ALTERED. (2006) DISTRIBUTED BY ROGUE PICTURES. DIRECTED BY EDUARDO SANCHEZ. SCREENPLAY BY JAMIE NASH. STORY BY EDUARDO SANCHEZ AND JAMIE NASH. STARRING ADAM KAUFMAN, CATHERINE MANGAN, PAUL MCCARTHY-BOYINGTON, BRAD WILLIAM HENKE, MICHAEL C. WILLIAMS AND JAMES GAMMON. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This horror film about aliens was slow
to start and I was nearly inclined to dismiss it at first. Then the second
half kicked off and bam! We
were in business.
The
film was directed by the guy who co-directed THE BLAIR
WITCH PROJECT, one of the
scariest and most successful horror films ever made and practically the
Mammy and Daddy combined of the 'found footage films'
genre. So this fella sure has the
credentials, for a kick-off.
This
was his first solo project since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
and, as I said, after a slow
start it turned into an excellent and extremely gory movie about
extra-terrestrials, the nasty kind.
That's right, I said nasty. Not
the cute cuddly 'We bring you peace' type of alien from THE SIMPSONS or
the films of Steven Spielberg, like ET- THE
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL or CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. These
guys are some seriously ugly muthas.
This
film kind of inverts the notion of 'abduction by aliens'
and turns it on its head. We've
got three American guys, Cody, Duke and Otis, who've themselves captured an
alien in the backwoods of their remote home town. It was no
accidental capture, however.
We're told,
not through flashback but through the conversation of the men, that
this is payback for something that happened fifteen years ago. The
three men, plus their friend Wyatt and Cody's little brother Timmy,
were all kidnapped by aliens on a hunting trip.
They
were 'experimented on,' which
we humans always seem to think means extensive anal probing, snigger.
Little Timmy never made it home. To make things worse, Cody's dad to
this day still thinks that Cody murdered his own li'l bro and buried
him in the woods somewhere.
The mens'
hatred of the aliens is understandably strong, especially the
foul-mouthed Cody's. His language is appalling. His Ma clearly never
washed his potty-mouth out with soap when he was a young'un or taught
him that swears make Baby Jesus cry...!
The lads
bring their ugly captive to Wyatt's house. For the last fifteen
years, Wyatt's been keeping himself apart from his fellow abductees
and hiding out in his gaff, fearful of an alien return. The last
thing he wants is for his mates to bring one of the nasty muthas to
his own home.
What if
it's a trap, for one thing? What if the alien calls its hideous chums
and alerts them to the whereabouts of Wyatt in particular, Wyatt who's
been so careful to keep a low profile all these years? And if the
alien manages to get free of its chains, all of
their lives could be forfeit...
The special
effects are superb. There are high levels of blood and guts,
especially guts. There's one especially imaginative scene involving intestines that I
promise you will turn your stomach. The alien is every bit as
dangerous and as revolting in appearance as you would expect a member
of a hostile species to be.
The stuff
that happens to the lads as a result of their actions is terrifying
and physically disturbing. I think this might be one of the best and
scariest alien movies I've ever seen.
Wyatt
is totally dreamy to look at, which is always helpful. His girlfriend
Hope has a lotta chutzpah, for
a chick! In fairness, she's had a lot to put up with. It's just as
well that Wyatt is super-hot, with a fit body and the kind of blue
eyes you could quite easily lose yourself in. Ahem...!
I love
the character of the Sheriff. He's exactly the kind of been
there, done that, worn the T-shirt grizzled
cynical old Sheriff you might expect to find in the backwoods of
America. He's got balls and class to spare, and underneath his tough
exterior, he's got a heart somewhere.
I
recommend this film to any fans of gore and aliens. This movie's got
both. In spades.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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