Scanners (#712) (Criterion Collection) [USA]

Horhay

ホルヘ
Jan 27, 2009
15,155
San Pedro, CA
Release date: July 15, 2014
Purchase links:
Amazon.com
Criterion.com
Price: 25,19$ / 31,96$

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With Scanners, David Cronenberg plunges us into one of his most terrifying and thrilling sci-fi worlds. After a man with extraordinary—and frighteningly destructive—telepathic abilities is nabbed by agents from a mysterious rogue corporation, he discovers he is far from the only possessor of such strange powers, and that some of the other “scanners” have their minds set on world domination, while others are trying to stop them. A trademark Cronenberg combination of the visceral and the cerebral, this phenomenally gruesome and provocative film about the expanses and limits of the human mind was the Canadian director’s breakout hit in the United States.

Director-Approved Edition:
  • New, restored 2K digital film transfer, supervised by director David Cronenberg, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • The “Scanners” Way, a new documentary by Michael Lennick on the film’s special effects, featuring interviews with Cronenberg’s collaborators
  • Mental Saboteur, a new interview with actor Michael Ironside
  • The Ephemerol Diaries, a 2012 interview with actor and artist Stephen Lack
  • Excerpt from a 1981 interview with Cronenberg on the CBC’s The Bob McLean Show
  • New, restored 2K digital transfer of Stereo (1969), Cronenberg’s first feature film
  • Trailer and radio spots
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Kim Newman

    New cover by Connor Willumsen
 
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I wouldn't be getting too excited. Apparently it's said to be inferior to the recent German pressing.
Certainly the screen grabs I've seen suggest a very poor greyscale and lacking the colour of the German pressing.
 
I wouldn't be getting too excited. Apparently it's said to be inferior to the recent German pressing.
Certainly the screen grabs I've seen suggest a very poor greyscale and lacking the colour of the German pressing.

The color timing is certainly quite different to the screen caps taken of the reference print that's been shown. However, based on the caps, the Criterion release apparently does have better detail and contrast compared to the Subkultur and Second Sight releases.

Ultimately, if the different color timing is a deal-breaker, the Subkultur release is region free...
 
As a big fan of Criterion, they don't always get it right. A few of their pressings left a lot to be desired in my books. Why that is I don't know.
"M", "Red River", "Kiss my Deadly" and "Blow Out" have better European / UK Pressings in my view and a few they have done are the exact same European print "A Night to Remember" "A Hard Day's Night" and "Picnic at Hanging Rock"
But overall they tend to produce top tier pressing "Stagecoach" and "On The Waterfront" come to mind.