An inquiry into a murder that happened during the testing of the drug intended to alter perceptions ("legalized 'shrooms) reveals some serious concerns about testing on three couples with histories of domestic conflict on which the drug was bound increase preexisting hostility. Attorney Andrew (CASTLE's Jon Huertas) and his wife Lorie (Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, THE DIVIDE) have issues with her past as a prostitute - with each adamant that the other is the one with the problem - while gay couple Claudia (Aileen Burdock) and Beth (Nichola Fynn) have trust issues over whether Beth slept with or was raped by Claudia's brother Matthew (Matthew Ziff), and the suspicions and jealousy of Kristina (Jade Tailor) are driving her producer husband Steven (Emrhys Cooper) towards cheating on or leaving her. After injections of varying doses, with one receiving a placebo, the couples are sent home to record video diaries of their progress. As the panel raises ethical issues about informed consent and as to whether the study took into account undiagnosed conditions, the doctors insist that the videos demonstrate why they did not stop the test as some of the test subjects become physically aggressive and others more paranoid, and one is pushed towards murder. Opening and closing with lengthy quotations from a Forbes article about the ethics of pharmaceutical testing, ALTERED PERCEPTIONS - written by WHITE COLLAR creator Travis Romero, actress Blanc-Biehn, and actor Huertas - is not so much a found footage horror film or thriller as a sort of muddled cautionary tale that is most successful during the video diary segments and less so during the panels in which both the scientists seem negligently incompetent and the bloviating panel members sound like conspiracy theorists. The moodswings of the couples do keep the viewer off balance and the film ultimately does ratchet up the suspense as we wonder who received the placebo and which one will turn into a killer. Performances can be uneven but the cast is interesting in its giving a center stage opportunity for actors who either are still paying their dues in episodic television and the more seasoned performers fashioning their own vehicle for exposure.