"You're supposed to be reputable scientists! Not two dorm kids freaking on Mexican mushrooms!"

If there's one signifying feature of mortal human consciousness, it's nagging questions. What is the nature of God? The self? What is memory if not energy? What do you do when you've drunk some madness tea with some shirtless natives and a monitor lizard turns into your wife?

This week's Thursday Thrillers is Altered States.

This modern, balls-trippy take on Jekyll and Hyde feels like it should have been directed by David Cronenberg. It would fit right in there with Scanners, The Fly and Rabid, but this 1980 film was, in fact, directed by Ken Russell, who, according to IMDb trivia, was drunk throughout its troubled production.

William Hurt plays Eddie Jessup, a research scientist who's gotten a little too hung up on New Age ideas about the self, and goes looking for the spark of human consciousness or something. He spends a lot of time in a sensory deprivation tank. He gets out long enough to visit with some indigenous people and Carlos Castenada-style, samples the local hallucinogenic brew, artisan ally fortified with a dash of Jessup's own blood.

Jessup brings the tea back to the university, where he explains to his boss he'd like to intensify the effects of the tank and the tea by using them together. His boss justifiably flips shit. Imagine telling your boss you'd get better results if you were tripping.

His wife Emily (Blair Brown) isn't too happy with him either. She worries that his newfound hobby of getting high, turning into the missing link, breaking into the zoo and killing sheep might be doing irreversible damage to his chromosomes.

I liked this one a lot. It's one for the art house.

Altered States streams on FilmStruck.