Altered States (1980)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This film is often incredibly creative, with several highly eye-catching sequences. It explores questions that some other films are scared to even mention, all while working its way towards the final conclusion in the last scene before the credits.However, large sections of this film are dull. A lot of it looks visually flat. When combined with conversations that seem to lack any energy, from either the actors or the script itself, it makes the film feel like it's dragging. There aren't any memorable lines of dialogue, it's only really there to move the plot along in most places. This is a film about hallocinations and the mysterious, not about its characters.Overall, I enjoyed it for the impressive dream sequences, however it was let down by several of the scenes in between. 7/10

For at least an hour, maybe longer, "Altered States" is thoroughly absorbing, especially for those viewers who can relate to William Hurt's (he makes an impressive cinema debut) quest for the Ultimate Truth, for something that gives meaning not only to his life, but to Human Life in general. The hallucinatory sequences are awe-inspiring and rewind-button-inviting. The visionary director Ken Russell appears to have found the ideal project for his visual imagination. And any potential pretentiousness is offset by lots of humor. But when Hurt reverts to the primal state and becomes a human-ape hybrid, the film does start to feel like a silly monster movie. And for all its weird, hallucinogenic visuals, it's ultimately a didactic movie AGAINST experimentation and barrier-breaking; the ending is particularly conventional. **1/2 out of 4.

"Altered States" goes off the rails in the second half, but for a while there it really felt like it was building toward something good. It plies its trade on the senses as William Hurt's mad scientist takes to the isolation tank (on Mexican shrooms, no less) and the line between real and surreality continues to blur (cue the psychedelic effects). Trying to use mind-expansion to unlock other states of consciousness is where this movie peaks. But then Hurt actually regresses into a caveman and realizes his fall from banging Blair Brown to grunting and snacking on goats. What you hear right there is the sound of a trainwreck. I imagine this twas pretty potent back in 1980 - and a substantial portion of it still is.But it's half of a good movie.5/10

I liked the beginning very much. the story starts to become a bit grotesque at the middle, but I think that for a sci-fi movie from year 1980 this can be acceptable.what really disappointed me is the end, so abrupt and willful to be "romantic" in some sense, but really disrupted all the pathos of the movie, at least for me.the hallucinations are really stunning (although they didn't touch me to the same point of "The devils" my the same director) and the visual effects are really great for the time.a pity that everything is ruined by the last 15 seconds..