingly trusting, simple and searching for answers.  Conspiracy theories and betrayal are strong themes.  I found it quite reminiscent of Firestarter, with special people being hunted because they have a gift that they can't control and causes harm to others. 

The actual scanning, or mind infiltrating, leads to some quite staggering scenes that may never leave me.  Huge veins protrude out of the side of their faces and along their arms.  They gain size so fast that blood begins the ooze and squirt out of them.  And then they catch fire in a way that can only be described as a thing of beauty.

I can't help thinking that if it had a bigger budget, or indeed if it was remade (wash my mouth out), it would have more of a Fourth Kind feel to the face distortions that go on during the scanning process.  Although it works amazingly well without that CGI and the other effects are quite magnificent.  The real horror here is the control they could have on your mind and the unbelievably devastating effects that that can have on your brain, and indeed your head.  And that's something that no migraine medication can reverse.