Altered Reality

Just watched Altered Reality. It was a genre-bending, emotional rollercoaster that blends ghost stories, time travel, and a cautionary tale about what really matters in life.

What starts as a peaceful family retreat quickly spirals into haunted hotel secrets, miracle drugs, and a mysterious ex-con with a hidden agenda. It's an interesting film that took some time to resonate with me before taking me on a ride about love, loss, and redemption when life takes a surreal turn.

Also, it was touching to see a brief but memorable cameo from the legendary Ed Asner. I believe this was one of his final on-screen appearances, which made it all the more special considering I loved watching him when I was younger.

If you're into supernatural twists, unexpected sci-fi, and stories that pull on your heartstrings, this one might be worth adding to your watchlist if you are looking for something off the beaten commercial path.

Altered Reality caught me off guard in a good way. What starts as a quiet story about a man revisiting a family vacation spot quickly unravels into a supernatural mystery with time travel, ghostly secrets, and the kind of emotional twists you don't see coming.

Oliver's journey from ordinary businessman to the center of a cosmic-level miracle (and disaster) feels both surreal and oddly relatable. It's about what happens when you get everything you thought you wanted... but lose what really matters.

The story is packed with eerie moments and unexpected turns (yes, even a ghost from the 1600s who might know more about the future than you'd expect). And while it was only a brief appearance, seeing Ed Asner on screen brought a quiet, meaningful weight to it all, like a moment of wisdom dropped in at just the right time.

It's definitely quirky. It's heartfelt.

And it leaves you thinking about what you'd do if you could rewrite your own story.

I wonder if the filmmaker attempted to make a supposedly unintended cult movie on account of its laughability (ala The Room).

The whole storyline was implausible, confusing, and did not hang together. The acting was completely unconvincing starting by the main actor who was also the director and producer. The only actor whose performance was half way descent was the old man, but I have no clue why they even needed him for the story.

The screenplay attempted to involve too many different things that only convoluted the plot without reason. There were major storyline parts that were missing in order to tell a cohesive story. The worst part was the filmmakers didn't miss a single opportunity to hit all clichés on the way to the dumpster-fire!

Give the movie credit. Thinking back on it it has somewhat a concept straight out of a Steven King novel, but it would have been better if King himself at leased outline the story.

Stories about Time Travel can be hard to do especially when you are trying to be cleaver about it.

I can't say that I did not understand what was happening in the movie so its not confusing, but maybe confusion would have served the movie better as their was not much excitement to it.

If you don't understand what I'm getting at from this review than you understand how I feel about this movie. It's not a bad movie, but it left me pondering on weather it was worth it.

While I had not heard about this 2024 thriller prior to sitting down and watching it here in 2025, I needed no persuasion to watch it. Why? Well, it was a movie that I hadn't already seen, and the movie had some nice talents on the cast list.

Writer Charles Agron put together a sluggishly paced narrative that failed to capture my interest. And I ended up with my phone in my hand instead of paying attention to the screen. But I just had zero interest in the narrative and the characters on the screen.

The movie does have some good talents on the cast list, with the likes of Lance Henriksen, Tobin Bell and Edward Asner. Despite the fact that the script was rubbish, the acting performances were still fair.

"Altered Reality" was a swing and a miss and it failed to entertain me. It was, hands down, too boring and uneventful. I managed to endure a staggering 36 minutes of absolute nonsense before I tossed the towel in the ring and gave up on the movie.

As for this being a thriller? Well, I suppose is a narrative of absolutely nothing interesting counts as being thrilling, then by all means...

My rating of director Don E. FauntLeRoy's 2024 movie "Altered Reality" lands on a two out of ten stars.