Altered Skin

Not a good movie to watch for especially the title of the movie first suggests me of a zombie movie but it is a changing skin movie that is altered the movie has no horror in it.

I know, from the poster, the plot, you definitely would expect a zombie movie right? Is it a bad thing if one of these such productions would focus less on gore and more on something else, like Altered Skin did?

Sadly, the case here managed to show a movie that mostly felt like someone was just followed around with a camera, without any idea what the next step is, just rolling with what they got: a conspiracy movie, and barely anything else. Zombies will appear on screen little over 5 minutes total, the rest relies solely on a quest to find out the truth, even tho it is revealed from the very start of the movie.

It has no tension, it doesn't build into anything, it feels so empty, I couldn't believe my eyes. Close to no action whatsoever. I can not possibly recommend this, as it is one of the most boring movies I've seen all year.

Cheers!

I can appreciate what the filmmakers were trying to do here: combine elements of a zombie horror film with those a conspiracy movie and of the story of a husband desperately trying to save his wife, all set against an unusual, if not exotic, backdrop: Orangi Town, which is near Karachi, the capital of Pakistan, and has the dubious distinction of being the largest slum in the world.

But somehow I felt the various elements diluted instead of complementing each other: there was some zombie horror, but not enough to compete with more usual zombie fare and it almost felt "added on"; the conspiracy story was so-so (my gold standard for conspiracy movies is those 70s paranoid thrillers like "Parallax View" and "3 days of the the Condor", from which this film could have taken some lessons), and the various flashbacks to highlight the husband's relationship with his wife (who is in a coma for most of the movie) tended to grind the movie to a halt.

Indeed, what probably hurts the movie most is its slow pace. It is less then 80 minutes long but feels longer. I have the impression that the director wanted to give it a bit of a contemplative air, but it did not work.

Also, while there were some nice aerial shots of Orangitown (leading me to believe that the director wanted it to be quasi like a character itself in the movie), the cinematography was largely uninspired.

This had the potential to be a much better movie, but the IMDb rating as of this writing (3.2) is totally undeserved.

The Pakistan locations provide an exotic backdrop for this effective infection/"zombie" horror thriller. There are some impressive special effects on display, and the cast are great.