The Changed

Everyone's dumping on this movie like it's a college film student's final project gone wrong, but if you watch tons and tons of horror movies, you should know that this is a mostly competent film by comparison to the movies that were filmed on an iPhone 4.

Camera works is good, lighting is on point, performances are decent enough, and audio sounds good.

Where this movie falls short is that it feels more like a snippet of a bigger anthology movie, like something you'd see squeezed into one of the Creepshow films, or V/H/S anthologies as if someone told the filmmaker of this to "Make your segment like Body Snatchers", and this is what we got.

It's entertaining, but it feels like it's holding itself back. You can do SO much worse than this film though, so don't believe all of the 1/10 stars.

The acting is bad. It's shot in bad video. The script is horrendous. I'm not sure if anything could be saved. On second thought, yes, there is: it's only 78 minutes long, which on the other hand, is way too long.

Anyone who rated this film high is probably a part of the production. I am insanely generous to give it a 3 (but I just got some better antidepressants from my shrink). Avoid absolutely. Ab-so-lu-te-ly!

Everything about this movie was done very poorly. The acting, the script, the lighting, all horrible. Even the horror OG Tony Todd had a horribly boring character to play. Even if you're really bored, you'd be better off watching Nicole Kidman in Invasion. If you don't mind horror, an ultra low budget film done right: It Follows.

Granted, I figured that a movie that sounded like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and with Tony Todd on the cast list couldn't be all that bad, right? But while Tony Todd is somewhat of a horror icon, then he does have a lot, and I do mean a lot, of dubious movie titles to his name. So I wasn't exactly harboring much hopes for writers Matt Giannini and Michael Mongillo's 2021 sci-fi thriller "The Changed".

But since I do believe in giving a movie a fair chance, of course I opted to sit down and watch what director Michael Mongillo had to offer with "The Changed".

And it wasn't really a whole lot, let me just tell you that. Yeah, "The Changed" was sort of semi-watchable, but that was about it. Whereas the synopsis sounded interesting enough and lead me to think of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", the reality of "The Changed" was somewhat different. And not in a good way.

The storyline put together by Matt Giannini and Michael Mongillo was just not impressive. The movie was barely sufficiently capable of sustaining a single viewing. I managed to sit through the ordeal, but I wasn't impressed, and not particularly entertained. And not even Tony Todd did anything to lift up the ordeal that is "The Changed".

The acting performances in the movie were, for the most parts, actually fair enough. I was only familiar with Tony Todd of all the performers on the cast list.

Visually then there are no special effects worth mentioning in "The Changed". So don't get your hopes up for being in a for a visually astounding sci-fi thriller. It just ain't happening.

My rating of "The Changed" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

I recently watched The Changed (2021) on Tubi. The storyline follows a mysterious outbreak that transforms people into eerie, emotionless shells of their former selves. These infected individuals work to persuade others to join their ranks. A group of survivors hides in their home, capturing one of the infected in hopes of understanding their motives and finding a way out of their dire situation.

Directed by Michael Mongillo (The Wind), the film stars Clare Foley (Gotham), Tony Todd (Candyman), Jason Alan Smith (Before I Wake), Carlee Avers (Veronica Mars), and Doug Tompos (Masters of Sex).

While the concept shows promise, the execution leaves much to be desired. The movie heavily relies on a psychological cat-and-mouse game, with Tony Todd as the infected antagonist engaging in verbal battles with the uninfected. Though Todd delivers a strong performance and elevates the dialogue, the film suffers from its limited scope. Most of the runtime is confined to a single room, and the lack of dynamic action or meaningful interaction with other infected characters hinders the overall impact.

The infected design is solid and menacing, but the tension fizzles due to lackluster pacing and uninspired action sequences. The few shooting scenes fail to deliver the intensity the premise demands.

In conclusion, The Changed might appeal to Tony Todd fans, but it doesn't offer much beyond his performance. I'd score it a 3/10 and recommend it only for die-hard fans of the actor.