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Nov 10, 2025 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Edward Jessup is a research doctor on an obsessive quest to tap into mankind’s deepest, most primal states of consciousness. His work has driven him to experiment on himself with sensory deprivation tanks and powerful, untested psychedelics, which in turn has driven a wedge between himself and his wife, and him away from the academic community who once held him in high regard. His desires grow more all-consuming with each promising test result. When his experiments start to manifest physical changes in his body, it becomes clear to everyone but Jessup himself that he’s crossed over the point of no return.

In his film debut, William Hurt plays a character both charismatic and insufferable. While it’s hard not to get caught up in his excitement, it’s easier to sympathize with the friends and colleagues around him urgently wishing for him to quit his dangerous work. Legendary screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Network, Marty) famously feuded with director Ken Russell over the project, so much so that the former asked for his name to be removed from the final product. No offense to Chayefsky, but Altered States (1980) would play like a load of gibberish without its mind-melting visual direction—or the cast’s absolute dedication to delivering lines full of highfalutin, pseudo-scientific, ambiguously philosophical nonsense with utterly straight faces.

Altered States more than makes up for the clunkiness of its dialogue with some incredible VFX work, from physical transformations that blended latex prosthetics with animation, to several insane, psychedelic drug sequences that look jaw-dropping on the UHD’s HDR-boosted 4K transfer. Colors are incredible, and the frequent strobing effects are especially powerful on the right TV setup.

Bonus materials on the Criterion Collection release include a lengthy, contemporary TV interview with Russell as well as a Q&A conducted with Hurt at the 92nd Street Y several years before he passed. (He adds his personal recollections of the Russell-Chayefsky feud, which makes it sound less like two iconoclasts standing on opposing creative grounds, and more like two big babies slap-fighting in the back of an Italian restaurant.) Newly curated for the release is a 2025 interview with Bran Ferren, who designed many of the film’s memorable SFX and is more than willing to lift the curtain and explain how the most ground-breaking effects were achieved.

Altered States isn’t a perfect film, but it’s often a visually masterful one. The movie’s surreal hallucination sequences and body horror-esque transformations are its highlights, and they look fantastic here in their 4K presentation. Fans of the film, Russell, or druggy cinematic freak-outs should give this release a look.

(www.criterion.com/films/29506-altered-states)