10 Disgusting Sci-Fi Movies You Watch And Then Never Forget

Scanners is a Canadian science-fiction horror flick from the mind of David Cronenberg. The movie revolves around people called "scanners," who have unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. When a scanner from the private military company, ConSec, meets a more powerful scanner named Darryl Revok at a marketing event, the more powerful scanner causes ConSec's scanner's head to explode.

Revok turns out to be the leader of an underground resistance group made up of scanners competing with ConSec's program. The company enlists the aid of Cameron Cale, a homeless scanner as powerful as Revok, leading the two to an inevitable confrontation.

The film progresses to reveal a plan to introduce a drug called ephemeral as a sedative for pregnant women, but what the drug really does via a side-effect is create scanners within the wombs of the mothers. Revok plans to take over the world with a new, more powerful generation of scanners, but a psychic battle between Revok and Vale upend his plans.

Scanners is best-known for the special effect work involved in blowing up people's heads. In one famous scene, an actor was substituted for a dummy with a plaster head filled with "leftover burgers," blood packs, wax, latex scraps, and other simulated human bits. Someone fired a shotgun at the back of the head to get the explosion shot, and it's not one anyone who's seen the movie can easily forget.