The Occupants

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.

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.

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

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.

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.