[Altered]
Plot:Fifteen years ago, a group of men's lives were forever changed by a strange occurrence. Now, the same group of men will spend a night together ... in terror.

Cast: Misty Rosas, Paul McCarthy-Boyington, Brad William Henke, Michael C. Williams, Adam Kaufman, Catherine Mangan, James Gammon, Joe Unger.

My Thoughts:Decent alien film.

Review:"Altered" isn't the best when it comes to alien invasion pictures. That spot is still reserved for films like "Invaders From Mars", "The Faculty", and most recently "Evil Aliens". But "Altered" does have something those movies didn't have. A really gritty feel to the transpiring events. It's too bad that so many other things were all wrong. The story begins with a trio of "good ole boys" hunting something in the woods. By the sounds that whatever "it" is makes, it's obvious that it isn't human. Eventually, after getting the crap scared out of them and one of the group suffering a badly injured leg, they manage to trap and capture the creature and haul it away in their van. One good thing that can be said about Eduardo Sanchez's film is that he doesn't show the creature right off the bat. A golden rule when it comes to monster movies.

Although at the same time, through what's happening in the film...he let's the viewer know that whatever these folks have captured is a vicious creature not of this world. It's also made obvious that the three of these guys, Cody, Duke, and Otis have a past with this alien. They didn't just wake up one morning and say "Hey, let's catch us an extraterrestrial". They, along with their friend Wyatt (Adam Kaufman), whose house they later on take the creature to..have a very checkered and specific past with the creature. It's also obvious that it's done something to them, and they want payback for that particular sin. The question juggled throughout the movie is will the three be able to quell their thirst for revenge by not doing anything to allow the alien to escape and harm them or anyone else, while at the same time keeping it alive...as it's death is likely to draw the others right to it's location. Sanchez, who wrote and directed "The Blairwitch Project"...certainly puts his and that films fingerprints all over this movie.

Much like "The Blairwitch Project", which had strong elements of paranoia, fear, and people in a bad situation beginning to mutiny against one another.."Altered" tackles the same issues only they occur much quicker and with much more dire consequences. But "Altered" doesn't make those scenes as strong as they were in "TBWP" because unlike in that film where the teens had a good relationship at the beginning and then began to turn on each other, from the opening scene of "Altered"...the three good ole boys are at each others throats, and once they arrive at Wyatt's garage, the arguing and disarray amongst the group just becomes worse. Which of course plays right into the slimy claws of the deadly extraterrestrial who does eventually manage to escape and shed alot of blood and cause alot of chaos as the movie enters it's second act. Another issue with the movie is that there's not enough depth involved to make one really care about these characters.

The only character I really cared about was Misty, and not just because she was good looking...but because she wasn't swearing every 5 minutes, or waving a gun around and making threats towards everyone. I totally got what Director E. Sanchez, and writer Jamie Nash were trying to do with this picture, but usually movies that involve normal, every day human beings coming up against something deadly from outerspace lay out situations that are thrust upon the characters through no fault of their own. In "Altered"...every tragedy that happens from the moment the alien is brought into Wyatt's garage, ducttaped and wrapped up is pretty much on all of these guys heads. And therefore things just break down into another "stupid human tricks" sort of horror movie.

The climax of "Altered" offers up some great gore and creature fx as the alien is finally scene in full and some blood and gore gets splashed around, and the action picks up...but it's too little too late. "Altered" was a noble try at trying to liven up the SCI-FI/Horror subgenre, but it's empty characters, and wayward plot just weigh it down far too much for it to be effective.

Positives:Great gore and creature FX in the films final act

Negatives:Weak script, mostly weak characters with little to no depth, and boring in some areas.

Overall:Might be worth a watch if you're really big on this subgenre of films.





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