Eduardo Sanchez, co-director of the big 1999 hit "The Blair Witch Project", returned with this rather effective low budget sci-fi / horror creature feature. The story involves three grown men who, 15 years previous, had been abducted by aliens and subjected to various tests. All this time later, the men want revenge, and manage to trap one of the creatures. They bring it to the isolated abode of an associate who had received the same treatment, but somehow he'd not suffered the same effects as them. He also has some sort of telepathic link with this species, and he knows that if his three buddies succeed in killing the creature, it will only make matters worse.
"Altered" is a pretty inventive B picture that manages to overcome the limits of its budget. It's well paced - it certainly hits the ground running - and delivers an impressive amount of suspense and atmosphere. Its gore and monster FX are also quite good, with an impressively ugly & gnarly alien design, an old school approach that means you have actors in costumes, and some utterly fantastic gross-out moments. (For one thing, the result if a person is *bitten* by one of these things is a long, drawn-out disintegration process.) There's also a real economy in that the action doesn't require very much in the way of locations. It's mostly confined to Wyatts' (TV veteran Adam Kaufman, 'Without a Trace') hideaway in the woods.
As a bonus, the acting is better than one would expect: Brad William Henke ('Orange is the New Black') is ringleader Duke, Paul McCarthy-Boyington ("The Human Race") is volatile ex-jailbird Cody, Michael C. Williams (Mike in "The Blair Witch Project") is the timid Otis, Catherine Mangan ("Otis E.") is Wyatts' perplexed girlfriend Hope, and the late, great character actor James Gammon ("Major League") is a welcome presence as the local Sheriff who responds to a 911 call. Joe Unger ("Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III") has a funny cameo at the end. Kaufman is solid as the protagonist who has always dreaded this scenario.
Best of all, the story does have something of a sense of humour, but has the actors still play it straight. The scene with the intestines is proof of this.
"Altered" is definitely worth a look for dedicated genre enthusiasts.
Seven out of 10.
"Altered" is a pretty inventive B picture that manages to overcome the limits of its budget. It's well paced - it certainly hits the ground running - and delivers an impressive amount of suspense and atmosphere. Its gore and monster FX are also quite good, with an impressively ugly & gnarly alien design, an old school approach that means you have actors in costumes, and some utterly fantastic gross-out moments. (For one thing, the result if a person is *bitten* by one of these things is a long, drawn-out disintegration process.) There's also a real economy in that the action doesn't require very much in the way of locations. It's mostly confined to Wyatts' (TV veteran Adam Kaufman, 'Without a Trace') hideaway in the woods.
As a bonus, the acting is better than one would expect: Brad William Henke ('Orange is the New Black') is ringleader Duke, Paul McCarthy-Boyington ("The Human Race") is volatile ex-jailbird Cody, Michael C. Williams (Mike in "The Blair Witch Project") is the timid Otis, Catherine Mangan ("Otis E.") is Wyatts' perplexed girlfriend Hope, and the late, great character actor James Gammon ("Major League") is a welcome presence as the local Sheriff who responds to a 911 call. Joe Unger ("Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III") has a funny cameo at the end. Kaufman is solid as the protagonist who has always dreaded this scenario.
Best of all, the story does have something of a sense of humour, but has the actors still play it straight. The scene with the intestines is proof of this.
"Altered" is definitely worth a look for dedicated genre enthusiasts.
Seven out of 10.