Altered States

This is William Hurt's debut, and there's much to praise about it. Firstly, outstanding performance. The kind that lasts an impression and is thought of every time "William Hurt" is pronounced out loud. The film, in a nutshell could be summed up as a man's obsessive quest for the "truth". Truth about life, and the universe, why we're here, who created us? These are the core questions Ken Russel - more fairly, the original author Paddy Chayefsky - asks. All of that, is assisted by insane hallucinatory and downright horrifying visual sequences and music, which when combined, literally gave me goosebumps when I saw it all on screen. They take you on a surreal 'trip' and are a way for the viewer to experience what Hurt's character undergoes when he is in the isolation chamber. On another note, the pacing is a little slow in the first act, but sudden outbursts of surreal visual sequences get you back up in form.

If you're a thinker, this one's for you.

Bizarre cinematic head-trip that is far better and more entertaining than anyone could guess from a description. I put it on my Netflix queue without realizing it was directed by Ken Russell. If I had seen that earlier, I would have avoided it. Thankfully I didn't. It contains everything that is good about Russell, that is, his crazy imagery, and none of the bad stuff. That is, it's not an enormous bore. The script was written by Paddy Chayefsky, based on his own novel. Not the writer you would associate with horror or sci-fi, which is the proper genres to which Altered States belongs. He disowned the film before he even saw a cut of it, despite the fact that Russell was contractually obligated not to change a word of the script. The greatest asset of the film is the fantastic acting. William Hurt makes his screen debut as a mad scientist, a Harvard professor, actually, who is experimenting with sensory deprivation, mixed with some choice hallucinogens. He hopes to lose his modern mind in the sensory deprivation tank and regress to a primitive state. Unfortunately, some mushrooms that he finds in Mexico help him regress not only mentally, but physiologically. Blair Brown plays his estranged and worried wife, and Charles Haid and Bob Balaban (love the Balaban!) play colleagues who help Hurt do his experiments. The plot is silly, but it's legitimately eerie and frightening, thanks to Russell's surprisingly excellent direction. The film ends up in territory very reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I thought it all worked pretty well. Drew Barrymore makes her film debut at age 5, and also keep an eye out for John Larroquette.

This is one of Ken Russell's best films. He manages to balance plot and wild visuals as never before. The acting is also first rate. I watched it again recently I think it still holds up surprisingly well compared to many modern sci-fi movies. The plot is intriguing, I keep thinking that there might be some truth to the concepts presented, and the fact is that our own brains are still largely unexplored territory. A special mention to the extraordinary music written by John Corigliano, and for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. It dares to be loud and violent, and complements the visuals extremely well. This is a wild, original movie unlike any other.

Ah, the 80's. A time when brilliant scientific geniuses fresh out of universities and doing their magic was cool rather than frightening and dorky. I have seen this movie before, when I was a child, and I remember the sense of awe I got from it, if nothing else. This time, the awe is just as real.

Most impressive for this movie is the construction. Ken Russel does a brilliant movie that grabs your emotions and twists them around. The soundtrack plays a great factor here, too. William Hurt is just wonderful, while the other few actors are just there to support him.

I can't say much about the story. I feel that in the context of this movie, it is irrelevant. I plan on reading the book, see what the author actually meant. It is not a horror story, either, although it is frightening at places; certainly not a monster and gore film.

Bottom line: the realization is great, the feel is awesome, the story highly intellectual. Something movies today pretty much lack altogether. You just have to watch this, but beware: people that are not fans of trippy sci-fi movies will only spoil your experience. This is one of the few films that must be watched alone.

... and an early example of psychedelic horror.

I wanted desperately to like Altered States, because the things it gets right it gets so right. But sadly it's such a tonally inconsistent film, and one that can't seem to focus on anything at all. First it's about a Judeo-Christian concept of hell and the devil, and then it's about some ancient indigenous deity and spirituality, and then it's about some extra-dimensional being, and then it's about genetic memory and body horror, before finally referencing alternate universes. The tone of the film is also sadly inconsistent. At times it's closer to a romantic drama than anything else. When it actually gets down to the horror part it swings strangely between themes of the paranoid mad scientist and the grand tone and sweep of man vs God.

It's memorable for some of the great special effects of its time, but overall it feels like a conversation you have when you're 19, think you know everything, get really baked, and then start rambling about philosophy with your friends.