Review of Altered States (1980) by Apostolos M — 11 Jan 2013

Based loosely on the novel by Paddy Chaeysky, 'Altered States' is a film that was promoted as Drama, Fantasy and Horror. I personally think it is a clear-cut science-fiction film and a very good one.

William Hurt plays the young and promising Harvard Biology professor Eddie Jessup who experiments with the existence of alternate conscious that remains dormant (but alive nonetheless) throughout our lives and seems to be transferred in a hereditary manner from one generation to the next. A book that comes close to the issues raised by this very interesting (and certainly underrated) film is 'The Dragons of Eden' by Carl Sagan.

Ken Russell's direction shows Jessup in several stages in his private life with his girlfriend and then wife Emily (Blair Brown) and the uncompromised and determined side of the scientist Jessup working long hours on weekends with sensory-deprivation experiments to prove that dormant conscious may be present to us humans after all but one needs to achieve the appropriate 'laboratory' conditions to study 'it' properly.

Hurt is excellent in his portrayal of the determined professor who discovers more than he initially expected. His motives to search for hidden meanings in the human existence and the inevitable reality of death may not be so well explained but the trip certainly provides some answers. A very good film.