Altered (2006)

Director: Eduardo Sánchez

Writer: Jamie Nash, Eduardo Sánchez

Tagline: They will find you...

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

Runtime: 1h 28m

Category: Alien

Synopsis: Fifteen years ago a group of friends were abducted by aliens and subjected to torturous experiments. With one dead and another in hiding, the remaining three, determined to seek revenge, set out on nightly hunts for the little bastards. One fateful night, after actually catching one, they take it over to Wyatt’s house, one of the last remaining abductees. There they decide to take their revenge, but not before it escapes! Now they are on the hunt for one scout alien while trying to understand why those damn things came back. But what Wyatt doesn’t know is that the aliens have other plans for him.

Review: I have been putting this movie off for some time now and I have to say that I’m kicking myself for it. I was not expecting this movie to be so amazing. I was expecting some sort of mutation movie with a bunch of stupid college students who accidentally set loose some apocalyptic plague. But I was mistaken. What occurred here was a wonderful story directed by a genius, tangled together with hints of Isolation (2005) and Dark City (1998).

The story was absolutely superb: an abductee somehow gains the aliens’ mental powers and uses them against them…very Dark City (1998), which was also a fantastic movie. I loved how Wyatt was able to use his telekinesis to overcome one of the aliens. That was awesome! Almost like Scanners (1981). But apart from the alien-side of the story, I thought that the sub-stories were well done also. The back story of Wyatt and the others, the relationship between them now, and Wyatt and his girl, were all well done and tied in very smoothly. Most of the time when you deal with multiple sub-stories like this, one of two things will happen: either the main story will take a beating because the sub-stories carry much more script weight, or the sub-stories will be so vague that they seem unnecessary and distracting. Not the case here.

The acting was very good for a bunch of nobodies. At least I’ve never seen them before. Kaufman looks like a well-rested, thin and buff version of that tool Joshua Jackson. But I was able to look past it. Anyway, I was very impressed by the amount of control each actor seemed to hold over their character. I was expecting some overly-stereotyped rednecks with shotguns. What we got was well oiled synergy. Each character fit perfectly and was able to hold their own as a main sub-character. Very, very well done.

The effects and gore are another story. I was so impressed by the aliens and the prosthetics that I think Tom Savini would have saluted these people. The aliens looked very real and moved with a kind of human-like gait. I haven’t seen aliens this impressive since Independence Day (1996). And since alien features and movement are all speculation, I was thrilled to see that they had made them look physically inferior; except for the grill full of razor-sharp teeth, three-inch-long talons, and, of course, they’re green.

The gore effects were also very well done. I was a bit skeptical about how they would portray rotting flesh since it seems that nobody except Savini can get it right. But I was very surprised to see a masterfully done body suit of rotting flesh and infected tissue. Trust me…this is something to talk about. The gore was absolutely perfect. No overkill, no obvious prosthetics; just an effects-man with the knowledge and control of a professional.

Rating: 23. I would have liked to see Wyatt use his mental abilities a little more and fight some more aliens. But I guess that’s what sequels are for. Although no sequel has been hinted to, I would not be surprised to see one…and I would see it. I recommend that everyone see this movie. It is chuck full of gore, guns, aliens, and rednecks…and the only woman in the movie is kinda hot. So check out this sleeper…you won’t regret it. (23of25).