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DVD Occupant
 Rating: 4.7 Genres: Thriller Director: Henry Miller Writers: Jonathan Brett Stars: Van Hansis, Cody Horn, Thorsten Kaye |
| Storyline 25 year old Danny Hill’s grandmother just died giving Danny the chance to move into her enormous rent controlled apartment in Manhattan. Danny must lock himself in for twelve days before he can take over the lease. There’s just one problem — he may not be the only occupant. Written by anonymous |
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| Details: Country: USA Release Date: 18 October 2011 (USA) |
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DVD Occupant
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Not recommended. This movie was slow and predictable. If you've seen the Shinning, then you have basically seen this movie. The acting was well done and there were some cool shots, but the actual plot is one that is constantly overdone. It never made me cringe and I rolled my eyes at the complete utter predictability of it. It's a waste of time. Really, it is. I have never looked at the clock so much during the movie, wondering when it was going to end.
And also, I am not a person that is usually good at predicting things, but this movie was so easy to predict. The other thing is, I didn't really like the main character, due to the way he was presented in the beginning, so the fact was that I didn't care at all as to what was going to happen to him made the movie even more boring. It was a well reviewed film by other users, which gave me the idea that it was original and well done. IT ISN'T.
OK, considering the plot about a guy who has to live 12 days in the flat of his recently deceased grandmother to be the legal tenant with a nice low rent in NYC no one would expect much. Sounds like a Scooby-Doo Movie with kids who have to sleep a night in a spooky house to win a bet.
So my expectations weren't high and I have to admit the first 40 Minutes had me positively surprised because the location and weird atmosphere keep you interested. So in the beginning you take the whole strangeness of that guy in his huge flat, isolated with only a strange Doorman helping him get his groceries as weird foreshadowings of eerie things unfolding. People appear in the flat, others disappear, there is a strange hole in the wall and the main character gets more and more paranoid regularly stamped with "Day X" on screen to count the 12 days and announcing some terrifying finale. So I give to the creators of the movie that they managed to create atmosphere with minimalism but that just falls apart after 40 Minutes because then the strange incidents get tedious and don't follow any build up. Many things don't make sense and are never explained until the guy suddenly (really pretty much out of the blue to me) snaps and delivers one bloody scene towards the end that follows the whole strangeness of the previous minutes perfectly but is totally incoherent and random… and cheap considering a 12 day build up and then having a guy snap some hours before his lawyer knocks at the door.
Spoiler alert…. If you go for the psychotic episode/its all just in your head motive don't drop red herrings all over the place that have no meaning whatsoever. After all the basic premise of granny dying with a horrified look on her face makes which is the base for everything here…. it makes no sense unless the whole family is genetically pre-disposed to schizophrenia.
So watch the first 40 Minutes, enjoy the weird atmosphere and then roll the dice to decide if its a Paranoid Psycho or Haunted House Movie. No matter what … this movie is totally random and the character development is ridiculous. There really are people randomly falling from the sky or appearing in the apartment dying of a heart-attack. When the credits roll you can't but feel cheated.
I watched this drivel on the strength of some of the reviews which I now see are obviously written by the crew/cast/director. Don't believe a word of the 10 star reviews as this film is utterly awful. It makes me laugh when I see the videos of rubbish like this and how glowing the cherry picked reviews are. But in reality they are poorly scripted, badly acted toss. The only part I enjoyed was the part with the door which I found rather amusing. This film is not like the Shining or Polanski it's just another worthless waste of film and peoples time. Not the worst film ever as there are better candidates for that here but one which is not worth 90 minutes of your time. Time better spent grouting the bathroom or lying on your back looking at the ceiling. Believe me both these activities will feel more rewarding than watching this pile of crap.
This guy decides to stay in an apartment for a month because somehow if he does he become the legal owner of it because his Grandma willed it to him and its awesome, huge and best of all rent-controlled so he'll be able to live there forever for a super cheap price.
The only catch is that he can't leave the apartment for an entire month because if he does somehow the landlord will be able to rent it to someone else because technically nobody would be living there (?).
Get it? I don't. But I like it because it is a perfect example how stupid and illogical real laws are in real life when it comes to real estate and what people have to do just to have a place to live at a decent price. I found this realistic. I could totally see this hateful stupid necessity happening in real life so I found the premise rather compelling.
Of course that is when the horror and madness starts. "Occupant" builds tensions and dread nicely while never becoming boring or repetitive which is quite an accomplishment for a tale that takes place almost entirely in an apartment.
Murder, madness and even maybe supernatural stuff ensue. The story builds in a way just enough to keep us intrigued while never fully answering what is happening.
Good stuff. Check it out.