Occupant

I loved this VERY scary psychological thriller. I always like it when I feel like the movie is a step ahead of me. It was a slow burn but worth the wait!! I loved Van Hansis - personally I think he is hotter than Robert Pattison and a better actor. I hope this is a break-out role for him. Plus, Thorsten was great, not his usual hunky role. In fact, he was 100% different and almost unrecognizable. The secondary characters seemed really well-cast. Weird and creepy. The end of the movie was a crazy surprise, not to mention the crazy cool direction of the photography in the second half of the movie. It also reminded me of The Shining, which still freaks me out when I think about it. Except that it was in New York City - always cool to see something shot there. I also loved the music, creepy but edgy - wonder if the soundtrack is available. The song at the end, when the credits roll is especially cool. This is a REALLY great film!

Danny (Van Hansis) has to ID his dead Granny. She had a rent controlled apartment in New York City. Danny illegally takes over tenancy of the apartment, and is told he can't leave until the court order comes through where he can take over the lease(?!). Joe (Thorsten Kaye) is the touchy-feely Russian doorman Danny has to contend with. He likes to refer to himself in the third person. "Joe got paint for you." "Joe go ATM for you." "Now you need Joe." Also irritating, Sharleen (Cody Horn), who is filming Danny for her video blog.

By the 40-minute mark, I was wondering if anything was going to happen at all. Bodies eventually start turning up, and we all know the fate of pets in a horror movie. But no amount of camera shaking, jump cutting, or tense music can up the anxiety when nothing's really happening. Ultimately, nothing in the way of an explanation is given for the semi-strange goings on. A waste of time.

"Occupant" has one of the nicest, most believable set-ups of any recent urban thriller: Danny (Van Hansis) moves into his granny's (whom he's never met) rent-controlled Manhatten apartment (if you can call a 3500 sq ft space merely that) hoping to continue her $675 a month renting price, with the aide of an overly-friendly/sinister doorman (Thorston Kaye). The only glitch? To secure the place at the low-low figure, he only needs to barricade himself inside the plush joint long enough to lawyer up and win legal custody of the property.

Of course, this isn't as easy as it seems, as a series of eerie coincidences gradually convince Danny that someone's not exactly playing above board in their attempts to foist him out.

Henry Miller's latest film is much glossier than his previous outings, nicely shot, with some inventive camera angles. The story, by writer/producer Johnathan Brett, is engaging, if not rendered a bit campy sometimes with it's use of 250-point Helvetica fonts screaming DAY ONE, DAY TWO, etc.

The real weakness, I think, is the casting of Van Hansis --- a soap opera actor who looks a bit too Abercrombie to be mistaken for the average working-joe-farm-boy-come-to-the-big-city. He's not bad, really, his acting is just very one-note (as with many soap opera alumni, his range is either in the "super sincere" or "utterly hysterical" registers...they're either whispering or shouting).

Unfortunately, he doesn't do well with the latter. It appears Miller found that out, because the film tends to lapse into gimmicks like speed-frame, freeze-frame, and wipes particularly in the final scenes. It takes a lot of gravitas to pull off the kind of gut wrenching panic that's needed here, and Hansis just doesn't have it. This is a shame, because the film, overall, has a lot of unique touches going for it. It just needs an actor with a resume that's longer than his Facebook page to support it.

"Occupant" isn't the smartest effort of recent memory, nor is it the scariest, but it's certainly unique enough to be worth mentioning. The plot here isn't especially innovative, borrowing heavily from movies like "1408" and Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining," but much like said inspiration, the execution is what differentiates this film from the slew of other cheap imitations. The movie is actually pretty sleek- looking for a lower-budget offering, and it makes effective use of its small, fairly-unknown cast, especially leading man Van Hansis, whose portrayal of a man grappling with his sanity is so convincing its unsettling. The atmosphere is dark, disturbing, and suspenseful, akin to an under-your-skin David Lynch head trip; it's that special blend of intentionally-ambiguous psychological thriller and supernatural horror that makes this a very carrot-on-a-stick experience, never allowing the viewer to turn away once the action begins its slow-burning buildup.

For the rest of my review, please check out my movie review blog: http://filmsallthetime.blogspot.com

I saw this title on a website that I subscribe to and when I saw the reviews on IMDb I figured I would give it a try.

I will say this, it is not a BAD movie. It also is not a great movie.

It runs VERY slow and tries to build up the suspense.

I had a feeling I knew what was happening from the beginning, but the movie just tries to pull your mind in too many directions.

First, there is the creepy feeling the people around him give. Second, there is the building itself. Third, there is the feeling like something else is there.

Don't expect to be scared by this film, but don't expect to be impressed either...