While caring for his ailing wife, an American engineer in Pakistan stumbles upon a deadly pharmaceutical conspiracy. The first film of its type to be shot on location in Karachi, Altered Skin brings a fresh cultural take to the zombie epidemic.
Ever since Danny Boyle introduced us to the “rage virus”, there has been a marked trend of framing the zombie movie as more of a viral outbreak thriller than the old-school creature feature conventions that initially kicked off the genre. In Altered Skin, the directorial debut of visual-effects artist Adnan Ahmed, the virus has spread throughout Pakistan, where American expat Craig Evans (Robin Dunne) desperately needs to find a cure for his wife.
As the outbreak becomes more widespread, a local pharmaceutical company called Ingenec develops a drug in the form of a patch to temporarily ward off the symptoms of flying into a murderous, bloodthirsty rage. But the infected all eventually succumb to the disease in the end and once Craig’s wife, a doctor herself, moves into the advanced stages, they have no choice but to induce a coma. Fearing all hope may be lost, he is suddenly contacted by the wife of a missing journalist who had been investigating Ingenec’s shady practices, plunging Craig into a dangerous pharmaceutical conspiracy.