Didn't quite work. I'm not a fan of psychic power movies but the idea behind this one was good. The problems are that the charcaters are strictly plot based and have no identity outside of pushing the plot along. Sadly the plot doesn't have enough variation for this to wore. Just a few themes for too long when the world of which Scanners is set could have been explored much more. If youre going stick to a few ideas least find where the suspense and non predictable thrills are is within it.
The bad acting, especially from the lead, doesn't help. Some say its intentional because he was described as barely human. One line doesn't justify bad acting. And what does barely human mean? He is human.
Also too many boring scenes. Lots of scenes end in a fire - it was predictable. The effects at the end were great.

A lot of people read too much into this e.g it's a socially commentary on the mentally ill and social exclusion as they live on the fringe of society like scanners do... well where else was Dave going to base these characters who are struggling to fit in? Also not every scanner is doing bad for themselves in this movie.

I wanted another Cronenberg classic and I'm a fan so I was disappointed.