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William Hurt makes his big-screen debut in this blend of psychedelia and cockamamy psychology based on a novel by Paddy Chayefsky (Network). Hurt plays a college professor of science who experiments with drugs inside isolation tanks to, oh, I don’t know — I think it was to find God or something. Anyway, the experiments actually end up regressing Hurt’s DNA and he slowly turns into a cave man. Yes, there’s actually a sequence where William Hurt is all hairy and naked, running through the streets until he lands in the zoo, kills a sheep, and eats it. For some reason, Hurt never learns his lesson and the third act sees him trying yet again to enter the iso-tank on drugs to see what happens. And that’s when there’s a weird visual effects light show in lieu of any narrative logic, and a little bit later Hurt and his girlfriend (Blair Brown) are both looking like Geordi LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation — you know, that episode where Geordi transforms into some glow-in-the-dark alien?– and they smack the walls together until reality settles its ass down… and they’re back to normal. Or something. Altered States is really just an excuse for several weird hypno-dream sequences, and I suppose it’s good for that. Otherwise, it requires more suspension of disbelief than I have to offer. Hurt does his best to hold it together, and Jordan Cronenweth’s cinematography is beautiful.  Directed by Ken Russell. With Bob Balaban and Charles Haid.

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound, Best Music Original Score (John Corigliano)