In Scanners III: The Takeover, a young scanner called Alex takes to the road after a disastrous demonstration results in the death of his best friend. He ends up in Thailand and seeks the solace he needs at a Buddhist temple. Here, he is taught how to control his ‘gift’. Meanwhile, his sister Helena, also a scanner, tries an experimental drug to calm the voices in her head. Unfortunately, it turns her into a powerful psychotic killer and manipulator. She forcefully takes over her father’s company in order to mass-produce the drug, but this is only the first step to controlling everyone around her. Only Alex, with his newfound control can stop her. But is one man enough...?

With this one we go almost from the sublime to the ridiculous. It’s like a little piece of the 1970s series Kung Fu has been brought forward into a horror film.

Alex learns from the master to look for the good in any situation and to use his powers to that end. However, the moment a friend is attacked and killed by a renegade scanner, he causes the aggressor to go up in a ball of flame. When he arrives back in America he is attacked whilst in the hospital, and uses his training to slow his heartbeat to the point whereby he is believed dead. Likewise, in the finale he does his meditation bit, but it doesn’t stop him seeing off some bad guys along the way.

Also, there is a new weapon against scanners; a sort of holographic light which, like Superman’s green Kryptonite, is used only as a convenience with no plot consistency whatsoever. Helena turns psychotic rather quickly for my liking, killing her father and turning against everyone around her. And seemingly the very next minute she is scanning/hypnotising the general public on live TV.

Only a gurning competition with Alex at the end brings her back into the real world. Hmm...

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Ty Power