Sort of a trippy, mindfuck type of film, this one is entertaining nonetheless. Professor Eddie Jessup and a colleague are experimenting with a sensory deprivation tank with Jessup feeling he is on the edge of a major breakthrough into the subconscious. Looking to intensify the experience and thus push himself over the edge, Eddie travels to Mexico and takes some very strong peyote with an Indian tribe. After a very nasty hallucinatory experience, Eddie brings some of the stuff back with him to the states, as he plans to take the peyote while immersed in the deprivation chamber, thus giving himself one hell of a trip. During one of his new sessions in the tank, his mind travels back to man's time of origin, where he is running with a group of missing link types. Through this trip however, Eddie has unknowingly triggered a physical change in his body, as he eventually finds himself reverting back to the missing link stage.

"Altered States" is loaded with tons of babble about the meaning of life and what not. The cool thing here is that it really is all pretty interesting, and does not cause the film to become disjointed at any point accept for the end, so I guess things do become disjointed huh? I just used the word disjointed twice in one sentence...amazing. Anyway, the acting is done very nicely and some parts of the movie will actually make you think a bit. Besides the strong acting, the film is loaded with some very disturbing visuals as we are treated to a firsthand view of one of Eddie's fucked up trips. The film sort of loses itself once Eddie transforms into the missing link thing, going more towards the "monster on the loose" type scenario, if but only for a short time. Not sure why, but I laughed my ass off when Eddie the Simian got chased by those street dogs, that struck me as somewhat funny for some reason. As the movie comes to a close though, things start to get real confusing. Let me just sum it up like this, the beginning of the movie was understandable, the end however, just seems to lose control of itself in one big quantum theory big bang. Too much is introduced as to the reasoning for why everything is happening and it just loses the viewer. Just like how I lost you the reader, trying to tell how I got lost watching the movie...follow me?

Still, hyperventilating thoughts on the meaning of life aside, "Altered States" was an entertaining hour and a half. I would just like to add that I bet half the people who have seen this movie tried to dump salt in their bathtubs and create their own isolation tank. C'mon...admit it!!