#4 – Scanners: The Showdown (1995)
The fifth (currently final) film in this series, Scanners: The Showdown is also known by the more fun alternate title, Scanner Cop II: Volkin’s Revenge. That’s right, not only did they make a Scanner Cop movie, but it scored a sequel! What a truly wonderful world we live in.
The only direct sequel in the franchise, this outing sees our “scanner cop”, Detective Sam Staziak (Daniel Quinn), hot on the trail of a vengeful scanner that he once put away. Said villain is Karl Volkin and played by the always-welcome Patrick Kilpatrick. You see, Karl and his brother had their home invasion fun interrupted by Staziak, with Karl’s brother biting it during the encounter. Yep, this one absolutely rolls with classic cop movie tropes. You even get Robert Forster as a police captain!
Packed with oozing gore, this good entry in the mind-melting saga is captained by great performances by both Quinn and Kilpatrick. The former had fully embodied his role by now and the latter brings the right kind of crazy needed for a film like this. It might lack the energy of the first Scanner Cop (more on that in a bit), but it’ll still heavily entertain.
