Altered (film)

Altered is the story of four men who seek revenge on aliens, who abducted them and murdered their friend many years ago. As is explained via dialogue throughout the film, fifteen years before the events shown in the film, a group of five friends living in a remote American town were captured and experimented on by aliens while on a hunting trip. Only four of the friends returned alive.

The main character (Wyatt) has since distanced himself from his childhood friends and is shown to have decided to live with the past, albeit in apparent constant paranoia. Two of the remaining three characters, however, have been obsessed by revenge and have persuaded the remaining character that this is the correct course of action to take. The story opens with the tracking and subsequent capture of a lone alien—the consequences of which Wyatt and the three friends soon become deeply involved in.

• Paul McCarthy-Boyington as Cody
• Brad William Henke as Duke
• Michael C. Williams as Otis
• Adam Kaufman as Wyatt
• Catherine Mangan as Hope
• James Gammon as Sheriff Tom Herderson
• Joe Unger as Mr. Towne

Critical reception for Altered was mixed; Cinema Crazed gave the film a positive review, praising the "good old fashioned special effects mixed with wicked gore",[2] while Reel Film was more ambivalent, suggesting that the film was "a little too talky for its own good, [but] practically a horror masterpiece when compared to some of its straight-to-video brethren."[3] Roger Moore at the Orlando Sentinel was underwhelmed, reflecting that "too many of the arguments are whispered, too many settings are missing the horrific atmosphere the movie requires,"[4] and Scott Weinberg at DVD Talk described the film as "kind of a mixed bag: half chintzy and raw, half interesting and semi-creepy."[5]

Kaufman starred in Taken, a 2002 television miniseries that also features alien abductions and alien implants that are used as tracking devices.[6]

• Official Site
• Altered at IMDb
• Altered at AllMovie