10 Great Horror Movies Ruined By One Character

The irony is that Scanners' character Cameron Vale is able to make people's heads hurt through telepathy and through his bland personality.

Played by Stephen Lack, Vale is a homeless man with psychic powers. In case you need it explained to you, these people are called Scanners.

He is captured by a government agency who set him the task of infiltrating a group led by Ravok, a fellow Scanner who is unhinged and poses a threat to humanity.

The film is pretty good, filled with director David Cronenberg's textbook body horror (exploding heads etc. etc.) but Lack's performance as Vale lacks any sort of intrigue.

He plays the character incredibly dryly, perhaps to try and convey the emotional torment he has endured through the use of his own powers. Intentionally or otherwise, this makes the film hard to watch at points and the character very dificult to invest in.

Vale is meant to be the leading man in this film, the human race's only hope against an evil group of mind-bending monsters. Instead, he embodies all the charisma of a slightly damp dishcloth, which is jarring to say the very least.