By SHAWN MACOMBER
Starring Oran Stainbrook, Vincent Giovanni and Danny Fehsenfeld
Directed by Jorge Ameer
Written by Wayne Dees
Hollywood Independents
We are always manifesting our individual and collective reality, whether consciously or otherwise. This is a foundational premise upon which self-development culture, from mindset hackers to the proponents of the law of attraction, is built. But what if there were a darker side to these multilayered manifestations? What if our spiraling Information Age descent into vitriol and tribal hatred was quickly summoning a sinister force which threatened to not only permanently suffocate what Abraham Lincoln dubbed “the better angels of our nature” but, indeed, could create an extinction-level “viral” event that could end up completely out of our control?
Enter ALTERED PERCEPTIONS (premiering at next month’s Cannes Film Festival), an immersive, hypnotic, sometimes sprawling feature from director Jorge Ameer (MEDUSA, THE FAMILY TREE) and writer Wayne Dees. It explores these ideas as both a gritty, hyper-realistic DEAD ZONE-esque political/dystopian saga and an esoteric, interdimensional-by-way-of-the-supernatural thriller.
The premise, more directly stated: There is a rising epidemic of grisly murders and suicides with no clear catalyst–is it the compound interest of the copycat effect, a pathology or…something else? The painter working with his own blood in a remote cabin seems to suggest the latter when he summons a nude intergalactic prophet from the future. (Yes, you read that right.) Amidst all this, we meet Alex Feretti (Oran Stainbrook), a man trapped between more metaphorical worlds: As he gives a loving toast at the anniversary party of his famous neurologist father (Matt Fling) and novelist husband (Vincent Giovanni), Alex’s bigoted anti-science boss, Senator Ted DeMarcos (Danny Fehsenfeld), fumes in the wings, openly sharing his scapegoating belief that the epidemic can be traced back to LGBTQ and African-Americans run amok, as well as aftereffects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Alex believes he can thread this needle between his personal and professional lives–unaware, apparently, that he is situating himself as a Jack Burden to DeMarcos’ Willie Stark à la ALL THE KING’S MEN. But the stressors begin to pile up. First, the aforementioned nude intergalactic prophet starts following him around and insisting that if he doesn’t stop his employers, more than half the planet will perish within two years. Next, his boss starts setting up what are, for all practical purposes, concentration camps to house the already marginalized groups he hates–placing his dad in the crosshairs. And then shadowy supporters of DeMarcos begin planning an insurrection that will “make January 6 look like a beauty pageant.” The mayhem along the way is amplified via performances by some recognizable actors, including a wild, nasty turn from Eric Roberts in conjunction with genre vet Lynn Lowry (THE CRAZIES, SHIVERS) as well as Sally Kirkland and Lance Guest (HALLOWEEN II, JAWS: THE REVENGE). The familiar faces shaken up with the unfamiliar somehow helps heighten the kaleidoscopic nature of the whole film.
ALTERED PERCEPTIONS is many things, but subtle it is not. You will easily recognize its targets. The film’s amplification of today’s cultural and political climate–and well-intentioned Alex’s delayed wising up to the evils of self-serving complicity–is clearly put forward as a cautionary tale. The 18th-century philosopher Edmund Burke is often quoted (perhaps incorrectly) as having said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”; in ALTERED PERCEPTONS, Ameer suggests the triumph of evil is less about doing “nothing” than it is tied up with the belief, as mistaken as it is widespread, that individuals can tangentially participate in interlocking systems of oppression without wider consequence.
As tyranny bears down and Alex races against the clock to use his own inside knowledge to attempt to prevent the ultimate triumph of evil, we are given a harrowing and sobering window into a world where our complicity and prejudices manifest demons far too powerful for we their creators to slay. It’s an unpleasant but unfortunately necessary message for a nation and world teetering on the razor’s edge between darkness and light.
