The SCANNER COP sequels are an unlikely but rewarding candidate for the Ultra High Definition treatment from Vinegar Syndrome.

The drug Ephemeral was designed as a sedative for pregnant women but it had unique side effects, triggering the development of telepathic and telekinetic powers in their children who could then pass it on to their own offspring. Most scanners either went insane or died from sensory overload unless they continued taking Ephemeral to suppress their abilities. When Samuel Staziak's father goes insane after four days without the drug and is gunned down, LAPD police officer Pete Harrigan (Richard Grove, ARMY OF DARKNESS) takes the boy in and raises him with his wife (Savannah Smith Boucher, THE LONG RIDERS). Fifteen years later, Samuel (Daniel Quinn, DEAD BANG) graduates from the police academy under his adoptive father who is now the chief of police. When average citizens start going crazy and murdering police officers, Harrigan and investigating Lieutenant Brown (Mark Rolston, THE DEPARTED) are operating under the impression that the cases are unrelated until the mastermind behind it Karl Glock (Richard Lynch, BAD DREAMS) – with the assistance of his fortune teller sidekick Zena (Hilary Shepard, POWER RANGERS TURBO) – sends him a violent message assuring him that there is only one person behind all of the incidents.

With the only surviving attacker (Gary Hudson, CAMERON'S CLOSET) catatonic, Harrigan reluctantly asks Samuel to scan the man. Fearing that he will go insane like his father, Samuel refuses to go off Ephemeral; that is, until his new senior partner Riley (Christopher Kriesa, EVE OF DESTRUCTION) is gunned down by another attacker. Samuel discovers that the killers hallucinated their worst fears at the moment of killing, and police pathologist Joan Alden (Darlanne Fluegel, THE EYES OF LAURA MARS) discovers that a drug has been injected directly into the brains of the attackers that did not show up in their bloodstream. As Samuel uses his powers more and more in the investigation, Alden becomes concerned that he is losing control. When the scan of another surviving attacker (Cindy Pass, WISHMASTER) leads him to Zena, Samuel learns why Glock is targeting the police and that his adoptive father is next on the list; and Glock believes that a scanner would be particularly receptive to his methods.

Dovetailing from producer Pierre David's Canadian-set sequels SCANNERS II: THE NEW ORDER and SCANNERS III: THE TAKEOVER, David's directorial debut SCANNER COP is a fresh start for the series and turns out to actually be the best of the series' sequel entries. In spite of its stock elements including Lynch as a mad doctor, the film's drama and characters are actually engaging – even if it does feel like a pilot for a SCANNER COP TV series – with Quinn carrying the film emotionally and physically with scanning session that actually look painful. Shepard is a fun evil sidekick and John Carl Buechler's company provides some hallucinatory creatures in addition to two satisfyingly gory head explosions. Jacques Haitkin (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) provides some slick photography and production designer team Deborah Raymond and Dorian Vernacchio would subsequently become fixtures of Dimension Films' genre product later in the decade. Brion James (BLADE RUNNER) has a brief appearance along with actor-turned-director Luca Bercovici (GHOULIES).

In SCANNER COP II: THE SHOWDOWN, Samuel Staziak (Quinn) is now a police detective and able to use his scanning abilities in his work thanks to a new version of Ephemeral developed by his scanner girlfriend Carrie Goodardt (HEAD OF THE CLASS' Khrystyne Haje) whose clinic provides the drug to the local population of scanners. When scanners start turning up all over the city burnt to a crisp, Samuel and Carrie discover that criminal scanner Karl Volkin (Patrick Kilpatrick, THE CELLAR) has escaped from the scanner ward of a prison hospital and has discovered a way to suck the life force of other scanners, becoming more powerful with each life he takes. Wanting revenge for the death of his brother in a shootout with Samuel over a hostage, Volkin goes in search of Samuel's long lost birth mother in order to lure the cop into a final showdown.

More straightforward than the first SCANNER COP film, SCANNER COP II is the lesser film but it is not without its entertainment value. Director Steve Barnett (MINDWARP) has a keener visual sense and experience staging action than producer David in his feature debut, Quinn and Haje have more chemistry than him and Fluegel – who the first film could not seem to decide whether or not she was a love interest – and Kilpatrick is a more entertaining villain than Lynch's mad doctor (I even mistook him for Michael Ironside in his introductory shot). The plot does drag a bit in the middle as Volkin picks off fellow scanner while Samuel and Carrie tread water waiting for a clue that links the film to the Cronenberg original. While the sequel saves the head explosion for the climax, it ups the ante in terms of make-up effects set-pieces with different variations on Volkin's soul-sucking (the grisliest ones involving a screen door and a piece of "modern art"). Robert Forster (VIGILANTE) guest stars as the new police chief and Stephen Mendel (THE VINDICATOR) plays Samuel's comic relief partner. The supporting cast includes brief appearances by Jason Voorhees himself Kane Hodder, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD's Jewel Shepard as a deadpanning nurse, and SHIVERS' Allan Kolman as a wry country doctor.

Produced by David and Malo Film in association with Republic Pictures, both SCANNER COP film appeared on VHS from Republic while only the first film was released on laserdisc by Image Entertainment. While the earlier SCANNERS sequels turned up on Blu-ray/DVD combo earlier in the decade, the two SCANNER COP films could only be found on DVD in Canada and overseas from fullscreen tape masters. Vinegar Syndrome's 2160p24 HEVC 1.85:1 widescreen UHD and 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray discs are derived from 4K scans of the original 35mm camera negatives and offer significant upgrades over the VHS editions. While the first film looked rather cheap and the second murky at times on tape, the new scans and HDR grading for the 4K presentations aide the films differently. The more colorful SCANNER COP gets the expected detail and color upticks, and look more perhaps subjectively "filmic" than before (see my TV pilot comment above) while the less saturated, more contrasty palette of SCANNER COP II gains depths in the better delineation of shadows and highlights in the environment from the actors within it (while the first film's sense of depth was enhanced by contrasting hues in the color scheme). Some optical enlargements used to punch up some scenes are apparent in the second film (including one fuzzy shot to get that much closer to Kilpatrick's bulging forehead veins in the climax). While the sequel was released stateside as SCANNER COP II: THE SHOWDOWN, the disc's onscreen title is the original SCANNER COP II: VOLKIN'S REVENGE (which might have been changed since Volkin had not previously been introduced).

The Ultra Stereo mixes of both films are presented in both lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and are quite adventurous compared to, for instance, Roger Corman's Concorde and New Horizon's productions of this period. There is some subtle surround ambience and more aggressive directional effects, while it seems that the wailing noise that accompanies the scanning scenes have an uncomfortable presence that never clips but may have viewers reaching for the volume button of their remotes. Both films have optional English SDH subtitles.

SCANNER COP is accompanied by an audio commentary by the We Hate Movies Podcast which they describe variously as a "comedy podcast," a "talk over," and a "drunk friend stimulator." While this is at first off-putting, they do seem to hold the film in high regard even as they mock some absurdities, some deservedly so (when one of them asks why Samuel does not just shoot someone instead of scanning them, another replies "Well, then it's just a movie called COP") including the parallels in the film to the likes of SUPERMAN (they call Harrigan and his wife "Ma and Pa Kent"), TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, and the MIGHTY MORPHING POWER RANGERS. For the most part, the production factoids they note are easy to sift from the jokes (although I did believe them for more than a moment when they stated that the actor who plays Harrigan was Stacey Keach's brother), but the viewer's receptivity to this track may depend on their general attitude towards comedy yack tracks.

“Outside the Law: The Scanner Cop Revolution - Part One” (22:09) is a new look at the making of the first film with David discussing his directorial debut, contrasting Quinn and the Cronenberg film's lead in Stephen Lack, and the advice he sought from past directors of his productions including focusing on the actors and letting cinematographer Haitkin decide where to put the camera. Shepard recalls her enjoyment playing a villain and the experience of being fitted for prosthetics for the climax while Buechler crew members Ted Haines (CARNOSAUR) and James Rohland (BORDELL OF BLOOD) provide background on the effects, including the hallucations. Grove and Rolston are also on hand to recall the shoot and late co-star Quinn. Sequel director Barnett makes a brief appearance here (in the extras for the sequel he does mention visiting the set of this film). Filmmaker Simon Barrett (V/H/S) appears to provide some remarks of appreciation for the series, although he does not hold the film in high regard. The disc also includes an original promo (4:22) for the direct-to-video release.