Altered States

1980
R
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

40K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer2:04

Body Horror Horror Sci-Fi Thriller

A psycho-physiologist experiments with drugs and a sensory-deprivation tank and has visions he believes are genetic memories.A psycho-physiologist experiments with drugs and a sensory-deprivation tank and has visions he believes are genetic memories.A psycho-physiologist experiments with drugs and a sensory-deprivation tank and has visions he believes are genetic memories.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

40K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,651

122

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 1 win & 7 nominations total

Goofs
When the Brujo tells Eccheverria that he'll allow Eddie to participate in the ceremony, he walks off. Although in only a matter of seconds he's far enough away that they have to run quite a distance to catch up to him to ask him some further questions, this is consistent with other literary and screen depictions of shamans having "spooky" abilities, sure-footedness, and being surprisingly limber for their age. Rather than an error in continuity, this seems to be a dramatic device.

Quotes
Eddie Jessup: Emily's quite content to go on with this life. She insists she's in love with me - whatever that is. What she means is she prefers the senseless pain we inflict on each other to the pain we would otherwise inflict on ourselves. But I'm not afraid of that solitary pain. In fact, if I don't strip myself of all this clatter and clutter and ridiculous ritual, I shall go out of my fucking mind. Does that answer your question, Arthur?
Arthur Rosenberg: What question was that?
Eddie Jessup: You asked me why I was getting divorced.
Arthur Rosenberg: Oh, listen, it's your life. I'm sorry I even asked.

Crazy credits
In the end credits, the cast list appears last after all but the movie company name and logo. Usually the cast list appears either very early in the credits or sometimes approximately a third of the way through.

Alternate versions
ABC edited 7 minutes from this film for its 1983 network television premiere.

Connections
Edited into 365 Days, also Known as a Year (2019)

Soundtracks
Voile d'Orphee
by Pierre Henry

User reviews188

Review

Featured review

6/10

A very frustrating film...

... and an early example of psychedelic horror.

I wanted desperately to like Altered States, because the things it gets right it gets so right. But sadly it's such a tonally inconsistent film, and one that can't seem to focus on anything at all. First it's about a Judeo-Christian concept of hell and the devil, and then it's about some ancient indigenous deity and spirituality, and then it's about some extra-dimensional being, and then it's about genetic memory and body horror, before finally referencing alternate universes. The tone of the film is also sadly inconsistent. At times it's closer to a romantic drama than anything else. When it actually gets down to the horror part it swings strangely between themes of the paranoid mad scientist and the grand tone and sweep of man vs God.

It's memorable for some of the great special effects of its time, but overall it feels like a conversation you have when you're 19, think you know everything, get really baked, and then start rambling about philosophy with your friends.