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Altered States - 3/4
A 1980's psychological acid science fiction/horror which delves wonderfully into some mysterious, unnerving visual horror. The story is pretty basic, a scientist decides to become his own test subject in his investigations into psychoactive substances and sensory deprivation similar to the real life experiments done in the 60's by various controversial scientists and hallucinogen advocates. After a progression of increasingly terrifying and realistic trips the scientist begins to experience tangible, physical reactions.
William Hurt and Charles Haid steal the show here as two colleagues with extremely opposing philosophies and outlooks towards this research. Bob Balaban and Blair Brown provide grounding support to the extremes of Hurt and Haid with strong if not spectacular or particularly taxing performances.
The dialogue flits between witty and heavily pretentious with the sort of abandon that a real conversation might, despite there being several instances early on of very pointed and almost angeringly unrealistic "philosophy spreading". It's fancy exposition and it's done early on in a way that you can forgive, however it does make me wonder(especially after reading up on this) is perhaps the director Ken Russell decided to trim the most infuriatingly out-of-touch lines just to streamline an already dialogue heavy film.
The troubled production history sounds worthy of a documentary, however the result is a film with enduring relevance as the mysteries of the human mind are as intriguing today as they were forty years ago - and for that matter so is Bob Balaban's seemingly ageless face. I say ageless... he has looked 60 for his entire life.
The technical visual effects and practical special effects are of a high standard for a film made in 1980 and despite containing moments that on paper must surely have seemed utterly absurd, it leaves you with genuine primal fear in a couple of very well executed moments.
And while all of this is good and of a high standard, I feel that the audio work in the film is of a superior standard to anything besides the lead performance.
I very much enjoyed this film but I feel that it is a step below classic as there needed to be more respite from the breathless, fast paced and annoyingly regular protracted speeches and exchanges.
I wanted more visuals and this is not a film that skimps on the visuals.
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