Altered States (1980)

Rewatched 3/30/25 (Blu-Ray)

Last time I watched Altered States, I remember thinking about how unconvincing its special effects were in comparison to one of its sister sci-fi movies from that same year of 1980, The Empire Strikes Back. And I stand by that. Empire’s effects are a marvel of modernity in the department—they look stellar to this day. But what I had forgotten or maybe hadn’t quite realized was how potently disorienting Altered States’ effects are in all of their unnatural glory. Despite some of their backgrounds looking like early 2000s computer screensavers, they achieve their desired effect of being completely unsettling in the best possible way.

I don’t know if this movie is missing its mark as a highbrow attempt at philosophical sci-fi, absolutely weaponizing a sort of satire of douchebag medical academia, or just aiming to give the most exciting possible version of super dumb-fun paperback pulp. I choose to believe a mixture of options two and three, but would remain just as captivated by the movie even if it’s option one.

Altered States concerns a brilliant but self-important college professor by the name of Eddie Jessup. Professor Jessup is played by the late, great William Hurt and it’s the perfect role for his egotistical blend of jock and dork. He wants to be the smartest alpha in every room, and Altered States shows just how wrong that can go, left unchecked. It’s an unflattering, masochistic performance by Hurt, constantly manipulating his tempered physicality and acute facial features to convince you of his surreal surroundings. Enhancing his movements and expressions are the zany directing talents of one Ken Russell, Hollywood’s bad boy on the corner of religion and erotica.

Russell directs the jargon-filled script of playwright Paddy Chayefsky with striking contrast. Drab desert locales, dank university basements, and cramped apartments give way to phosphorescent fireworks, gleaming early Microsoft Windows screensaver backgrounds, and a rainbow of filters. The creature effects are also a home run, uniting to form some of the more eerily uncanny moments in the ‘80s genre film oeuvre. It’s truly impressive what Russell was able to do with this weird, at-times disconnected mishmash of ideas. Early man, religious ecstasy, and alternative plains of existence all play roles in shaping Dr. Jessup into his final self.

It doesn’t all add up for me in the end, and the final dialogue is built to a bit weakly. I was hoping a few earlier strands would pop back up and get solved. But that is a minor quibble for a movie experience so daring to get so weird and uncommercial. With everything from remote Mexican mysticism to casual student/teacher relationships to isolation tanks to a shitload of mushrooms, among other hallucinogens, Altered States is pretty much everything I want from an effects-driven b-movie. And again, Hurt has never been anything short of an electrifying screen presence. Even if you leave disappointed, you’ll have a hard time forgetting some of this one’s curveballs.

8.75/10