Altered (2006)

Review by Tim-O



Starring: James Gammon
Directed by Eduardo Sanchez

“Altered” is directed by one of “The Blair Witch Project’s” directors, Eduardo Sanchez. As we all know, over 10 years ago “The Blair Witch Project” made a huge splash at the box office with a gimmicky, internet driven, ad campaign that temporarily blurred whether or not it was a true story. Of course, the gimmick worked and it only snowballed after the film came out with claims that it was, “the scariest movie since The Exorcist”. Well, that debate remains but the movie did offer the public a different kind of horror movie and has been copied time and time again. O.K. it wasn’t THAT scary but it had cool moments and even some good humor, too. It wasn’t really totally unique either I guess, in that it mirrors the plot of “Cannibal Holocaust”. Although I doubt “Altered” will ever gain the notoriety of “Blair Witch”, I actually found it to be a better film with an interesting story and a plot that reveals itself in a cool matter of fact way.

Three rednecks hunt and capture an unknown creature in the woods. They take the creature to their friend Wyatt’s house who apparently knows more than anyone about the creature. After the rednecks arrive at Wyatt’s is when something unexpected happens, a really interesting horror/sci-fi/thriller emerges in a way that’s more like a stage play than a typical low budget alien/monster movie. As the men bicker about what to do with their unearthly hostage, the story of how they came to know of the creature and why they’ve hunted it down is revealed. Seven years ago, all four of the men were abducted by aliens along with the brother of one of the redneck’s who was killed in the ordeal. Since then, the men have been hunting the alien creatures for revenge. Except Wyatt, who seems to have withdrawn from the group since the abduction. The rednecks want to kill the alien but Wyatt warns them that killing it would trigger an attack by the other aliens. Before the men can resolve the issue, the alien escapes and they try to capture it again (without killing it) so they can figure their way out of the mess they’ve gotten themselves into.

As I alluded to before, “Altered” could be produced as a stage play. This might turn some people off but I don’t mean that it’s “stiff” or overly melodramatic. With most of it taking place at Wyatt’s house and a lot of the story being dialogue driven, the film almost seems written for the stage. The movie has a cool groove to the pacing and keeps you watching just to see what the hell is going on. I’m calling the characters “rednecks” but where I’m from we call them regular “good ol’ boys” and it’s cool to see these guys act like non-heroic, everyday schleps in an impossible situation. They are scared and trying to do the right thing. They just don’t always agree on what the right thing to do is. I think the alien was really well done AND was done with practical F/X and not CGI. (I almost always prefer it that way.)I thought the acting, writing, and Sanchez’s direction were solid, as well. There are some great gory moments but the movie is not a splatter fest. (No nudity either.) Something I really liked was that I had no idea how the movie was going to end and it does end in a pretty unexpected way.

“Altered” is a really good movie. Watching it for this review was the second time I’ve seen the film and I actually found it to be even better than I remembered. If there’s a better test for how good a movie is than that, I’m not sure what is. “Altered” is currently streaming in HD on Netflix so why not give it a shot? I think you’ll enjoy this little sleeper of a movie. I did. 8/10