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Altered States

Altered States

Horror · Science Fiction · Thriller · 1980

A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of human consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from Native American shamans, he explores these altered states of cognizance and finds that memory, time, and reality itself are states of mind.

Movie details

Altered States

“In the basement of a university medical school, Dr. Jessup floats naked in total darkness. The most terrifying experiment in the history of science is out of control... and the subject is himself.”

1980 Horror · Science Fiction · Thriller 1h 43m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.9 / 10

40.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

87 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

58 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of human consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from Native American shamans, he explores these altered states of cognizance and finds that memory, time, and reality itself are states of mind.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Altered States?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

Watch in your region.

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Ken Russell

Written by

Paddy Chayefsky

William Hurt

William Hurt

Professor Eddie Jessup

Blair Brown

Blair Brown

Emily Jessup

Bob Balaban

Bob Balaban

Arthur Rosenberg

Charles Haid

Charles Haid

Mason Parrish

Thaao Penghlis

Thaao Penghlis

Echeverria

M

Miguel Godreau

Primal Man

Dori Brenner

Dori Brenner

Sylvia Rosenberg

Court is in session

Put Altered States on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.