Metamorphosis in Werewolves, Human-flies and Sundry Creatures

Ken Russell's film Altered States (1980) follows Dr. Jessup, a psychopathologist who, after participating in an Indigenous Hinchi ceremony involving the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria and using isolation tanks, undergoes repeated physical transformations into a caveman. The film explores themes of consciousness, spiritual self-discovery, and monstrous metamorphosis, culminating in Jessup's struggle to reclaim his contemporary human form. The analysis interprets the narrative as a depiction of psychophysical transformation driven by psychedelic and sensory-deprivation experiments.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In Ken Russell’s film Altered States (1980), the character Dr. Jessup (played by William Hurt) is a psychopathologist who embarks on a journey of intellectual and spiritual self-discovery. After experimenting with isolation tanks, Jessup travels to Mexico to take part in the religious practices of the Indigenous Hinchi, a ceremony that includes ingesting the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria . After this hallucinatory experience, Jessup returns to his professorship at Harvard University where he combines hallucinogenic drugs with long hours in an isolation tank as a method for exploring deep levels of consciousness. Over time, he begins to experience ecstatic, mystical feelings accompanied by hallucinations. Waking up one night, his body drenched in sweat, Jessup watches in horror as his muscles and bones twist, knot, crack and stretch. His psychophysical transformation is complete – he has morphed into a caveman. This transformation repeats itself with greater frequency and intensity throughout the film, until the final scene in which Jessup struggles fiercely to overcome this monstrous metamorphosis, eventually succeeding in throwing off the Paleolithic protohuman body and returning to the integrity of his familiar contemporary human body.