This truly wild 80’s horror film blends psychological terror and unsettling body horror to create one of the most memorable swings I’ve ever seen. 

Directed by Ken Russel and starring William Hurt in his film debut, the film follows scientific researcher Eddie Jessup, Hurt, who begins experimenting with hallucinogenics and sensory deprivation tanks in order to experience a higher truth hidden somewhere in his hallucinations. He gets more than he bargained for when the experiments go to far, and he is unwilling to stop. 

This is a very strange film. It feels like it begins too early in the story and somehow too late. We begin with a voice over from Arthur Rosenberg, played by Bob Balaban, as he is assisting Jessup who is floating in a sensory deprivation tank. We firmly establish Arthur as the point of view character. This is reinforced in the following scenes. They are already deep into their research and Jessup is already obsessed with pushing the boundaries of this hallucinatory experience. 

We then jump to Jessup’s point of view as he meets and falls in love with Emily, played by Blair Brown. They agree to get married in spite of their differences. 

We then cut to years in the future. Jessup and Emily are getting a divorce so Jessup can get back to exploring these hallucination experiments that they were doing years ago in movie time, but one scene ago in screen time. 

Jessup goes to Mexico to explore a tribe’s hallucinatory compounds to get a deeper hallucination. This compound causes Jessup to revert to an earlier stage in human evolution eventually transforming him physically. 

It gets weirder from there. Which we’ll get into in a minute, but first let’s discuss what’s happened so far. We have had a big shift in point of view. We introduced the main plot of the film then abandoned it for a love story, then picked up the main plot again one scene later. It’s such a strange plot structure that left me feeling unmoored within the narrative. I think this was intentional in order to elicit an uneasy feeling in the viewer. Or maybe it was just a fluke of the adaptation. This was based on a book by Paddy Chayefsky, most famous for writing the movies Network and Marty. 

William Hurt delivers a very strong performance as a man obsessed and dealing with the mind altering consequences of his obsession. It’s a fascinating and surprisingly restrained performance. 

The sequences depicting the hallucinations are overpowering at times and truly wild. Ken Russel really used every cinematic tool in the arsenal to create a barrage of visual and auditory stimuli to create completely unhinged moments. It’s pretty cool stuff if you’re into that kind of thing. 

We’re going to get into some spoilers now so be prepared. 

Jessup goes for an extended session in the sensory deprivation tank. He sees himself as a primitive man hunting and eating an animal. He wakes up covered in blood and unable to speak. He believes that his throat transformed into that of an ape removing his voice box. Hours later when his physiology has changed back he is confirmed in his beliefs by X rays examined by an expert. 

That night he wakes up and his body is in the process of changing. The arm bubbles and transforms before his eyes. The skin changes and shifts as if something is inside trying to break free. It’s a horrifying effect made all the more effective because we can tell it was done for real with practical effects. 

In spite of this Jessup wants to go back into the tank. One night, a janitor on the night shift hears noises coming from the tank. He goes to investigate to find a hairy ape man burst out of the tank and go rampaging through the facility. He escapes and runs all over town ending up in a zoo eating a sheep. When the zoo security finds him, he has transformed back into Jessup. 

I had to pause the movie at this point and ask, “did that really just happen?” A man did so many drugs that he changed into an ape man ran all over town and ate a sheep. It completely pulled me out of the movie. I thought, what is this movie doing? And then I said forget it. You’re along for the ride. Let’s see what the next crazy thing is going to be. 

Jessup goes back in the tank despite Emily’s protestations. Jessup reverts even further and transforms into a blob of a human. Emily manages to save him and pull him out of the tank and return him to his original human form. 

This is when the movie comes into focus. It’s a love story about a man who believes his work and his own interiority is more important than his wife and family. She pulls him out of his self centered nature and tries to bring him back. However it might be too late. 

If you can get over the strange plot structure and the big leaps that the movie takes, it’s actually a really good time. It’s a fun movie. It’s a strange movie. It has all the cinematic tricks on display in new and unique ways. 

I enjoyed it in the end. It confused and confounded me multiple times, but I enjoyed it. It will not be for everyone, but if it is for you, you will have a great time. 

It is my cup of tea. B+