Movies like Scanners
If you like "Scanners" you are looking for bloody, tense and cerebral movies about / with body horror, exploitation, psychic power, investigation, conspiracy, scientist and murder themes of Horror, Sci-Fi and Thriller genre shot in Canada.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps:
1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
2. Look for them in the presented list.
Scanners (1981)
67K
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
Darryl Revok is the most powerful of all the scanners, and is the head of the underground scanner movement for world domination. Scanners have great psychic power, strong enough to control minds; they can inflict enormous pain/damage on their victims. Doctor Paul Ruth finds a scanner that Revok hasn't, and converts him to their cause - to destroy the underground movement.
Style:
bloody, tense, cerebral, cult classic, cult horror, intense, disturbing, creepy, suspense, grindhouse ...
Plot:
body horror, exploitation, psychic power, investigation, conspiracy, scientist, murder, supernatural ability, misfit, social misfits, pregnant woman, telekinesis, telepathy, cyberpunk, survival horror, mind control, on the run, superhero, occult, american horror, mind power, gory, psychopath, fire, brutality ...
Time:
80s, 20th century, year 1981
Place:
canada
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Scanners
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out suspenseful, serious, cult classic and weird films with plots about danger, murder, supernatural, violence, body horror, brutality and macabre mostly in Horror, Sci-Fi and Thriller genres. Some movies like Scanners: Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Firestarter (1984), Videodrome (1983), Scanner Cop (1994), Spontaneous Combustion (1989). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 67 min.
Story:
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a 1989 Japanese cyberpunk film by cult-film director Shinya Tsukamoto produced by Japan Home Video. This, his third film, is an extremely graphic but also strikingly-filmed fantasy shot in the same low-budget, ...
Style:
cult classic, psychotronic, independent film, disturbing, splatter ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
cyberpunk, surrealism, body horror, male nudity, very little dialogue, mutilation, gay subtext, fetishist, transformation, sex, rape, extreme ...
Time:
80s, year 1989
Place:
japan, asia, tokyo
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
As youths, Andy McGee (David Keith) and his future wife, Vicky (Heather Locklear), participated in secret experiments, allowing themselves to be subjected to mysterious medical tests. Years later, the couple's daughter, Charlie (Drew ...
Style:
scary, rough, suspense, suspenseful, exciting ...
Plot:
supernatural, stephen king, psychic power, psychic, experiment gone awry, creepy child, little girl, father daughter relationship, evil child, mind control, pyrokinesis, on the run ...
Time:
80s, 20th century
Place:
new york, vermont
Similarity:
100%
112K
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
A sleazy cable-TV programmer begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control in a very unusual fashion when he acquires a new kind of programming for his station.
Style:
surreal, disturbing, psychedelic, cult classic, sexy ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
body horror, surrealism, cyberpunk, television, virtual reality, mind control, hallucination, insanity, dystopia, satire, mind game, brainwashing ...
Time:
80s, year 1983, 20th century
Place:
pittsburgh, malaysia, toronto ontario canada, usa, canada ...
Similarity:
75%
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada, Germany, USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Sam Staziak, a rookie cop with the Los Angeles Police Department, is also a 'scanner' (psionic). When a string of murders begins to decimate the police department, Sam faces sensory overload and possible insanity as he uses his powers to ...
Style:
scary, suspenseful, atmospheric, rough, bleak ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
psychic power, supernatural, investigation, vengeance, gory, supernatural ability, fighting crime, rivalry, danger, adoption, police station, cop ...
Time:
90s, year 1994
Place:
usa, los angeles
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
A young man finds out that his parents had been used in an atomic-weapons experiment shortly before he was born, and that the results have had some unexpected effects on him.
Style:
medical horror, suspenseful, rough, gothic, tense ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
supernatural, experiment gone awry, danger, supernatural ability, government agency, body horror, secret past, monster, burned alive, conspiracy, exploitation, scientist ...
Time:
90s, 50s, 80s, 20th century, year 1955 ...
Place:
california
Similarity:
100%
113K
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK, France, Canada
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.
Style:
psychological, surreal, mind bending, disturbing, psychedelic ...
Plot:
virtual reality, cyberpunk, twists and turns, alternate reality, dystopia, cyberspace, bodyguard, parallel world, distopia, escape from reality, dystopian future, conspiracy ...
Time:
future, 90s, year 1999, near future
Place:
canada
Similarity:
100%
162K
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Netherlands
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
Nada, a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like "Stay Asleep", "No ...
Style:
cult classic, homoerotic, suspenseful, serious, black comedy ...
Plot:
conspiracy, alien invasion, dystopia, alien, distopia, mind control, social commentary, anti conformity, violence, resistance, evil alien, capitalism ...
Time:
future, 20th century, year 1988, 80s
Place:
los angeles
Similarity:
78%
38K
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband's investigation.
Style:
creepy, cult classic, disturbing, suspenseful, slasher ...
Plot:
body horror, mental illness, killer child, murder, creepy child, childhood trauma, child abuse, psychiatrist, transformation, strangulation, supernatural, mutant ...
Time:
year 1979, 70s, 20th century
Place:
toronto ontario canada, canada
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
19K
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Israel
Duration: 118 min.
Story:
A government agent is determined to come to his son's rescue, when a sinister official kidnaps him to harness his extremely powerful psychic abilities.
Style:
suspense, tense, suspenseful, disturbing, stylized ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
kidnapping, conspiracy, government agency, vengeance, telekinesis, chase, secret government organization, family relations, rescue, visceral, government agent, danger ...
Time:
20th century, 70s, year 1978, year 1977
Place:
chicago, middle east
Similarity:
100%
44K
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
A young boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber known only as the Tall Man, who keeps a mysterious arsenal of terrible weapons with him.
Style:
scary, cult classic, disturbing, harsh, atmospheric ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
gory, tall man, twists and turns, cemetery, funeral, small town, supernatural, mausoleum, hearse, murder, adaptation, family relations ...
Time:
20th century, 70s, year 1978, 80s
Place:
usa, southern california, california, oregon
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada, Germany
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
A demonic 'scanner' terrorizes Los Angeles and the only person who can stop him may not have the neurons for the job.
Style:
independent film, serious, slasher, scary, exciting ...
Plot:
psychic, psychic power, body horror, supernatural, serial killer, cop, occult, superhero, police officer, supernatural horror, profanity, psychopath ...
Time:
90s, 20th century
Place:
los angeles
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
A scanner discovers a plot by renegade elements in the city government to take power with the help of evil scanners.
Style:
scary, psychotronic, suspense, christmas horror, cult classic ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
psychic, telekinesis, body horror, psychic power, superhero, video arcade, monster, pluto, addiction, dishonesty, escapades, master villain ...
Time:
90s, year 1991
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
An American village is visited by some unknown life form which leaves the women of the village pregnant. Nine months later, the babies are born, and they all look normal, but it doesn't take the "parents" long to realize that the kids ...
Style:
scary, tense, suspense, serious, suspenseful ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
creepy child, space and aliens, alien, genetics, small town, pregnancy, mother daughter relationship, supernatural ability, mind game, alien invasion, danger, babies and infants ...
Time:
90s, 60s
Place:
california, usa
Similarity:
75%
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Deep within the mysterious Arboria Institute, a disturbed and beautiful girl is held captive by a doctor in search of inner peace. Her mind controlled by a sinister technology. Silently, she waits for her next session with deranged therapist Dr. ...
Style:
surreal, stylized, retro, suspense, futuristic ...
Plot:
exploitation, cosmic horror, escape, behavior control, trippy, mad scientist, captivity, power relations, confined, hospital, maniac, surrealism ...
Time:
80s, 2010s, year 1966, 20th century, 60s ...
Place:
vancouver, seattle
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
A government funded project looks into using psychics to enter people's dreams, with some mechanical help. When a subject dies in his sleep from a heart attack Alex Gardner becomes suspicious that another of the psychics is killing people in ...
Style:
cult classic, surreal, psychological, futuristic, psychological thriller ...
Plot:
dream, nightmare, psychic power, psychic, conspiracy, lucid dream, assassin, murder, telepathy, cheerleader, nuclear holocaust, u.s. president ...
Time:
20th century, 80s, future
Place:
illinois, washington d.c., los angeles
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
A disturbed telepathic man is able to transmit his dreams and visions into the minds of the people around him.
Style:
psychological, serious, bleak, suspenseful, rough ...
Plot:
mind control, supernatural, psychic power, hospital, suicide attempt, mind game, mental institution, psychopath, mentally unstable, doctors and patients, supernatural ability, misfit ...
Time:
year 1982, 80s, year 1965
Place:
los angeles
Similarity:
100%
102K
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Geeky student Arnie Cunningham falls for Christine, a rusty 1958 Plymouth Fury, and becomes obsessed with restoring the classic automobile to her former glory. As the car changes, so does Arnie, whose newfound confidence turns to arrogance behind ...
Style:
scary, cult classic, creepy, suspense, classic horror ...
Audience:
teens, boys' night
Plot:
car, obsession, killer car, violence, classic car, vengeance, stephen king, objects come to life, evil spirit, macabre, murder, bullying ...
Time:
80s, 70s, year 1957, year 1978, 1950s ...
Place:
california, los angeles, southern california, detroit
Similarity:
100%
26K
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.
Style:
sexual, disturbing, grindhouse, suspense, erotic ...
Plot:
exploitation, parasite, sex maniac, rape, sex, insanity, body horror, gory, zombie, evil wins, lust, puffy nipples ...
Time:
70s, year 1975, 20th century
Place:
canada, montreal
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 116 min.
Story:
Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the ...
Style:
atmospheric, psychological, sexy, dark, disturbing ...
Plot:
insanity, body horror, drug addiction, obsession, identical twins, losing-it hero, twins, mistaken identity, brother brother relationship, love triangle, addiction, schizophrenia ...
Time:
20th century, year 1954, 1950s, 90s, 80s ...
Place:
toronto ontario canada, canada
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Italy
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
A group of scientists have developed the Resonator, a machine which allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality. But when the experiment succeeds, they are immediately attacked by terrible life forms.
Style:
lovecraft, scary, sexy, demonic, homoerotic ...
Plot:
mad scientist, body horror, monster, transformation, alternate dimension, mutant, insanity, parallel world, decapitation, cthulhu, gory, cannibalism ...
Time:
year 2016, 80s
Similarity:
100%
222K
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
When Seth Brundle makes a huge scientific and technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.
Style:
scary, psychological, atmospheric, suspense, suspenseful ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
transformation, mad scientist, science, body horror, mutation, teleportation, laboratory, mutant, experiment gone awry, insect, tragic love, experiment ...
Time:
20th century, 80s, year 1986
Place:
toronto ontario canada, canada
Similarity:
50%
101K
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 134 min.
Story:
Four boyhood pals perform a heroic act and are changed by the powers they gain in return. Years later, on a hunting trip in the Maine woods, they're overtaken by a vicious blizzard that harbors an ominous presence. Challenged to stop an alien ...
Style:
scary, suspense, mysterious, cult horror, psychological ...
Audience:
boys' night, teen drama
Plot:
alien invasion, stephen king, supernatural, alien, first contact, friends, virus, mind control, alien encounter, danger, evil alien, cabin in the woods ...
Time:
year 2003, 2000s, 70s, 21st century
Place:
colorado, usa, boston, massachusetts, maine
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
An alien is on the run in America. To get his kicks, it kills anything that gets in its way, and uses the body as a new hiding place. This alien has a goal in life; power. Hotly pursued by another alien (who's borrowed the body of a dead FBI ...
Style:
suspense, atmospheric, cult classic, suspenseful, stylized ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
alien, violence, car chase, buddy cop, fbi, mind control, chase, twists and turns, revenge, space and aliens, alien invasion, robbery ...
Time:
future, 80s
Place:
los angeles, california
Similarity:
50%
Movie in collections
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Two brilliant research scientists have invented a device capable of recording and playing back sensory experiences only to have devastating results when one of them records their own death.
Style:
suspenseful, philosophical, meditative, cerebral, futuristic ...
Plot:
virtual reality, cyberpunk, experiment gone awry, imagination, conspiracy, transformation, uncover truth, dystopian future, mad scientist, rebellion, computer, virtual world ...
Time:
future, 80s, year 1983
Place:
england, london, europe, north carolina, rio de janeiro ...
Similarity:
100%
23K
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
After undergoing radical surgery for injuries from a motorcycle accident, a young woman develops a strange phallic growth on her body and a thirst for human blood -- the only nourishment that will now sustain her.
Style:
cult classic, disturbing, medical horror, scary, suspense ...
Plot:
body horror, vampire, hospital, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, cannibalism, virus, infection, bare breasts, infected, canuxploitation, disaster, zombie ...
Time:
70s, 20th century
Place:
quebec, montreal, canada
Similarity:
27%
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes, he discovers he has an ability to see into the ...
Style:
suspense, neo noir, dark, suspenseful, tense ...
Plot:
dark hero, stephen king, destiny, macabre, supernatural ability, premonition, supernatural, coma, paranoia, true love, psychic, snow ...
Time:
80s, 20th century, year 1983, 70s, future
Place:
maine, usa, new hampshire, canada
Similarity:
67%
371K
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min.
Story:
After a violent storm, a dense cloud of mist envelops a small Maine town, trapping artist David Drayton and his five-year-old son in a local grocery store with other people. They soon discover that the mist conceals deadly horrors that threaten ...
Style:
twist ending, psychological, bad ending, atmospheric, scary ...
Audience:
boys' night, adult
Plot:
survival, monster, apocalypse, stephen king, creature, fear, trapped, twists and turns, survival horror, cosmic horror, chaos and mayhem, death ...
Time:
year 2007, 2000s, distant future, year 2000, 21st century
Place:
usa, maine
Similarity:
24%
49K
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Remake of the 1958 horror sci-fi about a deadly blob which is the spawn of a secret government germ warfare project which consumes everyone in its path. Teenagers try in vain to warn the townsfolk, who refuse to take them seriously, while government ...
Style:
suspense, suspenseful, scary, slasher, serious ...
Audience:
teens, boys' night
Plot:
body horror, evil alien, supernatural horror, monster, macabre, cheerleader, alien, death, small town, survival, space and aliens, quarantine ...
Time:
80s
Place:
louisiana
Similarity:
23%
53K
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Canada, UK, Australia
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
A thriller about an agent who works for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to enable its operatives to inhabit other people's bodies, ultimately driving them to carry out assassinations for high-paying clients.
Style:
psychological thriller, psychological horror, tech noir, psychological, creepy ...
Audience:
date night
Plot:
body horror, murder, brutality, mind control, transgression, assassin, assassination attempt, sociopath, serial killer, assassination, food, blood ...
Time:
near future, 2020s, 2000s, 21st century
Place:
canada
Similarity:
23%
153K
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
Larry and his wife, Julia move into an old house and discover a hideous creature - the man's half-brother, who is also the woman's former lover - hiding upstairs. Having lost his earthly body to a trio of S&M demons, the Cenobites, ...
Style:
scary, gothic, frightening, sexy, slasher ...
Audience:
teens, adult
Plot:
body horror, macabre, demon, supernatural horror, brutality, gory, human sacrifice, cursed object, surrealism, sadomasochism, sex horror, undead ...
Time:
80s, year 1987, 20th century
Place:
london, england
Similarity:
23%
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