Hasta La Ideas

David Cronenberg’s 1981 film Scanners is about to be released on Blu-ray and DVD as part of the Criterion Collection, the packaging for which features a series of explosive character portraits by Canadian artist Connor Willumsen…

Those of you of a nervous disposition, or indeed a mild headache, should probably look away now, as Willumsen’s artwork for the new Criterion edition of Cronenberg’s sci-fi horror classic doesn’t hold back. As DVD covers go, it’s been a while since we’ve seen such a perfect match-up of film and artwork.

Shown above is the DVD cover, while below is the slipcase cover and DVD back.

In his portraits of several of the characters from the film, which follows a small group of telekinetically advanced people known as ‘scanners’, Willumsen manages to illustrate the moment just before the worst happens. Visceral stuff for a visceral film.

Below are the images created for the accompanying booklet – a special mention goes to the wonderful piece made up of twenty fractured images: a whole film sequence distilled into a single illustration.

The original trailer for Scanners can be viewed here.

More of Willumsen’s work can be seen at connorwillumsen.com (including his comics). The new Criterion Collection ‘dual-format’ editions (a Blu-Ray and DVD) are available from criterion.com (US and Canada only – shipping July 15). All images are taken from Criterion’s blog, blog.criterioncast.com.