Review of Altered States (1980) by Alex V — 07 Mar 2009

4.0/10.

William Hurt plays a guy that repeatedly takes psychedelic drugs and locks himself in a sensory deprivation chamber in an attempt to find the ultimate truth to the universe. Bad shit happens. That's pretty much the entire movie in a nut shell. The lack of a story does "Altered States" no favors. All we get is that the side effects of his experiments radically escalate until we are presented with an epic battle between a primordial ape and a pack of dogs. Thrilling. When not running naked and hairy through the lonesome night, Hurt tries to convince his colleges that this crazy shit IS happening and that he isn't just crazy. But he is. And then we find out he isn't (gasp!). By that point I really didn't care all that much. Given, the idea of a physical manifestation of ones hallucinations is a cool idea, and the movie backs it up with scientific lingo well enough written not to sound contrived. However, the sheer pointlessness of this movie seems to overtake all. It's like watered down Cronenberg, exept with a harmless Hollywood ending. Sure it can sometimes be trippy but it's so easy to shrug off the seemingly random symbolism. I mean, really? A mutant, twelve eyed, goat head Jesus? What the hell is that?! All in all, it bored me. Still, William Hurt does make a damn convincing primordial ape.