Just like most Ken Russell offerings, Altered States boasts an eccentric edge. Russell had already cemented his audacious sensibilities with Tommy and The Devils, but this sci-fi horror, released 45 years ago today, pushes the limits of sensory overload. Renowned screenwriter and novelist Paddy Chayefsky (best known for Network and The Hospital) wrote a powerhouse script based on his surreal 1978 novel, itself inspired by neuroscientist John Cunningham Lilly’s research on sensory deprivation tanks and psychedelics. As a result, both Chayefsky’s novel and script have a sound scientific foundation and pose layered philosophical questions about altered states of consciousness.
The gulf between Chayefsky’s grounded story and Russell’s exaggerated interpretation of it feels immediate. Chayefsky’s script is verbose and obsessed with precision, while Russell’s Altered States is a 100-minute rollercoaster from hell, one where you’re constantly exposed to audiovisual excess. What’s more, Chayefsky’s focal point is the sensory deprivation tank itself, which annihilates all external stimulation for psychopathologist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) and pushes him towards drug-fueled scientific discovery. Jessup’s journey examines the limits of hubris through the lens of hard sci-fi and searches for meaning amid existential absurdity. Chayefsky envisioned the adaptation in the same vein, hoping that his complex script would lead to a complex film.
