Primordial Goo & Psychic Pigs - Altered States (1980) & Upstream Colour (2013)
- James Payne
- 12 minutes ago
- 1 min read
What happens when mad science pushes the human mind and body to their absolute limits? That’s the question we’re exploring in our latest episode of Journey Through Sci-Fi.
First stop: Ken Russell’s Altered States (1980), a film that takes scientific curiosity and dials it all the way up to cosmic horror. From sensory deprivation tanks to wild, hallucinatory transformations, it’s a heady mix of body horror, psychedelia, and high-concept science fiction.
Then we jump forward to Shane Carruth’s Upstream Colour (2013), an arthouse mystery where mind-control parasites and cycles of trauma become the foundation for a strangely tender love story. It’s one of the most unconventional films we’ve tackled yet, but also one of the most rewarding to unpack.
Together, these films ask: what happens when the pursuit of knowledge collides with the fragility of human identity? How much of who we are is tied to our memories, our bodies, and the stories we tell ourselves?
It’s a strange, unsettling, and beautiful journey - one we think sci-fi fans won’t want to miss.
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