Thursday, October 15, 2009

Altered


(2006) ***

A group of men who had previously been abducted and probed by aliens hunt down and capture one of them. They are holding it captive planning to torture it to death like they did to one of their friends but there is a hitch. If they kill the alien it will send a signal to all of it's buddies who will then come down bringing holy hell onto them. There is some arguing that goes on, the brother of the guy who was killed is hell bent on getting an eye for an eye. In the midst of this one guy's girlfriend calls the cops then gets mind controlled by the creature and cuts it's tethers. After it gets loose all hell breaks loose and the guys are in for a real fight.


This film is gripping right from the start. Unfortunately, it loses it's momentum somewhere in the middle. To be fair it does pick up again for the ending sequence. Although, for reasons I cannot explain without a spoiler the ending pissed me off a little bit. Maybe I'm just nitpicking, but it really goes up my ass when they tell you something is going to be a problem and they had the solution to it all along. It's insulting to my intelligence, they just assume everyone will miss this huge hole in the story.


As for the alien, he was pretty cool looking. Like if predator and one of those gray bug eyed aliens were to breed, this would be their green offspring. I couldn't find a better picture, I really need to get that screen grab thingy. It's got a head split thing going on and you can see it's brain a little. I never understood that concept, wouldn't exposed brain be a huge vulnerability? As a whole the film is a pretty cool concept and it is delivered well. A little spit and polish and this could have been a real winner. Still, a solid choice as creature flicks go.

3 comments:

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Wow. Could it be... an original idea?

Catfreeek said...

I think it might be, unless you count ET, Mork & Alf as kidnapping of an aliens.

Octopunk said...

What if they killed the alien and then all sauntered away, casually whistling? That's what I did.

What I'd do, is what I meant to say of course.

(Sound of retreating footsteps, casual whistling)

Malevolent

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