REVIEW - Altered

Directed by Eduardo Sanchez
Written by Jamie Nash
Rated R
Released 19 December, 2006

There are few movies as polarizing as the Blair Witch Project. You either loved it and found it horrifying or you hated it and everyone involved. After making the film that resulted in the highest profit-to-cost ratio in the history of cinema, it would be an understatement to say that Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez had some tough expectations to live up to. 7 years later, half of the super duo (Sanchez) is back with a solid straight to DVD ditty that turns the tables on the standard alien abduction story.

There are a couple things you need for every good abduction movie: aliens of teh GREY variety(of course), abductees of the standard variety(preferably simpleton or rednecks), and the girlfriend who goes from skeptic to believer. All of those classic elements are right here. The twist is that this time, our simpleton/rednecks are the ones who did the abducting.

There was some room for a lot of psychological suspense and horror but it never quite manages to pull it off, even though it certainly comes close. Instead it regresses to our heroes being trapped in a small isolated location with a rampaging monster... something that has been done before. The characters are interesting enough to keep the scenario from feeling stale, and there is a great deal that is never clearly explained which is something I actually applaud the filmmakers for. I like movies that don't spell it all out. They say the devil is in the details and that is never more true than in horror, where that crisp explanation is where so many genre films turn dumb. This is not the case here.

Not to say this is high end art or intellectual entertainment. It is better than most direct to video horror and opens the doors for some fresh territory to be explored, something that alien abduction movies desperately need.

If you want to see abductees trying to go medieval on some alien ass, get yourself to the video store and and check out Altered which gets a "Way Decent" on the Mr. Blunderson scale. Also big props to Mr. Sanchez, who could have gone back to the well but had the balls to do something else.