Film

Altered States

Name: Altered States
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Released: 1980
Cast: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid, Thaao Penghlis

Science fiction

Ken Russell's fever dream about a Harvard scientist who uses sensory-deprivation tanks and shamanic hallucinogens to chase pure consciousness, and gets more answer than he bargained for. Part hard-SF, part body horror, shot with operatic visual excess — screaming apes, melting flesh, biblical light shows. Best experienced as a trip rather than a plot; if you want restraint, look elsewhere entirely.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like psychological sci-fi that treats the mind as a feverish laboratory, where ideas about consciousness get staged as full-blown visual overload.

Skip it if you want a tidy science story with grounded characters, since the ideas here stretch into hallucinatory excess and the drama can feel more theatrical than lived-in.

What it asks of you: Settle in for about an hour and forty minutes, with long stretches of unsettling, sometimes lurid imagery that expects you to follow the escalating strangeness closely.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Fly1986

Cronenberg's remake turns a lab experiment into slow, tragic body horror, and Jeff Goldblum makes the scientist's unraveling genuinely heartbreaking rather than just gross.

But The practical effects are graphic and unrelenting — squeamish viewers should brace for real discomfort.

Jacob's Ladder1990

A haunting, hallucinatory nightmare about a man who can't trust his own senses, packed with the dread Altered States only flirts with.

But Deliberately confusing structure that some find frustrating and disorienting rather than eerie.

Annihilation2018

Same fascination with what happens when the boundary between self and environment dissolves, rendered as gorgeous, unsettling science fiction.

But Slow build and a deliberately ambiguous ending that won't satisfy anyone wanting clear answers.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Altered States

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde1931

Fifty years before Russell's scientist climbed into a tank, this pre-Code film had a researcher drink a formula to unleash his 'primal' self — the same regression-to-savage-instinct idea, minus the strobe lights and screaming apes.

Fredric March's Oscar-winning transformation still unsettles, and the film is startlingly frank about desire and violence for its era.

But Creaky pre-Code theatricality and primitive effects will test the patience of modern viewers.

Requiem for a Dream2000

Aronofsky's kinetic, obsessive filmmaking captures chemically altered states of mind with the same fevered intensity Russell brings to his lab sequences.

But Unrelentingly bleak — this is closer to an ordeal than an entertaining evening.

2001: A Space Odyssey1968

Kubrick's psychedelic climax and obsession with evolution and consciousness pushed to cosmic extremes is a clear ancestor to Russell's regression sequences.

But Glacially paced by modern standards — more meditation than movie, and proudly so.

Flatliners1990

Med students flirting with death to see what's on the other side — same reckless scientific curiosity and same karmic comeuppance.

But Glossier, more mainstream thriller pacing that lacks the raw strangeness of Altered States.

Videodrome1983

Cronenberg again, this time with media and reality dissolving into flesh — a kindred spirit in using body horror as a metaphor for altered perception.

But Deliberately grimy and disorienting, with a plot that actively resists easy tracking.

The Machinist2004

A man's body and mind unravel together under guilt and obsession, with the same commitment to physical transformation as spectacle.

But Quieter and more grounded — no light-show fireworks, just Christian Bale's skeletal, quietly devastating performance.

Donnie Darko2001

Reality bending, time distortion, and a lead who may or may not be losing his mind — a cult favorite with the same willingness to go strange.

But More teen-angst indie than hard science, and the mythology can feel overstuffed by the end.

Waking Life2001

Swap the sensory-deprivation tank for rotoscoped animation and you get the same question Russell was chasing — is consciousness real, or a story we tell ourselves — asked through conversation instead of convulsion.

A gorgeous, hand-painted wander through lucid dreaming and philosophy that treats 'what is consciousness' as pure pleasure rather than horror.

But Plotless and talky — if you came for primal-scream regression sequences, this is all lecture and no lab.

Wormwood2017

Russell's film fictionalizes reckless consciousness experiments; Morris's documentary-drama hybrid tells the true story of a family chasing the truth about a CIA scientist's death during real MKUltra LSD testing — the same institutional hubris, minus the fictional cushion.

A genuinely disturbing piece of investigative filmmaking about real government mind-control experiments, told with Errol Morris's obsessive rigor and eye for dread.

But Six-episode length and heavy re-enactment style demand a patience that Altered States never asks for.