Trivia: When the movie was first shown in theaters, the marquee read, "From the director of Animal House...A Different Kind of Animal." This lead many movie patrons to believe that it was another comedy film. People ran out of theaters in terror when they realised it was a horror movie.
Trivia: While giving a lecture at the Hollywood Scriptwriting Institute, director Joe Dante trash talked the novel "The Howling" on which the movie is based. One person in the audience raised his hand and asked, "So, you don't like the book, huh?" with Joe stating, "No, not really." The man responded that he was the one who wrote the novel. To Joe's surprise, the man in the audience was Gray Brandner, the author of "The Howling."
Trivia: Part of the reason Alice (the survivor of the first film) is only on screen during the first scene and is killed off early is because the actress portraying her (Adrienne King) was dealing with a real-life stalker and was trying to limit her acting appearances.
Trivia: When they are preparing and listening to the tape you can see a bit of smoke in the air. There had been an extended scene where they had been smoking pot and joking around. However, they used real pot when filming and much of what was shot ended up being unusable as a result. This is according to Bruce Campbell's Commentary to the DVD.
Trivia: Jimmy didn't die even though it never shows him after he faints on the steering wheel in the car with Lori. He simply passed out. The television cut shows him alive in the ambulance at the end, but for some reason in the theatrical version, they left it out for us to 'wonder'.
Trivia: During the rosebush/tree chopping scene, Faye Dunaway is chopping the tree, except when you see the close up. During the close up (when the tree falls), it is actually the films director Frank Perry chopping the tree.
Trivia: Scanners is identified as having the first known media depiction of psychic activity directly or indirectly causing nosebleed. This concept has since become widespread in movies, television, and comic books/graphic novels.
Trivia: Both this movie and "Friday The 13th Part 2" (which came out the same year as this movie) share a scene where one of the counselors tells a campfire story about the villain of the film they're in. In both movies, the story ends with one of their friends wearing a mask and carrying a fake weapon, jumping out and scaring everyone, providing the audience with a fake scare.