DIY science fiction gets lost in its message

The low-budget style of tireless indie filmmaker Jorge Ameer takes a step back with an uneven supernatural political critique.

You might think, looking at Jorge Ameer’s Altered Perceptions , that it’s the work of a novice filmmaker who hasn’t quite figured out the basics yet. In reality, this low-budget sci-fi film is Ameer’s twelfth narrative feature since 1994, and while it deserves to be graded on a curve alongside other low-budget indies, it also represents an aesthetic step backward for the DIY creator.

Announcing itself as a work of fiction from its opening (along with a rising death toll, due to an unnamed virus, that regularly reaches 80 billion), “Altered Perceptions” is set in a clearly realistic political scene, albeit one that features a fantastical pathogen that turns people violent. Ameer’s films, sci-fi or not, have always been flaunting their queerness, and his latest is no exception, though its political implications rarely run deeper than cartoonish nastiness.

As the viral disease spreads, a similar political conspiracy unfolds in the upper echelons of Texas power, told through the eyes of Senate aide Alex Feretti (Oran Stainbrook). The son of a gay neuroscientist (Joseph DeMatteo), Alex also helps deeply racist and homophobic politician Ted Demarcos (Danny Fehsenfeld), a thinly veiled Ted Cruz (though not as subtly disguised as Ron San Diego, Ron DeSantis’s doppelganger in the film). Demarcos first makes his objections to gay people known to the audience at Alex’s father’s wedding, though everyone in the scene seems well aware of his intolerance. Watching this and other long, talky sequences unfold involves a fair amount of disbelief when it comes to who is where and why they say the things they do, though those questions are at least fun to parse when Alex is visited by a naked Terminator-style figure (Joseph DeMatteo) claiming to be from the future.

The would-be time traveler’s warnings about Demarcos’s plans are a continuation of what’s already happening around the world, with localized outbreaks of violence that conservative politicians blame on everything from blackness to queerness to the COVID-19 vaccine. That “Altered Perceptions” takes such a direct stance against far-right disinformation is intriguing, but its methodology is less so, despite its initial promise. A handful of early scenes hint at something inventive in terms of framing and editing, between socially distanced news broadcasts that seem to repeat and rewind, and a prologue (one of several) involving a painter convinced that a being or presence is infecting his television.

However, these apparent metaphors of propaganda and paranoia nestled in the strangeness of science fiction soon give way to routine dialogue scenes that go on and on, repeating the same information ad nauseam. The film was written by neuropsychologist Wayne Dees, but his insights into the workings of the human mind begin and end with vague references to the virus altering perception in a manner bordering on insanity. Once this is first established—in a speech accompanied by a well-edited impressionistic montage that runs the gamut of lived experience—it is simply repeated in words, with no sense of discovery or narrative transformation.

At two hours long, Altered Perception quickly becomes difficult to watch, despite its comic detours (one of them, which is overly self-explanatory before disappearing, features Eric Roberts). Whereas Ameer’s previous works have at least featured sordid (or at least motivated) lighting touches, his latest film seems to have foregone such decisions, opting for a flat, unengaging appearance, with more effort devoted to an eerie score reminiscent of ’50s sci-fi. The film is at least sonically effective on occasion, but the music is the only element of its sound that feels remotely polished or professional; the dialogue is, at times, very hard to hear.

With its arguments about extremism and disinformation made early on, the film drags through its plot with drawn-out, repetitive exchanges that are likely to force even the most forgiving viewers to mentally tune out. It’s a shame, because there are hints of poignant character drama in the final minutes—involving Alex spending time with her father’s new husband, played by Ameer’s former collaborator Peter Cardenas, as the world falls apart—but by then, it’s too little, too late.