By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 2/16/24 – The dictionary defines altered reality as an artificial experience that consists of images, sounds and even sensations, created by an operating system that is driven by the individual experiencing the reality.
Today, moviegoers will experience just that when director Don E. Fauntleroy’s latest film, supernatural thriller Altered Reality, hits movie screens. And this is a film that delivers that sensory experience to the highest degree.
Starring genre superstars Tobin Bell and Lance Henriksen, with Charles Agron and the late Edward Asner, the film will immerse audiences in a world where reality takes some harrowing bends, the shadows hold secrets, and the line between good and evil becomes very blurred.
Agron, who wrote the screenplay and produced the film along with Armand Gazarian, stars as Oliver Cook, a man whose reality become severely altered when he reconnects with Jack, the old caretaker from his past, at Spring Manor.
Jack approaches Oliver with an impossible task, but when Oliver rebuffs him, Jack suddenly vanishes, leaving Oliver a gift – a medicine that doesn’t yet exist.
Oliver takes the pills, not realizing that in doing so, he unwittingly enters a pact with Jack and an unscrupulous business partner. But Oliver’s newfound fortune and notoriety are short-lived as his daughter disappears on a family outing at the Manor.
Oliver is beyond devastated and he longs for his life before the mysterious medicine thrusts him into the spotlight, and he embarks on a journey to solve the mystery of his daughter’s disappearance, while confronting moral dilemmas and the supernatural.
Agron said time has always been an important subject, and that fascination with it was the inspiration for Altered Reality.
“You know, it’s interesting. Time has always been an important concept to me,” Agron said in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Times. “It’s one of our most precious gifts and one of those gifts that I think people take for granted. I’ve always kind of toyed in my mind with the concept of how I could infuse it into my filmmaking.”
Click below to see our exclusive interview:
Agron, who also penned the screenplays for 2014’s “Dark House” and 2016’s “Monday at 11:01 A.M.,” on which he worked with Henrickson, who he said was the first person he took his script to for the part of Jack, the groundskeeper.
“Lance is a brilliant actor,” Agron said. “You can learn more working with him in five minutes on the set than you could in years doing other things. … He really does keep you on your feet as you’re performing against him, and I think that is why our scenes are so dynamic and sometimes anxiety-filled, and I mean that as bringing up the pressure points of the film plots.”
“Altered Reality” is a gripping supernatural thriller that explores greed, themes of redemption, family, and the choices we make, as it keeps you guessing until the end. “Altered Reality,” which also stars Alyona Khmara, Krista Dane Hoffman, and Kayla Adams, was filmed on location Georgia.
“Time is our most precious gift and it’s something that most people take for granted,” he said. “Your decisions impact your future, but you can’t go back if you make a mistake. The past, present, and future is all existing at the same time.”.
As a limited released, “Altered Reality” will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. The film will screen at 20 theaters around the greater Los Angeles area on Friday. Consult your local theater listings for showtimes and ticket information.
“I’ve built characters that are grounded and unique with particular personalities,” he said. “I want people that watch my movies to think after they walk out of the theater. Hopefully, that happens with Altered Reality.”
