The Occupant

The Good The performance of the actors and the chosen locations were very acceptable

The Bad Dialogue moved from bland to dull

The Ugly The script and story held a lot of potential which was either abandoned or ignored. Then the major plot holes that were never addressed so you never were sure if a plot hole was an abandoned plot point or not. A major point was the distance that the MC travels was both inconsistent and impossible to cover in the time given.

Hugo Keijzer offers us an interesting film that focuses on intrigue with science fiction overtones that immerses us in a personal reflection on letting go.

Starring Ella Balinska as Abby, a guilt-ridden geologist and engineer in transit from her remote mission, she survives a mysterious helicopter crash and must try to escape the harsh environment. But she's not alone . The film is a slow-burning thriller that takes its time between metaphors and science fiction to give us a well-crafted film that manages to hold our attention thanks to its perfect photography by Robbie van Brussel and its locations, in addition to the good work of its protagonist who completely surrenders to the drama her character is going through.

Its director is clever at blending the various genres at his disposal. While the film isn't verbose and has its lesser moments, it manages to deliver a story that captures our attention and makes us understand the final reflection proposed by its script, with an emotional final stretch. The great strength of the film's proposal is the multiple reflective layers with which the film weaves together this slow-burning story, while still keeping you attentive to everything happening on screen.

A rather interesting international effort that manages to deliver some good moments in a film worth giving a try. Well directed, well acted, and with a story that remains interesting, despite its simplicity. This thought-provoking journey and a harrowing premise make for a well-crafted survival thriller.

This is a weird movie. It felt to me like it was more of a vanity project than a movie made to entertain or make a profit. Its full of long picturesque shots of great scenery, snow, forest, and rock formations, but without much substance or any real depth. The misleading title bares little relevance to whats on offer, and the story is an odd combination of two notions that meld rather poorly.

It's a story essentially of loss, dealing with it and the pain of losing close emotional attachement. Unfortunately, the movie does this by meandering along a path that gets boring quickly and deludes into thinking theres going to be some sort of payoff somewhere, but sadly there isn't any.

The majority if of the movie is spent following our stunningly beautiful lead Ella Balinska as she treks across the wilderness. Very little happens, there's very little development save the flashbacks to her homelife and the short insights were given to her character.

To be fair it's not a terrible movie if you have almost two hours to spare. You could do worse, but its certainly not a good movie, less so an entertaining one. The begining suggests that there was a sci-fi themed thread at play, but this never really pans out. Even though the prelude did seem initially interesting, I was bored twenty minutes in, and this didn't really improve throughout the one hour and forty minute produciton.

There's only a handful of roles on offer here, and essentially the whole movie rests on the shoulders of one actor, Balinska, who to to be fair, gives a pretty solid performance, but it just isn't enough. The tale is a threadbare offering too long, and too abstract.

There is nothing of interest, no payoff and its not even an interesting watch.

In all honesty my advise is to give this one a miss. I don't like to be overly critical with my reviews but there just isn't anything on offer here.

3/10 is all I can manage.

Firstly, if you're looking for a sci-fi movie, this isn't one. I'm bewildered why it would be marketed as such. If anything, it's a wilderness survival movie, where every calamity that occurs is a result of the character making immensely dumb decisions. It's a movie that deals with guilt and mourning; but for no coherent reason and in a completely over-the-top manner.

Without giving spoilers, the movie is essentially just a string of glaring plot holes linked together with over-acting, ludicrously 'tense' music, and ridiculously inappropriate sentimentality. It's completely incoherent, and that does nothing to engage the viewer.

This is a huge miss. Don't waste 105 minutes on it.

Starts bleak and this theme continues all the way through. Depressing with a weak storyline. At times events seem random and irrelevant. Theres a random character thrown in half way through for some reason. Such a slow film. Very whimsical with a very anticlimactic ending. Save yourself the bother and don't bother.