I am not much of an Alien / Sci-Fi type of movie fan, but every once in a while one strikes my fancy.  Now, since I am reviewing this…obviously it has to have some sort of horror theme to it; which luckily this one does.  Get ready boys and girls…its movie review time once again!

“Altered” is a very cool and stylish look at a group of friends who in the past had been abducted by aliens exacting revenge on their abductors…sort of.  We actually don’t see the abduction, but we hear about it from the characters which helps create a very ominous tone.  There was not a lot of money behind this film, but it really didn’t need much anyway.  The cool thing that I liked about this movie was its simplicity.  The important details and story lines are revealed slowly through each characters memory and dialog; there was no need for over-the-top special effects, flashbacks and nonsense.

Pretty much the plot of the movie is a bunch of friends somehow capture an alien and bring it to their estranged friends house to incite some revenge and brutality.  The old friend has a back story that I don’t want to spoil for you but all the friends were abducted by the aliens and used as lab rats.  When they went public with the story, no one believed them and one friend told the press it was all fake; even though it was very much real.

The movie is filled with suspense and scares, there is a good amount of blood and gore and the acting is actually very good for a lower budget film.  The alien is pretty decent looking but in all actuality, it didn’t have to look amazing because the film focuses more on the characters interacting with each other than the actual alien.  I am not saying the alien doesn’t play a big role in the movie because it does, but since it is more character driven, that is what separates it from the shitty films played over and over on the sci-fi channel.  By the way, has there ever been a good Sci-Fi channel original movie?  I doubt it.

There are a few things I didn’t like about the movie such as one scene were the gore and kill scene got a little absurd.  I mean, I am all for a cool kill scene and I like people to be inventive, but sometimes less is more.  Just like Women’s lingerie…less is definitely more. 

For instance, there is a scene were a man’s intestines are ripped out by the alien and while he screamed on the floor he was trying to collect all his innards and stuff them back into his body like that would make things better.  Stop it, that was just kind of cheesy and corny, but it was something I got over pretty quick.  That ridiculous scene didn’t cause the train to derail in my mind.

This movie had me entertained and interested the entire time and I thought the filmmaker did a fantastic job.  This is a very different movie compared to Alien, Event Horizon, Body Snatchers and Invasion…because it has a real human element.  I would suggest anyone who likes a good movie to check this one out, even if you aren’t a big horror fan.