Altered States

Released: 1980
Science fiction, horror
Starring: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban
Director: Ken Russell
Running Time: 102 minutes

The breakdown: A psychologist ponders experiments based on isolation chambers and mind altering drugs.  He begins studying the effects on himself and the results make him believe he is genetically regressing.

I had heard a lot about this movie over the past few decades and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  As far as I can tell, this movie is highly overrated.

The obsessed doctor takes a Mexican drug that has not be studied for its ingredients while in an isolation chamber.  He went to Mexico to experience this mushroom based drug with a tribe of primitive natives in a cave.  The experience was so strange, he took a sample back to the states to study it.  Over time, he continues to mentally regress back to the point where ape becomes man and he gets very primal.  One time he comes back with a physical effect of having blood on his mouth from eating an animal in his mental regression.  The physical changes only get stronger over time as he continues his experiments.  One time he comes out of the isolation chamber as a very small primitive ape/man and almost kills a security guard.  I won't tell you the end, in case you want to see it, but it's not a very scary film.  It's not a very meaningful or profound one either.  I think they intended it to be both, but failed.  At the end, I was confused.  I don't think the characters were very deep, I don't think the story was fully realized, and I think there should've been a bit more explanation to the audience as to what exactly was happening at the end.  The acting was good, and the story was certainly interesting to me, but it just failed in too many spots to be successful.

I give it 2 1/2 ticket stubs out of 5.