12 Most Paused Horror Movie Moments

Ask anyone what they remember best about David Cronenberg’s sci-fi horror Scanners and they’ll tell you it’s the exploding head scene. Of course, there’s a lot more to the movie than just that scene (which comes pretty early on in the proceedings) but a scene like that will stick in your head.

It’s about a group of people with extraordinary telepathic powers (the ‘scanners’ of the title), a shady security firm named ConSec which hopes to use their powers for their own ends and a renegade scanner played by Michael Ironside who plans to recruit likeminded rebels to take over ConSec.

And it’s Ironside’s scanner that treats us to that deliciously gruesome moment when he poses as a volunteer at a ConSec demonstration to show off their new ‘weapons’ and proves his powers are so strong he can literally blow up a dude’s head.

Fun fact: that mind-blowing (literally) moment came to us courtesy of the talents of SFX makeup artist Dick Smith and a latex head filled with a combination of dog food, fake blood and rabbit liver being shot from behind with a shotgun. Just in case you were wondering.