Altered States (1980) is a trip film that follows a professor who is obsessed with altered states of consciousness. He spends his time studying subjects inside of sensory deprivation tanks, and even studying himself while in a sensory deprivation tank. He obsession continues to the point where he starts experimenting with mind altering substances that Native American's have used for rituals. He eventually tires the drug while in the sensory deprivation tank and his visualizations become so intense that his mind thinks they're real and his hallucinations become actualizations.
The movie tended to rely on the concept of what would happen if your hallucinations because so intense that the mind thought it was real. That's it. It was the writer playing the, "Wouldn't it be cool if..." game. When I heard about this movie I was hoping for something very David Cornenberg-esque, a-la Videodrome. Unlike David Cronenberg, this movie had no social commentary or psychological terror. Altered States relies on it's fantastical trip sequences, which aren't half bad for 1980. The first half of the movie is the characters talking about the same thing over and over again, but just years after they said it the previous time. I'm pretty sure the writter did this because he didn't know how to take his concept and stretch it to a feature length script.
If you like trip sequences and you just like plain ole horror with no depper meaning for the human condition, then you'll probably like this movie. Just know this movie is nothing more than that.
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