The Occupant

Abby (Ella Balinska) is a British Geologist who has been working around the world for months in a row. She desperately needs the money to pay for her dying sister's (Vanessa Ifediora) medical treatment. But now, when she's finally on her way home, her helicopter crashes, killing the pilot. Abby finds herself stranded and alone in an icy wilderness, where a mysterious helper may or may not be her salvation.

This starts off a little like "Long Distance" where 2 astronauts crash land on an alien planet are trying to meet each other using just radio chatter.

It's also reminiscent of "Keep Breathing" where a woman has to survive after a plane crash in a mountain region.

However it is nowhere near as good as either film. Balinska puts in a fine performance in terms of acting. But the film has no point and no flow and the story is mired in obscure dreams and flashbacks. I did try hard to follow it but I stopped short of googling to make sense of it. If a film can't tell you a story in the screenplay, it's not a very good film anyway.

I rated it a 4 and that was solely for Balinskas acting.

This film had a decent foundation as well as its concept, but The Occupant falls for the oldest trick in the book when it comes to a science fiction film and that's when they relegate it for filler near the end. Instead its a survival story with a character facing a predicament both physically and figuratively.

Survival stories are usually exciting because you watch a character struggle and dig down deep to survive precarious oppositions and get back to civilization in one piece.

Our lead actress Ella Balinska does try her hardest but her character isn't very interesting on the page, other than the usual guilt riding characteristic. It is also quite slow paced and for a film clocking in at about 100 minutes, it means it could easily have been trimmed in the editing department.

It is however a beautifully shot film from Dutch director Hugo Keijzer, The musical score from Renger Koning is pretty solid as it adds to the film's overall vibe. When you finally get to the pinch of sci-fi this movie holds in the third act, it is enjoyable but too little too late.

Was really hoping for a much better and stronger film, but sometimes you get shortcomings.

Without knowing a single thing about the movie, as I stumbled upon it by random chance, I still opted to watch it and check what director Hugo Keijzer had to offer.

Writers Philip Michael Howe, Hugo Keijzer, Roelof Jan Minneboo and Xiao Tang put together an okay enough script. However, the narrative does struggle a bit with the pacing. Now, there was a lot of potential to "The Occupant", but ultimately the writers didn't fully deliver on that potential.

I literally wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list. But that was actually something that spoke in favor of the overall impression of the movie, as I do enjoy watching unfamiliar and new talents on the screen.

The movie does have a lot of nice visual shots, which definitely helped establish the atmosphere and mood of the movie.

"The Occupant" certainly is a watchable movie, but hardly one that I would recommend you to rush out and get to watch. Nor is it a movie that warrants more than a single viewing.

My rating of director Hugo Keijzer's 2025 movie "The Occupant" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

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.

First Off the small Sci-Fi part of it, I believe could have been Pretty much left out, of the movie,

but Ella Balinska did a nice even job with acting out this drama I personally didn't know what to expect and I wanted a more eventful survival of the wilderness type of Thriller.

But it is definitely a drama and for my taste it doesn't blend quite seamlessly, in using dream sequences it does come quite close but?? The science fiction thing with the prop is not needed as a guidance system for the viewer's especially! If it was supposed to be the premise of the movie because it wasn't, the genre of the whole thing seems quite drab and dreary although I would recommend the movie for an emotional Factor.