Cover Art

Credits

Director: Eduardo Sanchez Starring: Adam Kaufman, Michael C Williams, Brad William Henke, Catherine Mangan, Paul McCarthy-Boyington, James Gammon, Misty Rosas Screenplay: Jamie Nash Country: USA

As the years go on the only way the other three friends can come to come to terms with their ordeal is to stick together and go on a hunting trip that takes almost ten years to come to its final resolution. Altered is about this final night. It begins at night with the three of them hunting down one of the aliens who has recently returned to a nearby forest. They have set up pit and bear traps and have modified hunting equipment in the form of spear guns. In a very tense yet hilarious scene they capture the alien, but only after almost spearing each other. They then take their captured alien, who at this point has taken a thorough beating at their hands, to Wyatt, who they have not been in contact with for nearly ten years. Needless to say he is not happy to see them as he knows what the outcome will be - more aliens will come and they'll know where to find him. Reluctantly he lets them in as he knows that if they stay outside they will surely be killed. They chain and bind their captured alien to a workbench and put a welding helmet (nice touch) on its head. You don't want to look into its eyes because it knows how to get into your mind. What follows is a night of full-on chaos, mayhem, bloody violence and gore as the four friends make their last stand to end it once and for all.

Eduardo Sanchez has pulled it off again and delivered a nasty little ride of a movie with strong likeable characters, great dialogue and witty dark humour. Altered reinvents the tired theme of alien abduction movies, making this one of the most refreshing, disturbing and gruesome 'monster from outer space' films I have seen in such a long time; possibly ever.

Altered works on two levels. Not only is it a great alien monster movie, but it also works extremely well as a siege movie, but not your typical siege movie like Assault on Precinct 13 or NOTLD, There are more aliens hanging around but not anywhere near the garage fortress, they are waiting in orbit and if any of the characters does a runner from this remote location, they'll just fly down and stop 'em dead in their tracks. This is where Sanchez subtly utilises the psychology which was used in The Blair Witch Project, where he uses sound and shadows to make the viewer and the characters hear and think they see things that may or may not actually be there. Sanchez only uses two locations for Altered; the garage and the forest which he does to the greatest of effect; together with an excellent non-clichéd script and absorbing characterisation, you won't have even a second to feel bored.

The alien looks great. Basically it's a man, actually it's a woman in a monster suit, but try and find the zipper, and I bet you can't. An excellent full sculptured body suit from head to toe makes for a very authentic looking humanoid creature that I would give my left pinkie to wear to a Halloween gig. I was most impressed. The alien was played by Misty Rosas, apparently one of the best suit actors in the business (she played Amy the gorilla in Congo). The gruesome gore effects are top notch and Sanchez uses a little dark humour to take the edge off them a bit. Another big bonus is that this movie is almost CGI free.