Scanner Cop II, also known as Scanner Cop II: The Showdown, Scanner Cop II: Volkin's Revenge, or Scanner IV: Scanner Cop, is the fifth — and thankfully final — film in this franchise. In this one we see the return of Detective Sam Staziak as he tracks down a new evil serial killer scanner named Volkin, who contains some sort of vampiric essence — sucking the life-force out of other scanners (and subsequently accruing their scanning powers) until their faces melt off. This entire film is basically Volkin walking into a building, the people inside getting mad that he's there, and him proceeding to stare at them until they succumb to gooey braindeath — and it's never not entertaining. It never reaches the all-time horrific high of the first Scanner Cop when Staziak goes into Zena's mind, but it more than makes up for it with maybe the best gore effects of the entire franchise — although the head explosion in the original is unmatched. '90s DTV sludge that I can get on board with.

Scanner Cop II, also known as Scanner Cop II: The Showdown, Scanner Cop II: Volkin's Revenge, or Scanner IV: Scanner Cop, is the fifth — and thankfully final — film in this franchise. In this one we see the return of Detective Sam Staziak as he tracks down a new evil serial killer scanner named Volkin, who contains some sort of vampiric essence — sucking the life-force out of other scanners (and subsequently accruing their scanning powers) until their faces melt off. This entire film is basically Volkin walking into a building, the people inside getting mad that he's there, and him proceeding to stare at them until they succumb to gooey braindeath — and it's never not entertaining. It never reaches the all-time horrific high of the first Scanner Cop when Staziak goes into Zena's mind, but it more than makes up for it with maybe the best gore effects of the entire franchise — although the head explosion in the original is unmatched. '90s DTV sludge that I can get on board with.