Altered Species (2001)

Director:

Miles Feldman

Writer:

Serge Rodnunsky (writer)

Release Date:

1 September 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

They thought their experiments would change mankind ... they were wrong.

Plot:

On a moonlit night, in a remote research laboratory, a major medical breakthrough is about to have deadly results...

Plot Keywords:

Rat | Laboratory | Basement | Sink | Professor

Cast

Allen Lee Haff	...	Walter
Leah Rowan	...	Alicia
Guy Vieg	...	Professor Irwin
Robert Broughton	...	Douglas
Richard Peterson	...	Gary
Derek Hofman	...	Burke
Alexandra Townsend	...	Chelsea
David Bradley	...	Frank

Directed by
Miles Feldman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Serge Rodnunsky		writer

Produced by
William Burke	....	line producer
Matt Cunningham	....	associate producer
Cyndy Johnson	....	line producer
Serge Rodnunsky	....	producer

Original Music by
Evan Evans

Cinematography by
Pierre Chemaly

Film Editing by
Miles Feldman
John Garry		(as John P. Garry III)
David A. Hoffman		(as David Hoffman)

Production Design by
Mara A. Spear

Art Direction by
Shane John

Costume Design by
Deborah Ceballos

Makeup Department
Judi Lewin	....	key makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Cyndy Johnson	....	second assistant director

Art Department
T. Brett Lindsey	....	set dresser: reshoots
Terri Webster	....	set dresser (as Terri A. Webster)

Sound Department
Andy Marshall	....	boom operator
Chris Waisanen	....	sound mixer

Visual Effects by
Kyle J. Healey	....	digital producer

Stunts
Bob Bragg	....	stunt coordinator
Shane Franklin	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Pauline Edwards	....	camera loader
Tim Hermann	....	assistant camera (as Tim Herrman)
David Kiser	....	assistant camera
Nick Liampetchakul	....	key grip
Mark Mayer	....	best boy electric
Marshall Rao	....	gaffer
Sarge Roberts	....	best boy grip (as Dale 'Sarge' Roberts)
Ryan Sims	....	grip
John Van Valkenburgh	....	electrician
Juan Vargas	....	grip (as Juan P. Vargas)

Music Department
Eric Hester	....	composer: additional music
Alex Kharlamov	....	composer: additional music
Dan Kolton	....	composer: additional music

Other crew
Chris Higgs	....	production assistant
Erica Michaels	....	body double: Ms. Townsend
Andre D. Munoz	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Rojak Films

Distributors

• Barnholtz Entertainment
• Showcase Entertainment

Also Known As:

Rodentz (Canada: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence/gore and some sexuality.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15 | USA:R (Certificate #39934) | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Rojak Films

Mutant rats killing people have never looked so bad...

Well then. I just watched an crap-load of movies--all with varying degrees of quality. I wasn't too sure about which one I wanted to review first. Then it hit me like a sack-a-rats: Rodentz. Warn people about Rodentz. This monstrosity stars nobody and is painfully dull to sit through. And it's about mutant rats killing people. Yeah... real freaking' original. "Food of the Gods," or "Willard" anyone? Those were better than this, and that doesn't say much...

**POSSIBLE SPOILER**Okay here's the story: Inna laboratory the scientist and his plucky assistant are experimenting on rats and their laboratory is in a crappy neighborhood and crappy building and the plucky assistant's moronic friends show up drunk and everyone becomes food for the crazed rats and just about everybody dies and, oh yeah, there's one giant rat that looks crappy, but it gets killed, the end. There, all in once sentence! Spoiler, you say? Ppfff!! I beg to differ! The second we all realize that there's a giant rat, we all know it's gonna die eventually!!**END SPOILER**

Here's the breakdown:

The Good:

--Well, I watched it for free, but for everyone else... hmmm, no. There's nothing good here.

Didn't Hurt It, Didn't Help:

--Um... well. the gore was decent. --Very average cinematography.

--CG rats not as bad as they could've been in some shots...

The Bad:

--...and in other shots, the CG rats were pathetically cheap-looking. Look, if your film has a low budget, maybe you shouldn't rely on CG. Lesson to take to heart.

--The acting is extremely poor.

--The characters are beyond uninteresting--we have a mish-mash of clichés and none of them are even done that well.

--Booooooooooooring.

--Been done before--plenty of times.

--Stupid story, just stupid.

--Giant rat looks like fat man in poorly conceived bear costume--that was kind of funny--but not funny enough to give this film any worth.

--Retarded, unrealistic, and boring dialog.

--All the college student rat chow people are drinking Tequila from huge plastic milk jugs--and yet they don't appear to be drunk for anything longer than a few seconds. Way to stick with continuity, guys.

The Ugly:

--This film is bad. Simply terrible. Worse than you might imagine. It's not even laughably bad like, for instance, "Scarecrow" (2002) or "House of the Dead." Now those movies are crap you can enjoy. Even if they do make you stupider.

Memorable Scene:

--The lame action-movie ending, complete with uninjured heroes and explosion. Because it didn't feel at all like the rest of this monstrosity--but still sucked.

Acting: 2/10 Story: 1/10 Atmosphere: 2/10 Cinematography: 4/10 Character Development: 0/10 Special Effects/Make-up: 4/10 Nudity/Sexuality: 1/10 (I was tending to my son occasionally during the film, so I may have missed it, but was supposedly in there) Violence/Gore: 4/10 Dialogue: 2/10 Music: 1/10 (average for the time) Writing: 1/10 Direction: 2/10

Cheesiness: 7/10 Crappiness: 9/10

Overall: 1/10

Watch it only if you love rat and vermin-based horror films. Wait... Check that. Don't watch it. It's crap.

(www.ResidentHazard.com)