Altered States Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Cult Classic

This is a great film, bear in mind its age and forgive it for being visually slightly dated.

What you have here is one mans exploration of his subconscious state and the primeval forces he unleashes.This is embellished by Ken Russells flair for the dramatic, bordering on the ridiculous, and Hurts troubled, obsessive character.

The end result is a visually and emotionally disturbing feast....tuck in!!

Customer Review

This is one of the silliest films I have ever seen. Set against that, I rarely watch American films so there are probably worse. At best Altered States is laughable; at worst it is tedious. The themes were vague and variable. Overall it came across as a pastiche of the worst aspects of a number of films and TV shows. Perhaps the people who produced it came up with it sitting drinking beer round a table late one night. It gives the impression of someone 'avvin' a laff'.

So what were its origins? The graphics were the worst that 2001 Space Odyssey could muster. Endless travelling down poorly rendered tunnels. Yawn! There was an idea of sorts about the origins and make-up of humanity but it was trivial and not developed. There were ludicrous scenes straight out of Planet of the Apes and the Incredible Hulk, but less well done. Perhaps the Jekyll and Hyde theme could have been taken further, but it wasn't.

The scientists were of two kinds. The first was the dopy, spaced-out variety from the TV show The Fast Show. The other was the sort who solves all problems by shouting very loudly. These are found in most disaster films of course. The hero was an etiolated, doe-eyed new man with a problem. He spouted meaningless trivia that sounded significant. He should have been a politician. There was a lot of psycho-babble about why he could not commit to love. He needed to find himself in life's great history of course.

The only interesting part was the drug scene in Mexico. Here we were treated to an episode out of Macbeth. The cauldron bubbled and there was a lot of muttering as strange ingredients were thrown into the pot. I didn't see any toads though. The guru was the only convincing character in the whole film. Clearly a charlatan, evidenced by his cynical grin and inability to look you in the eye, he was the local dealer, supplying extremely dubious substances to a chemical orgy. Shame they didn't fit in any zombies at this point in the plot.

So how does it end? Much, much too late. Well, the final theme is redemption through love. Earlier in the film the love interest was limited to opportunities for the display of some remarkably large and erect nipples. At the end the earth truly moved for both of them, along with the bowels of the viewer.

This could have been made in the sixties, but shouldn't have been even then. I am just grateful that I only rented it.