The Occupants (2014) User Reviews (13)

Started Off Nicely, But Then...

[mojoguzzi-879-68498 · 5/10 · 22 June 2014]

I was really excited by the beginning of this film. It was obviously a low budget effort but it was well directed. The casting was excellent, and most of the performances were as well. I personally find Cristin Milioti captivating, ever since seeing her play Johnny Sac's daughter on The Sopranos.

The story was wonderfully creepy for the first half. Unfortunately as it dragged on it started getting cluttered with half-developed ideas that teased but never really delivered.

It'll be interesting to see what this director does next. He showed enough here to warrant a second chance. Hopefully it'll be better developed.

The Occupants

[a_baron · 3/10 · 24 March 2015]

What do you tell a young mother who sees ghosts in her house, that she is perhaps under stress, dreaming, confabulating? What happens when her husband sees them too? Lucy works as a counsellor, and while her other half wants them to vacate what is obviously their dream home complete with security fence, she believes the night visitors are not regular apparitions, as in dead people, but a living family that is in desperate need of terrestrial assistance. She confides in a colleague - and former lover - who thinks she is gaga, and refuses to give her any practical help, although he does suggest she seeks help of the psychiatric kind.

After her decision to stay put, things get worse, a lot worse. Was it really such a good idea to bring in a psychic? Unfortunately, this initially promising film soon loses its way. Lucy may indeed have gone gaga by the end, but this is so confusing you don't really know what she has done, what has happened, what is real, what is not, who is the bad guy, and if he is really a demon. Don't waste your time on this one.

Bland and unimpressive supernatural-themed thriller

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 4/10 · 10 July 2014]

After moving into a new house, a woman and her husband find the place haunted by the violent tragedy of the former occupants of the house and try to stop those actions from happening to them and her new baby.

This here is a really weak and overall bland thriller disguised as a horror film. The biggest issue with this one is the fact that the central premise is nothing to really get worked up over, and it shows in the reactions of the characters. The primary focus is one the shots of the woman losing her mind over the events that transpire, yet none of what happens early on in this is enough to warrant such actions to take place and even worse off, doing so with the rather bland happenings that this goes through being just so unnecessary and uninviting that the reactions to them are completely unrelated to the events portrayed. That these in turn lead into the film's main segment being a series of investigations into whatever happened to the previous owners is so boring and lifeless that after such a troubling opening it sucks the energy out of the movie from there with endless scenes of her going over documents and papers that fill up time so that it's just so hard to stay invested in the movie as a whole from there on. The main subplot about these scenes is the film's second biggest issue, the constant referrals to the counselor friend she thinks is taking advantage of her yet is the first person she goes to whenever there's a bump in the night or a weird flash-vision she has, and despite every attempt to the contrary to make us believe he's some sort of creepy psychopath, he comes off as calm and level-headed about the situation while she rants and raves like a maniac then turns the tables back on him saying he's the one trying to screw her around. This happens a good three or four times after a conversation saying that she'll have nothing to do with him, so this in fact becomes extremely troubling and confusing as to why this goes on. Since the film earlier made mention of the fact that the supernatural haunting actions were unwarranted of the extreme reactions taken, that in turn brings up the fact that the majority of the supernatural going on here is really not that scary and oftentimes just plain dull, with a few somewhat decent scares here including the appearance of a demonic face on the wall hidden behind a poster, the ghostly visions of women running around the house and the ominous threat of violence depicted towards the infant son which does have a hint of believability to it, yet whatever happens is then undone by the absolutely ridiculous finale that makes no sense and undermines the general plot of what came before it. These are really enough problems to lower this one significantly.

Rated R: Violence, Language, children-in-jeopardy and a shadowy sex scene.

It Might Put You To Sleep Rather Than Occupy Your Time

[nebk · 2/10 · 8 July 2014]

There is not much to be said about this film. It's not the worst out there but it's near the bottom of the barrel. I wouldn't recommend it.

It is about a woman called Clare who has a new husband and baby and they are living in a new house. She is a social worker and seems to have a fulfilling job and a perfect family life. Her husband has a nightmare about a beaten woman, and then Clare starts seeing her as well as two other apparitions in the house. The house then becomes haunted by them, I.e. The Occupants. Clare tries getting help from her colleague and ex-lover Glenn. He doesn't believe her. Her and her husband then research the history of the house trying to find out if anyone was murdered there. She calls a psychic who feels no presence in the house. She tries getting help from her babysitter who tells her about demons. Things get worse and we find out that Clare was adopted after her father killed her mother and sister. These are in fact the apparitions she has been seeing. She also doesn't have a husband as she imagined him and her child's father is in fact her ex who has been spying on her in order to get her evidence of this and help her. She kills him and then herself. The baby is placed in the care of Clare's sister. The End.

Overall an unimaginative film with a weak story and mediocre acting. The first twenty minutes is bearable as we don't yet know what is going on, but then the movie drags out to its uninspired and predictable ending. It tries to mix psychological and supernatural horror and ends up being ineffective and bland instead. Don't waste your time on this, rather watch Insidious, Sinister, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity or The Others. Each of them is better than the occupants.

Not for me

[SSK9030 · 2/10 · 20 June 2019]

Prime kicked me out after about 15 minutes as if it could tell how I felt about the movie. The special effects on the ghost were pretty outdated which was consistent with the spirit of the script I'd watched so far. When the babysitter started weighing in on Jesus and ghosts, the movie started feeling like the haunted houses churches create on Halloween. It was at that point Prime was done with the movie and so was I. I won't be finishing it.

Shockingly bad writing

[millie_duffield · 1/10 · 23 April 2019]

It's like someone wrote a first draft of a script and then nobody checked it

When the occupants become bored...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 15 May 2017]

It is no secret that I do enjoy the horror genre, and often sit down to watch just about anything that falls within this genre. And when I happened to find "The Occupants", I must admit that I was initially lured in by the movie cover/poster, because it did seem like it could have potential as a slasher movie. Little did I know that this was actually a supernatural ghost movie.

However, I didn't manage to make it more than 35 minutes into this movie before I tossed the towel in the ring. I did so out of what can best be described as utter and complete boredom. From what I managed to sit through, I was nowhere near being entertained or being impressed. And I can honestly say that I have no intention of returning to finish the rest of the movie.

The characters in the movie were one-dimensional and rigid, which didn't really help the movie one bit. And the dialogue wasn't particularly thrilling either.

"The Occupants" had the level of acting which was to be expected from a movie of this sort, for better or worse.

If you enjoy horror movies, then there are far better choices available. I can't really think of a single reason for recommending that you actually take the time or the effort to sit through this ordeal of a movie.

Don't bother

[franjames-58730 · 2/10 · 15 August 2020]

Started well enough, unfortunately ----acting bad, direction bad, script absolutely awful. Story couldn't be fathomed out. I have never watched a movie with a score of 3.7. Having now done so -- I won't do it again.

Good Ending

[chickinjeans · 8/10 · 13 April 2021]

I actually really enjoyed this movie. It's not the worst acting ever and the music kinda kills the mood but of all the lower rated films I've seen, this one deserves more credit than it gets.

Too many ideas, perhaps.

[parry_na · 6/10 · 1 May 2020]

Lucy (Cristin Milioti) has a new husband Wade (Michael Rady), a new baby and a new house. Luckily, these characters are all appealing and not portrayed as overtly schmaltzy or horny, as often newlyweds are in films like this. These main players are supported by an equally inoffensive bunch - Lucy's distant sister, her ex-boyfriend therapist (to whom she continually confides) and Christian babysitter. For once, the practice of religion is not used as a mask for repressed villainy, which is a nice change. Equally, the psychic drafted in to explain Lucy's ghostly apparitions is little more than an entirely useless cameo. It is interesting that the male character seems often to be a focus for spooky malignancy, instead of the female.

Against these refreshing developments is an over-cluttering of ideas, many of which emerge only partially developed. They serve not to spice up a plot that has been attempted before, but to confuse it. The threat once revealed, isn't terribly menacing, his crimes only thinly sketched. That the characters often speak in hushed tones that are only vaguely audible doesn't help matters.

So this is ultimately a mixed bag with perhaps too much going on. The perennial threat that 'the abused becomes the abuser', Lucy's dread, is nicely ominous, but a large twist towards the end changes things somewhat. I'll say no more than that! It is up to the individual as to whether this big reveal works - personally, I liked it. My score is 6 out of 10.

Ghost story or commentary?

[zoegraceli18 · 8/10 · 13 November 2014]

SPOILER! I discuss the rabbit in the hat. Hop away if you haven't seen this film!! The Occupants provided an interesting perspective on the ghost story sub-genre. I think the disappointment some viewers had was that they expected more of the same, more of the tropes and tricks that genre presents. I enjoyed the way it portrayed their daily life; which, unfortunately, is sometimes boring. So it sagged a bit in the middle, and we viewers are led into a false sense of complacency. The protagonist as murderer was the cleverest part, and I was genuinely surprised. The actress was excellent in the role, and very pretty. Most of the secondary characters were written flatly, and they end up being ghosts in my memory. I think I wanted more flash and color, more music, etc. But I also think this was a commentary on so many of these movies. They just don't have the impact that a monster or killer movie has, but they feel much more real. This movie felt very real, and that probably made it less cinematic. The ending was maybe too sudden and jarring, but if the purpose was to make you work to understand, it succeeded. I recommend it.

I CAN FIX THIS

[nogodnomasters · 8/10 · 6 October 2018]

Lucy (Cristin Milioti) has a wonderful life with Wade (Michael Rady) an idea husband and they also have a child. Lucy works for Glen (James Urbaniak) counseling abused women. She was once a patient of Glen's and their doctor/patient relationship got too personal.

Lucy and Wade both see ghosts in their house. It is an abused family and Lucy believes she can fix it. Lucy employs a "Jesus Freak" babysitter who talks about demonic possession. Meanwhile there is a man, who is not a ghost sneaking around outside the house taking photos. Lucy also has a sister who stays distant from her.

The ghosts become more formidable as things go on. If you haven't figure things out in the first hour with the over abundance of clues, they will tell you most of it at that point.

The twist was not unexpected and has been used in a number of films which I won't name. Things come together rather neatly at the end. A well done thriller, perhaps done too often.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs, brief sex, no nudity.

Low budget but really good

[daniellerose-41735 · 8/10 · 15 April 2022]

A nice surprise for a lower budget movie. The story was great, the acting was actually good!, And you could connect with the characters. Unlike most movies I want to turn off because the "woman" is made out to be an unfit psychopathic mother, the dad, too, is onboard. What a relief! I detest movies where the woman is perceived by all but you, the watchers, to be a crazy new mom whose hormones must be to blame. The husband shares her horrors so I was able to continue watching. Could it have been better? Sure, money tends to make anything better, does it not? Was it great for the bugdet? Yes it was.