
Movies that feel likeScanners (1981)
If you loved Scanners, the closest films we have are The Fly (1986), Phantasm (1979) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). All three share Scanners' cerebral and dread feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Son of Frankenstein (1939).
Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.
If Scanners hit the spot, these will too

David Cronenberg working the same nerve twice

The same mix in both: ideas, then dread

Both lean on unease more than on science fiction

Common ground in both: murder and scientist
The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

Both keep coming back to the same thing: scientist
The difference: Leans harder into drama than Scanners does

The same hand behind both of them: David Cronenberg
The difference: Sits closer to mystery than Scanners does


Cerebral horror in both cases
The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

Science fiction with a pulse of dread, in both cases

Horror built on unease, twice over

Both are built on the same subject: body horror

Cerebral science fiction, and it commits to that
In the mood for more cerebral?
all cerebral movies →The best-reviewed films that share Scanners’ defining feeling.









