University of South Carolina Libraries
Entertaini JB9P&- * swuk JT\ Stephen Lack is engaged in a terrifyh "Scanners," a science fiction thriller Jennifer O'Neill and Patrick McGoohan a ocanm By David Bakor Flm Critic "Scanners" is withnnt Hnuht tho mnct ? urf '< MVHVV) v? IV IIAVOV disappointing film in what so far has been a very disappointing year. David Cronenberg's latest horror item plays its trump card ? a scene in which a man's head ex? i ? - -' pioaes onscreen ? early and then proceeds to lose track of its entire hands. The "scanners" of the title are human mM^mm'-' $ssm Hfe.. Scanner Stephen Lack (left) meets with i in his bizarre studio. Claude Horoux prodt Music < By Steve Prazak Special to th? Gam?cock Contemporary music has hit another sna* however, isn't quite as serious as the one we through pre-1977, but the progressive trend taken a nosedive into the abyss for the time examine where we are now. Heavy metal is currently going through i resurgence both here and in England. With th< Moiorneaa, juaas Fnest, and possibly AC/DC, rancid. The same chords were played and th< were sung..uh..screamed some eight years ag rock proved more vital. Formerly reliable bands like Blue Oyster Ci Sabbath still crank out the same sludge but ir covers. Even old Ted Nugent has turned into a t former loin-clothes self. The newer heavy met as Krokus and the Tygers of Pan Tang are pi) new. You wonder why they even bother. Exit he THEN THERE'S the Grateful Dead, who hi found their niche in today's society entertainin acid casualties. Nobody buys their new albt except their dwindling packs of followers who, < enough, call themselves Dead Heads. So exit Dead. Please!! Thp rest nf thp Ran Pranris^n hnn/lo hanon't i ? - ? - ----- ? r f^vtiavuj IIUVVII i J either. The Jefferson Airplane/Starship had b out ballads ior the longest time until Grace SI they're nearly heavy metal, of all things. Gra< found her head and put it back on her shoulder on her neck. With the exception of Santana, wl cranK out meir orana 01 i^auno rigor mortis, all Frisco bands have become either bank marijuana farmers, or parents of screwed up kit All the former Beatles continued to fall way sixties triumphs (as if they could be beat). Su non's PLASTIC ONO BAND, Paul McCartney THE RUN, and George Harrison's ALL TH PASS were all monolithic efforts of sorts. Bu them combined don't equal a REVOLVER^ - - ? > f>\ '? .* -. ff.s-.Ji ? >-.': %flw i y^M, i ' ' 1 111 1 1111 1 I ^ ^K^X'. ottsfc^ ? ^fc^|&||j|&' ySFSS-'i?? ^^?5S?-~"^Jt'W*'.iI HMKHFA la' %- ' 4x' - A ~ - - ig scanner battle in this scene from dealing with extrasensory powers, /so star. cf beings who possess an advanced form of telepathy, whereby then can kill other humans at will. The thurst of the plot deals with a powerful and evil scanner, played by Michael Ironside, who sets out to rule the world a la Hitler. Scientist Patrick McGoohan must recruit an equally powerful, but righteous scanner, played by Stephen Lack, to track down Ironside and end the threat he poses to mankind. Along the way to the predictable i * : : avant-garde sculptor Robert Silverman seed tho film. i~ JSl u uu ROAD. Finding out that the so) good bit, but finding out that tl 5. This snag was morta*? hurt the most. A had to suffer le8acy that started practically < has certainly . . . . hPin.? \*t'K The artists who occupy the c 8' under the term "slick" becaus >ome kind of andmerci^^ 3 exception of it's all pretty |^Hj ; same words V when hard \ ^ , I and Black Jl different LP H pfcTiJJJ; 1 his *J al bands such tying nothing mr ^JNHB A avy metal. ~ V' j? jve obviously |Hn^ ! g yesterday's ] >ms anvmnrp BBSHBr ^nmmJ^M^md TheG^teful Bruce Springs! wiTofmrninl! a" verywc": Foreigner, Kansa lick left. Now Speedwagon, Steely Dan, Lin mnrp ? /? :e apparently s.Pityitisn't THE EUROPEAN progres 10 continue to Machine, Focus, Hatfield and the rest of the others, all of a sudden found i presidents, A'ri since they value food a li tls ' careers, they bid the music wor short of their Of course, we mustn't forget . ? . nAAnlA ~1? O I- 1L - ire jonn lien- opi ute is me 's BAND ON /JOcIt n roll back to the people 1 INGS MUST like the street and cars ^ all three of say. Well, he's certainly the b< p an ABBEY Jersey since Shecky Greene, t ^ - * Scanners Jennifer O 7V?/// and Stephen L a telephone hookup with a computer, "i David Cronenberg. tockinc climactic stare-down, Lack picks up a bit of help from a rather benign scanner played by Jennifer O'Neill, who doesn't get to change costumes once in the entire picture. ONE OF THE MANY lapses in the film's logic is that the effects of being "scanned" AM O !-l! ? atcuui dusmu<ii ui?cu. ovaiuicr vicums cue in whatever manner Cronenberg whims them to. One man's head explodes, several people suffer spastic seizures, others fly through the air and into walls, and a few even burst into flames. Another problem with Cronenberg's script is mat ne has seen tit to place all of the action squarely within the context of corporate warfare, a decision which severely hampers the film's horror aspects in that conference and computer rooms look too sanitary and too mundane to be very scary settings. Also, much of Cronenberg's dialogue is so technically oriented that it's incomprehensible to the layman. The acting in the film is wretched almost 1 1 1 I!-# * 1- I - ueyonu ueiiei. i^acK nas a smauer range oi emotions and expressions than do most mannequins and he speaks totally without inflection. O'Neill wanders around in a daze, probably in a vain attempt to ascertain why her once budding career has gone so irretrievably to seed. mluuuhan, whuse gray-streaked beard and newfound girth make him look wnhill ? lo Beatles were human hurt a would only stc heir most important member Springsteen mij sad and miserable end to a One of the sa< everything you enjoy listening There's obvoius this normally p At -1 ? - imi U> UlWkU UUyi> 1 llkU lo tile be people like > e they're technically flawless Matthews, SC, i |;table. You should know them along. C'mon n Bob James und Although disc so!), RnB seei numbers like ^Funkadelic's "] Teddy Pendere I muugi rely (mym>^ eon rocks on. boy, what happ are off playing s, Toto, Styx, the Babys, REO magical touch, da Ronstadt, and too much somebody calle years ago but u >sive bands like the Soft Numan does bi me worm, ana unnumerable were gonna cha lobody buying their records, us is rehash? Oi ttle more than their musical but right now, U Id adieu. To be fair, it t Bruce Springsteen. A lot of Blondie send a i bee's knees. "He's bringing the Police and he's writing about, man, you people like Us, and girls and stuff," his fans stopped. It'sdoi pmt thino fnrkrvto nnt nf Wmn ?? **?! w vvmv vuv vi lltw 1411111 OUlllCUUU|i hat's for sure. Now if people house one more A . SSjS] ack use their supernatural powers over Scanners " was written and directed by I waste like a somewhat-less-elephantine version of Orson Welles, is on hand merely to spout monotonous monologues that serve only to pad out the movie to a respectable 102minute running time. Amazingly, "Scanners" has received a mimhAC nf dlnuntlO mtriaurn Maaiw* va |yvni?a0 1W1^/TYO 11 V/All 3UVII heretofore respectable critics as TIME'S Richard Corliss and THE NEW YORK POST'S Archer Wins ten, both of whom consider Cronenberg to be one of the reigning kings of horror. Admittedly, "Scanners" is a slight step above Cronenberg's previous atrocities ("Rabid," "They Came From Within" and "The Brood"), but all of his films together don't exhibit one-tenth the style of wit of any one of the horror films directed by Brian De Palma or John Carpenter. Most of them simply exr oit gore past the outer limits of tolerance, such as the scene in "Scanners" wherein Lack's eyeballs pop out of the mound of hamburger that used to be his fflpp Indeed, "Scanners" reinforces the currently fashionable opinion that horror directors no longer want to build and maintain suspense, but to allow their special effects departments to work overtime in hopes of turning viewers' stomachs. SOME PEOPLE might call such trash art, but they're a sick group and 1 want no more part of them than I want of nauseating little snectaolps lik?? "Srnnnprc " ilide ? >p treatin g him like the Second Coming, ?ht actually last a little longer than you think. rlrln? 1 - * uu?> cvciius uicsc uays is uie aecune 01 jazz. ;ly too much pop and disco incorporated into ristine medium. Of course, there will always Vrthur Blythe, James Blood Ulmer (from St. no less!) and the ECM artists pushing things dw, would you really file George Benson and *r "jazz"? o is presumed dead (even Dick Clark thinks ns to be doing alright. More upbeat funk the Gap Band's "Burning Rubber" and {nee Deep" and less soppy milk fed pap like '.rass mieht mnkp fhinoc o iu*i? ?? , 0 u IIIUC 111U1 K III' 1. t in those illustrious charts, you can usually ings: a ballad or a mildly catchy rocker, t, Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand, and Air ig nothing for the survival in inventive, far. The sooner we get rid of them, the better off >r Pat Benatar who will give those little inane : shot for the rest of her career. nuc lie lir\ tiiVio* """ - ? --I ? ? ? -* '*? .qm UF w vrnciv was me saving gruce oi me e. It sure started off with a bang, but boy oh ened? The Sex Pistols packed it in, the Clash in Dubland, the Ramones lost their primitive Blondie discovered disco, ditto for Devo, d Gary Numan did what David Bowie did six rith synthesizers, and Ultravox do What Gary it with a disco beat. Hey guys, I thought you nge the world or something. Now all you give f course, all this could turn around tomorrow, > quote Wazmo Narix. "thinffs aren't rioht " was nice hearing Devo on the radio, seeing eggae tune to the top of the charts, and seeing the Clash break the top 30. But aside from the Stray Cats, and Capt. Beefheart, it's all inward slop time. So we must grin and bear it i/snmphA/lu " * ? "?v-uiiica aiimK ana cleans time.