Altered States stars William Hurt as Harvard professor Eddie Jessup, a scientist experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs and their ability to open new states of reality. He drops a concoction obtained from a tribe of natives in Mexico then sticks himself in a sensory depravation chamber where he experiences religious and sexual epiphanies. As the film progresses, he becomes more altered by his experiences, eventually becoming a primordial caveman in physical reality.

I watched this movie for one reason and that was to experience a cinematic acid trip and only a few scenes succeeded in that regard. These are the most outstanding moments where quick cuts, bright colors, exceptional imagery, and a flair for the weird come together in a very Jodorowsky-esque way to give the viewer the impression of tripping. Sadly, the brevity and sparsity of these moments leaves long stretches of human drama that never quite reach the peaks of the weirdness. Hurt’s performance is fantastic, and all his co-stars are also quite good, but the philosophical and metaphysical meanderings are nowhere near as compelling as actually seeing these things. It’s as if the filmmakers saw The Holy Mountain but expected the audience hadn’t so were fine with skimping on what makes drug movies so watchable.

What you’re left with is a movie that thinks it’s smarter than it really comes across. I was mostly bored through the majority of the film but when Jessup transforms into an ape-like man and traipses through the streets was when the movie completely lost me (yet entertained me just the same). While the movie had been boring, it had at least to that point maintained a sophisticated tone. But a five-minute sequence of a man with hair glued all over himself throwing rocks at things and running away from dogs turned Altered States into a Mystery Science Theater 3000 candidate. And while there was metaphorical reason for it and I can understand some of why it happened, it ultimately made what I would have called a contemplative, boring, and not-for-me film into something I don’t know is for anyone.

I couldn’t help but compare Altered States to Lawnmower Man, the 90’s B-movie classic about a man who becomes one with virtual reality and somehow attains godhood because of it. Altered States tackles the typical religious iconography and introspective nature of hallucinogenic drugs and leans toward the “I think therefore I am” philosophy of much drug-induced literature but quickly goes too far in that direction in a way that might work in the confines of a novel where perspectives can be cleverly used to discuss the idea. But in this case I didn’t think it worked nearly as well as it should have and even though a lot of the visuals regarding sexual tensions and inner turmoil did work, the main thread was navel-gazey enough to be kind of smart but executed so poorly it came across as stupid.

Altered States should be my kind of movie: I like visually arresting drug-induced nightmares. But too much talking about taking drugs and going too far with the amount of power the drug state gifted Jessup makes Altered States a pass for me.