Movies like Scanners

If you like "Scanners" you are looking for disturbing, intense and scary movies about / with body horror, scientist, psychic power, investigation, violence, exploitation and telekinesis 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)
 6.7
 61K
Scanners (1981)
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: disturbing, intense, scary, tense, suspenseful, suspense, grindhouse, bloody, creepy, cerebral ...
Plot: body horror, scientist, psychic power, investigation, violence, exploitation, telekinesis, human experiment, murder, mind reading, supernatural ability, misfit, social misfits, psychic, conspiracy, pregnant woman, mind control, telepathy, cyberpunk, gory, on the run, survival horror, superhero, occult, american horror ...
Time: 80s, 20th century, year 1981
Place: canada
Keyword: reboot, avant-garde, disgust, oldies, visit, doctors, challenge

Movie in categories

disturbing movies
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scientist movies
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intense movies
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16020
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80s
5694

Most similar movies to Scanners

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out serious, suspenseful, scary and psychotronic films with plots about supernatural, danger, murder, macabre, monster, death and fear mostly in Horror, Sci-Fi and Thriller genres. Some movies like Scanners: Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989), Firestarter (1984), Scanner Cop (1994), Videodrome (1983), Spontaneous Combustion (1989). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989)
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: psychedelic, psychotronic, surreal, experimental, disturbing ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: cyberpunk, surrealism, body horror, very little dialogue, metamorphosis, sex, hit and run, businessman, mutilation, apocalypse, transformation, distopia ...
Time: 80s, year 1989
Place: japan, asia, tokyo
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.1
 37K
Firestarter (1984)
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, experiment gone awry, creepy child, little girl, psychic power, father daughter relationship, on the run, supernatural ability, danger, government agency ...
Time: 80s, 20th century
Place: new york, vermont
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 5.4
 2K
Scanner Cop (1994)
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada, Germany
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, rough, atmospheric, bleak, suspenseful ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: psychic power, supernatural, investigation, vengeance, gory, rivalry, danger, fighting crime, supernatural ability, police station, adoption, cop ...
Time: 90s, year 1994
Place: usa, los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.2
 102K
Videodrome (1983)
Genre: 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, psychedelic, disturbing, psychological, cerebral ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: cyberpunk, body horror, hallucination, surrealism, television, mind control, virtual reality, insanity, suicide, brainwashing, dystopia, mind game ...
Time: 80s, year 1983, 20th century
Place: pittsburgh, toronto ontario canada, usa, malaysia, canada ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
71%
Movie in collections
suspenseful movies
22874
suspense movies
20963
violence movies
15772
Spontaneous Combustion (1989)
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: suspenseful, rough, gothic, tense, medical horror ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: supernatural, experiment gone awry, danger, supernatural ability, government agency, body horror, secret past, monster, murder, conspiracy, burned alive, exploitation ...
Time: 90s, 50s, 80s, year 1955, 20th century ...
Place: california
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.8
 107K
eXistenZ (1999)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Canada, UK, France, USA
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: surreal, psychological, mind bending, psychedelic, disturbing ...
Plot: virtual reality, cyberpunk, alternate reality, twists and turns, cyberspace, dystopia, distopia, escape from reality, dystopian future, conspiracy, video game, parallel world ...
Time: future, 90s, year 1999, near future
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.8
 34K
The Brood (1979)
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: scary, disturbing, suspenseful, slasher, creepy ...
Plot: body horror, killer child, murder, creepy child, transformation, supernatural, child abuse, psychiatrist, mental illness, strangulation, monster, surrealism ...
Time: year 1979, 70s, 20th century
Place: toronto ontario canada, canada
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.2
 144K
They Live (1988)
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
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: exciting, allegory, political, suspenseful, serious ...
Plot: conspiracy, alien, alien invasion, distopia, dystopia, mind control, ufo, anti conformity, invasion, evil alien, monster, uncover truth ...
Time: future, 20th century, year 1988, 80s
Place: los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
78%
Movie in collections
 7.6
 200K
The Fly (1986)
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, suspense, psychological, atmospheric, disturbing ...
Audience: adult
Plot: experiment, mad scientist, body horror, transformation, science, mutation, mutant, gory, teleportation, creature, laboratory, scientist ...
Time: 20th century, 80s, year 1986
Place: toronto ontario canada
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Scanner Cop II (1995)
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, slasher, serious, exciting, scary ...
Plot: supernatural, serial killer, body horror, cop, superhero, psychic, psychic power, occult, police officer, supernatural horror, profanity, mutant ...
Time: 20th century, 90s
Place: los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Scanners II: The New Order (1991)
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, christmas horror, suspense, cult classic ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: body horror, telekinesis, psychic, psychic power, superhero, monster, pluto, addiction, conspiracy, social misfits, misfit, dishonesty ...
Time: 90s, year 1991
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Village of the Damned (1995)
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, atmospheric, suspense, serious, tense ...
Plot: creepy child, alien, space and aliens, pregnancy, small town, mother daughter relationship, genetics, mind game, supernatural ability, babies and infants, danger, evil child ...
Time: 90s
Place: california, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
75%
 6.6
 41K
Phantasm (1979)
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, atmospheric, slasher, twist ending, disturbing ...
Audience: teens
Plot: gory, tall man, small town, funeral, cemetery, supernatural, monster, investigation, murder, mausoleum, hearse, family relations ...
Time: 20th century, 70s
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.0
 2K
The Sender (1982)
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, rough, bleak, suspenseful ...
Plot: psychic, mind control, supernatural, mental illness, mental institution, psychic power, hospital, mind game, suicide attempt, psychopath, doctors and patients, mentally unstable ...
Time: year 1982, 80s, year 1965
Place: los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)
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, psychological, stylized, suspense, futuristic ...
Plot: mad scientist, exploitation, captivity, behavior control, trippy, power relations, confined, hospital, human experiment, maniac, cosmic horror, telepathy ...
Time: 80s, 2010s, year 1966, 20th century, 60s ...
Place: vancouver
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.2
 77K
The Dead Zone (1983)
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, 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, psychological, dark, suspenseful ...
Plot: supernatural, stephen king, dark hero, serial killer, supernatural ability, coma, car accident, destiny, macabre, investigation, premonition, murder ...
Time: 80s, 20th century, year 1983, 70s
Place: maine, usa, new hampshire
⇓ similarity ⇓
67%
 6.8
 92K
Christine (1983)
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, suspenseful, suspense, atmospheric, creepy ...
Audience: teens, boys' night
Plot: car, obsession, killer car, macabre, classic car, supernatural, stephen king, murder, bullying, friendship, objects come to life, brutality ...
Time: 80s, 20th century, 70s, year 1978, year 1957 ...
Place: california, los angeles, southern california, detroit
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.3
 17K
The Fury (1978)
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
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, suspenseful, tense, disturbing, stylized ...
Audience: teens
Plot: kidnapping, supernatural, vengeance, telekinesis, chase, rescue, family relations, visceral, danger, espionage, parents and children, secret government organization ...
Time: 20th century, 70s, year 1978, year 1977
Place: chicago, middle east
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 6.3
 23K
Shivers (1975)
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: scary, disturbing, grindhouse, sexy, suspense ...
Plot: body horror, parasite, exploitation, zombie, gory, sex maniac, rape, mad scientist, plague, infected, violence, insanity ...
Time: year 1975, 20th century, 70s
Place: canada, montreal
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 5.5
 96K
Dreamcatcher (2003)
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 136 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, psychological, dark, slasher ...
Audience: boys' night, teen drama
Plot: alien invasion, stephen king, alien, supernatural, virus, first contact, supernatural ability, alien encounter, mind control, danger, transformation, cabin in the woods ...
Time: year 2003, 2000s, 70s, 21st century
Place: colorado, usa, boston, massachusetts, maine
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.0
 22K
The Hidden (1987)
Genre: 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: exciting, suspense, suspenseful, surprise ending, atmospheric ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: alien, car chase, buddy cop, fbi, chase, mind control, violence, alien invasion, revenge, monster, space and aliens, twists and turns ...
Time: future, 80s
Place: los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
 6.4
 13K
Brainstorm (1983)
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, meditative, futuristic, philosophical, intense ...
Plot: virtual reality, cyberpunk, experiment gone awry, imagination, conspiracy, transformation, uncover truth, dystopian future, mad scientist, rebellion, computer, dystopia ...
Time: future, 80s, year 1983
Place: england, london, europe, north carolina, san francisco ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.3
 21K
Rabid (1977)
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: disturbing, scary, suspense, suspenseful, rough ...
Plot: vampire, body horror, epidemic, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, hospital, virus, zombie, violence, insanity, cannibalism, infected, infection ...
Time: 70s, 20th century
Place: montreal, canada, quebec
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
Movie in collections
grindhouse movies
3097
bloody movies
2489
creepy movies
1218
psychic movies
1024
 6.9
 139K
Hellraiser (1987)
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, slasher, demonic, creepy ...
Audience: teens, adult
Plot: macabre, demon, body horror, torture, gory, occult, supernatural horror, supernatural, violence, human sacrifice, monster, surrealism ...
Time: 80s, year 1987, 20th century
Place: london, england
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
 6.6
 30K
From Beyond (1986)
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: scary, lovecraft, demonic, suspenseful, sexy ...
Plot: body horror, mad scientist, transformation, supernatural, monster, experiment, zombie, gory, laboratory, another dimension, murder, obsession ...
Time: year 2016
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
 7.1
 338K
The Mist (2007)
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, atmospheric, psychological, bad ending, scary ...
Audience: boys' night, adult
Plot: survival, monster, apocalypse, stephen king, creature, fear, trapped, survival horror, religious fanatic, giant monster, chaos and mayhem, small town ...
Time: year 2007, distant future, year 2000, 2000s, 21st century
Place: usa, maine
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
 8.2
 463K
The Thing (1982)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 109 min.
Story: Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people it kills.
Style: scary, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, atmospheric ...
Audience: date night, manly, boys' night, adult
Plot: monster, isolation, alien, survival, creature, fear, body horror, paranoia, snow, supernatural, suspicion, ufo ...
Time: year 1982, 20th century, 80s
Place: antarctica, antarctic, south pole
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
 6.1
 130K
Wrong Turn (2003)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 84 min.
Story: Chris crashes into a carload of other young people, and the group of stranded motorists is soon lost in the woods of West Virginia, where they're hunted by three cannibalistic mountain men who are grossly disfigured by generations of inbreeding.
Style: slasher, scary, bloody, suspense, suspenseful ...
Audience: teens
Plot: gory, cannibalism, survival, forest, massacre, danger, youth, manhunt, chase, disfigurement, cannibal, survival horror ...
Time: year 2003, 20th century, 2000s, 21st century
Place: west virginia, virginia, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
 6.0
 44K
V/H/S/2 (2013)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada, Indonesia
Duration: 96 min.
Story: Inside a darkened house looms a column of TVs littered with VHS tapes, a pagan shrine to forgotten analog gods. The screens crackle and pop endlessly with monochrome vistas of static white noise permeating the brain and fogging concentration. But ...
Style: disturbing, suspenseful, anthology, scary, suspense ...
Audience: teens
Plot: found footage, supernatural, monster, gory, zombie, danger, murder, evil, violence, videotaping, male nudity, paranormal investigation ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
The Lawnmower Man (1992)
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: UK, Japan
Duration: 108 min.
Story: A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.
Style: futuristic, scary, suspense, cyber, atmospheric ...
Plot: cyberpunk, cyberspace, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, vengeance, internet, computer, experiment gone awry, computer hacker, hacking, hacker, mentally challenged ...
Time: future, 90s
Place: arizona, washington d.c.
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
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