Synopsis
What once was hidden now is set free...
A psychic's investigation into the disappearance of a Senator's daughter leads her to a dangerous cult and the truth about her mysterious past.
2001 Directed by Richard Pepin
A psychic's investigation into the disappearance of a Senator's daughter leads her to a dangerous cult and the truth about her mysterious past.
Progetto Mindstorm, Πείραμα Ψυχρού Πολέμου, 마인드 스톰, Мозъчна буря
Jim Henson's Scanners Babies. Sadly a snoozer despite the top-notch b-movie cast and several ridiculous explosions.
Michael Ironside must have had a strong feeling of deja vu on the set of this Canadian sci-fi thriller, which riffs on some of SCANNERS' main themes and even copies a major event from that David Cronenberg classic almost verbatim (with a dash of THE HIDDEN thrown in). Ironside actually plays a regular person here (well, as regular a person as Michael Ironside ever plays), while Eric Roberts is a cult leader who controls his flock not with charisma but with strong psychic powers resulting from a government experiment years before. Emanuelle Vaugier is an FBI agent with similar abilities who tries to stop him, while the character played by ostensible male lead Antonio Sabato, Jr. is almost completely extraneous…
Try and imagine what it takes to get me down to three stars for a film where Eric Roberts plays a psychic cult leader and Michael Ironside is on the cover of Time.
Sexy but untalented Emmanuelle Vaugier plays a psychic FBI agent (no, we haven't seen too many of those) who must confront the aftermath of the government program that produced her. Aside from the uninspired direction, the dull screenplay, and the underwhelming performances, it's not a bad film. It's always depressing to see quality performers such as Eric Roberts, Clarence Williams, and Michael Moriarty slumming in substandard product. I would include the dependable Michael Ironside in that list, but hasn't he built his career on this kind of thing?