The fourth film in the Scanners series and the first in the Scanner Cop series, this movie centers on rookie LAPD cop Sam Staziak (Daniel Quinn), who is hiding a dangerous secret. He is a Scanner, which means that while his colleagues are busy pounding the pavement, Sam is struggling to keep his volatile, mind-bending powers in check. After his own father was killed by a Scanner, he was taken in by Commander Pete Harrigan (James Callahan), who eventually recruits him into a special force.

When a series of bizarre, brutal murders begins targeting police officers, the victims are left with their brains seemingly cooked from the inside out. As Sam investigates, he realizes the killer is tapping into the same psychic frequency he is. The stress of the investigation pushes Sam to his breaking point; as his powers surge into overdrive, he begins to fear that his own mind is fracturing, forcing him to hunt a killer who knows exactly what it feels like to possess the most dangerous weapon on earth.

In all honesty, this movie is hundreds of times better than it has any right to be. You have to admire the sheer balls it takes to grab the Scanners idea, throw it into a straight police movie and just go with it. Even better, Richard Lynch, the bad guy of all bad guys, shows up and does his thing.

This was directed, produced and written by Pierre David and was the first film he directed. He executive-produced Scanners, Videodrome and The Brood. He may have directed only one other movie, Serial Killer, but he has 216 production credits, mainly TV movies like She Is Not Your Daughter, My Daughter’s Psycho Friend, Murdered at 17 and My Life as a Dead Girl.

I still can’t believe how much I loved this movie. Despite the lower budget compared to the original Cronenberg masterpiece, the film features some genuinely impressive (and squishy) telekinetic head-trauma effects that satisfy the cravings of any gorehound who turned up expecting the Scanners pedigree.

You can watch this on Tubi.