Talk:Altered States

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Altered States article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Film: British / American

	Film portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Film. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please refer to the documentation. To improve this article, please refer to the guidelines.FilmWikipedia:WikiProject FilmTemplate:WikiProject Filmfilm articles
	This article is supported by the British cinema task force.
	This article is supported by the American cinema task force.

Psychoactive and Recreational Drugs Start‑class (defunct)

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Psychoactive and Recreational Drugs, a project which is currently considered to be defunct.Psychoactive and Recreational DrugsWikipedia:WikiProject Psychoactive and Recreational DrugsTemplate:WikiProject Psychoactive and Recreational DrugsPsychoactive and Recreational Drugs articles
Start	This article has been given a rating which conflicts with the project-independent quality rating in the banner shell. Please resolve this conflict if possible.

Horror Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Horror, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to fictional horror in film, literature and other media on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit one of the articles mentioned below, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and contribute to the general Project discussion to talk over new ideas and suggestions.HorrorWikipedia:WikiProject HorrorTemplate:WikiProject Horrorhorror articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Science Fiction Mid‑importance

	Speculative fiction portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Science Fiction, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science fiction on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Science FictionWikipedia:WikiProject Science FictionTemplate:WikiProject Science Fictionscience fiction articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Horror Film?[edit]

What are the criteria for branding this movie as a "horror film"? The definition used in the WP article is so broad "attempt to make the viewer experience dread, fear, terror, disgust or horror" as to be useless, and the secondary element it considers defining, evil, is not prevalent in AS. I tried to find refinement of the criteria under the Wikipedia:WikiProject Horror but could not locate any. I have always considered Altered States to be a science fiction rather than a horror film, and do not ever recall having seen it described (much less defined) as the latter. I think this designation should be removed. Lethiere 01:31, 6 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. I would never think of Altered States as a horror movie and it would be quite a stretch to make a case for it being so although it's a bit sui generis--doesn't fit well into any category but much better fits into science fiction than horror. I am going to go ahead and remove the template. --Fuhghettaboutit 05:13, 6 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This entry is ridonkulous. It says nothing about what the film and novel are actually about.

Plot[edit]

The Plot section of this article needs to be rewritten. I know nothing about the film or novel, so I cannot attempt to repair it myself, but reading this article didn't shed as much light on the plot as I had hoped. Most of the Plot section does not directly address the plot itself, but instead focuses on the events surrounding the writing of the storyline. --DavidGC 09:02, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm on it. It could take me some time. —Viriditas | Talk 10:10, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Uh, the entire movie revolves around William Hurts characters experiments with a super-potent psychedelic mushroom and sensory-deprivation tank studies. How could one possibly forget to mention the 'shrooms, which is the whole catalyst in the movie? You know, like any good person who has taken psychedelics such as LSD or magic mushrooms, Hurts character becomes obsessed with inner discovery, love, relationships, mind-expansion, life-after-death, God, while of course, enjoying and being terrified by his visions, you know, all those little things the writer of this quite strikingly inadequate entry somehow "didn't notice."

It's love and it's the psychedelics that are the main points here. Neither of which is barely mentioned.

I think it is possible to overemphasize the psychedelic angle. For instance, the visuals with mushrooms are tightly related to atomic mushroom clouds- Even has quite a bit of Garden of Eden imagery- so there are themes about loss of innocence and death and suffering that are not specifically "psychedelic." The experiments the story is based on also had numbers of people hallucinate during sensory deprivation without ingesting psychedelics. Replace the mushrooms with an electrode in the brain, or heat stroke, or whatever; and the plot essentially remains unchanged. I'm sure the writer(s)/director shared your insight, but producers knew much of the audience would have never tried psychedelic drugs and had no intention of trying them. Tumacama (talk) 20:03, 31 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, the plot section was really confusing, so I tried to update it. But it would be better to rewrite it completely.

On the other hand I appreciate the cultural links section.

Quite interesting film

Mad Magazine parody[edit]

MAD Magazine's parody of this movie, which I believe was called "Really Altered State," was featured in a special two-in-one issue in which you flipped the magazine over to read each part-issue. The flipside issue featured "Flopeye," a parody of the live-action film version of "Popeye".24.57.249.250 (talk) 00:54, 11 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Inline citations[edit]

This article urgently required inline citations, especially in the "In popular culture" section. I have completed a copyedit of the section and removed the tag.--Soulparadox (talk) 20:43, 30 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Altered States. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080627120833/http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117796614.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 to http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117796614.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 01:01, 4 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]