Altered States
| Altered States | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ken Russell |
| Produced by | Howard Gottfried Daniel Melnick |
| Written by |
Paddy Chayefsky (as Sidney Aaron) |
| Starring |
William Hurt Blair Brown Bob Balaban |
| Music by | John Corigliano |
| Cinematography | Jordan S. Cronenweth |
| Edited by | Stuart Baird |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $19.8 million |
Altered States is a 1980 American science fiction-horror film adaptation of a novel by the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. The film was Chayefsky's only novel and his final screenplay. Both the novel and the film are based on John C. Lilly's sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks under the influence of psychoactive drugs like mescaline, ketamine and LSD.
The film was directed by Ken Russell, and is also the film debut of William Hurt and Drew Barrymore. Chayefsky was credited as a screenwriter for the film using the pseudonym Sidney Aaron, his actual first and middle names.
The film score was composed by John Corigliano (with Christopher Keene conducting). The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing.
Edward Jessup is a university professor of abnormal psychology who, while studying schizophrenia, begins to think that "our other states of consciousness are as real as our waking states." Jessup begins experimenting with sensory deprivation using a flotation tank, aided by two like-minded researchers, Parrish and Rosenberg. At a faculty party he meets fellow "wonder kid" and biological anthropologist Emily, and the two eventually marry.
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