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Altered States (BD) Academy Award-winner and Golden Globe-nominee William Hurt ("Syriana," "The Village"), Emmy and Golden Globe-nominee Blair Brown ("Dogville," "Space Cowboys"), Emmy-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Drew Barrymore ("Charlie's Angels," "50 First Dates") and Emmy-nominee Charles Haid (TV's "Third Watch," "Hill Street Blues") star in this terror spectacle by visual wizard Ken Russell about a research scientist whose experiments unlock the horrors of his mind. Written by Academy Award-winner Paddy Chayefsky ("Network"). ]]> .com ---- It's easy to understand why the late, great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky removed his name from the credits of Altered States and substituted the pseudonym Sidney Aaron. After all, Chayefsky was a revered dramatist whose original source novel was intended as a serious exploration of altered consciousness, inspired by the immersion-tank experiments of Dr. John Lilly in the 1970s. In the hands of maverick director Ken Russell, however, Altered States became a full-on sensory assault, using symbolic imagery and mind- blowing special effects to depict one man's physical and hallucinatory journey through the entire history of human evolution. It's a brazenly silly film redeemed by its intellectual ambition--a dazzling extravaganza that's in love with science and scientists, and eagerly willing to dive off the precipice of rationality to explore uncharted regions of mind, body, and spirit. William Hurt made his bold film debut as the psycho-physiologist who plays guinea pig to his own experiments; Blair Brown plays his equally brilliant wife, whose devotion is just strong enough to bring him back from the most altered state imaginable. From the eternal channels of sense memory to the restorative power of a loving embrace, this movie rocks you to the birth of the universe and back again. And while it's clearly not the story that Chayefsky wanted on the screen, the directorial audacity of Ken Russell makes it one heck of a memorable trip. --Jeff Shannon