Movie review of Altered States

Horrorphile

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Altered States

March 30th 2007 05:00

One for the neo-hippies, Ken Russell’s metaphysical, transcendental romantic horror flick Altered States (1980) caused a stir of excitement when it was first released for its colourful visual effects and experimental use of hallucinogenic drugs. It’s a love story at the end of the day, albeit an amorous mutation.

Eddie Jessup (William Hurt in his Golden Globe winning debut) is a medical scholar experimenting with sensory deprivation with the aid of his meek friend Arthur Rosenberg (Bob Balaban). It’s 1967. Everyone is turning on, tuning in and dropping out. Eddie meets Emily (Blair Brown), another medical student at a party. The first time she sees him he’s silhouetted in a doorway surrounded by white light, The Doors Light my Fire pumping away in the background. Later while having passionate sex with Emily Eddie sees God. Afterwards Emily states that she felt she was "being harpooned by a raging monk".

Seven years later and Eddie and Emily are married and living in NYC. She's still crazy about him, and he's still crazy. Eddie is very keen to revisit the isolation tank to further his theories on altered states of consciousness. He persuades his old friend Arthur into using a tank at the Harvard university where they are part of the faculty. But not before he travels to Mexico to indulge in a little of the native Indians mushroom soup, and bring a canister of the potent hallucinogen back with him.

And so the experimenting resumes, but now Eddie is obsessed and experiencing more than just psychological separation from reality, his physical self is regressing. His mind and body is falling back through the ages, xenomorphing into a primitive, simian form. The experimenting is getting out of control. As Arthur admits to Emily, "Some of these tank trips can get kinda creepy".

Eddie experiences a mind-expanding moment

Maverick auteur filmmaker Ken Russell has always been interested in theological ideas, the sacred vs. the profane, the subversive and the existential. Working from a screenplay by multi-award winning screenwriter and novelist Paddy Chayefsky (who subsequently disowned it), Russell concocts a rather ludicrous story of love conquering all. It seems like just another excuse for him to throw all manner of religious, sexual, and mortal symbolic imagery at the screen, tenuously tied together with ideas about the power of the subconscious over the physical state.

The visual effects and they way they are edited together look mostly dated, but there are some neat bladder effects courtesy of prosthetic maestro Dick Smith (The Exorcist), and the Primal Man (Miguel Godreau) scenes are well handled. In fact that whole sequence when Eddie regresses and has morphed into this primal being, then running amuck is suitably suspenseful.

However the support performances of Blair Brown and Charles Haid as a disgruntled professor are terrible (Brown’s best moment is when she becomes the Sphinx). I felt for William Hurt having to suffer for his art acting alongside these two half-baked flakes. You can see it in his eyes. Actually Hurt always looks that way. He just hurts. Look out for a very young Drew Barrymore and a young John Larroquette.

Here's Blair Brown turning into the Sphinx (a unique moment in cinema history):

The finale of Altered States pushes the boundaries of love. Poltergeist (1981) and Brainstorm (1983) followed similar paths. There’s a lesson to be learnt about subjecting your mind and body to such extremes; use in moderation! And make sure you have a lover/soul mate close at hand so you can reach out and grab that lifeline!

Emily (Blair Brown) wades into Eddie's primordial whirlpool

Altered States was definitely a strong vehicle for Hurt who followed it with Body Heat and the The Big Chill. It’s the archetypal Hurt performance and he milks it even when he’s under kilos of pulsating protoplasm. As does director Russell who writhes around in the orgiastic pyrotechnics and audio visual whirlpools. Russell even raids footage from Dante’s Inferno (1935) portraying Hell layering the imagery through some of the drug-induced sensory trips Eddie subjects himself to.

Some of the ideas on the conflict of science and spirituality, of de-evolution and subconscious states of primordial being are intriguing, but nothing is touched on with real depth. Russell is keener to return to the cinematic wallowing of his spectral freakshow. The movie was hugely successful winning two Academy Awards (score and sound).

If you’re keen for a deep trashy cosmic escapade with streaks of horror suspense and grotesque quasi-religious imagery, small doses of surrealism, and some sweaty and hirsute nudity thrown in for good scientific measure then Altered States is the drop you’ve been looking for. Enjoy it as a xeno-retro trip.

I couldn't resist - but a warning, it's a spoiler - here is the movie's hallway-bound "love conquers all" climax (with the imagery a-ha ripped off for their Take on Me clip!):

* images are courtesy of outnow.ch

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Comments

11 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

March 30th 2007 05:17

Film & TV on DVD

Great review and a great example of Ken Russel madness....this film has so many stimulating ideas and striking imagery that make up for the shoddy co stars performance...a truly unique cinematic experience that is lifted by Hurt's sublime pressence and juicy FX...now where are those mushy's i need to explore my existential self...

Comment by KylieW

March 30th 2007 06:20

Celebrity Obsession

Funky stuff. Looks like quite a trip. The clip of the chick turning into the sphinx was very cool.

There's something about William Hurt that is very compelling. I don't like him, but there's just something about him that grabs you. Great actor too.

And here I've always thought A-ha were so original with that Take on Me clip! What a let down.

Comment by Bryn

March 30th 2007 07:11

Horrorphile

My solid commentators! Hear, hear! Any of you have an isolation tank? I reckon we should get an Orble sensory deprivation session going! JD, can you grab some gold tops? Kylie, did you leave anything at the park?

Comment by Lilla

April 2nd 2007 11:41

From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop

Bryn,

I love ALL of William Hurt's work..

I loved this film and the idea behind it,

...and if you haven't been inside a float tank yet, you should try it, especially in altered states... I didn't turn into anything like this, but the experience is very "different."

About the only thing that happened when I got out was that I must have looked a treat, becuase everyone just started laughing?

go figure...

Lilla ...

Comment by Bryn

April 3rd 2007 00:39

Horrorphile

Lilla,
Um ... a human prune perhaps?
I have done a sensory deprivation tank, a long time ago ... Yes, definitely different.
what's your fave Hurt movie then?

Comment by Lilla

April 3rd 2007 04:35

From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop

He turns up everywhere, doesn't he?

Gosh I watch so many movies in general ... I can't remember them all by name, but My favourite William Hurt movies were; Children of a Lesser God; and the re-make of Dune where he played Duke Leto Atreides. BRILLIANT!

...

Wasn't he also in that horrible re-make of Lost in Space? Ooh and Artificial Intelligence (I didn't like that film at all, so stupid).. I think he was also in a fairly old film I liked, about four different couples in an apartment block called The Simian Line... wasn't that William in that?

Something about the Big Chill comes to mind ... not that it's very accurate about such things...(my mind that is)... Isn't The Good Shepherd a recent one? ...I haven't seen it yet, is it good?

I know there are probably so many more I missed or forgotten and if you are kind enough to mention them, I'll probably go... "Ooh yes, I loved that" and "ooh, I remember that it was awful," or "Ah yes, that was great!"

Comment by JohnDoe

April 3rd 2007 04:47

Film & TV on DVD

10 of my fave John Hurt films:

The Elephant Man
Dark City
Dead Man
10 Rillington Place
Alien
The Proposition
The Shout
Midnight Express
Heavens gate
The HIt

Comment by JohnDoe

April 3rd 2007 04:50

Film & TV on DVD

damn, got my Hurts mixed up, it was William not John in Dark City.

Comment by Bryn

April 3rd 2007 08:53

Horrorphile

... er, was that meant to be a strange joke JD, referring to John when we were talking about William ...?

Comment by Francis

April 3rd 2007 22:22

Passionate Apathy

I think the special effects still hold up- way better than the standard star filters directors use for "hallucination" sequences.

The moral was a bit heavy-handed; Hurt abandons Love to search for Meaning, only to find that Love is the Meaning of Life.

Balaban again makes us wonder why he's always the supporting character instead of the star.