“Still, the film is so loaded with cliches and questionable activities by the characters, the audience will likely do more groaning than the ghosts…”
by Bethany Rose
Can the cycle be broken? This serious question, referring to the cycle of abuse, is key to understanding the plot of The Occupants. The idea of breaking the vicious cycle, and the repercussions of living through abuse, add substance to a film that is otherwise filled with cliches and confusing actions.
The film opens with Wade recounting his recent nightmare to his wife, Lucy. What frightened him most about the dream was an angry man yelling. The terror quickly fades as Lucy and Wade tend to their newborn son, Jack. The family looks like the picture of happiness, nestled in their gorgeous home in the hills. Later that day, Lucy goes to her counseling job, but her co-worker, Glen, wants to counsel her. It is clear that Glen and Lucy have a complicated past, including a romance that died after Lucy met Wade. She stands up to Glen, and it is clear she feels any worries he has for her are simply manifestations of his intense jealousy.
- The Occupants
- Directed by
Todd Alcott - Cast
Cristin Milioti, Michael Rady, Toby Huss - Release Date
2014 - Bethany’s Grade: C-
Unfortunately for Lucy, her idyllic home life soon begins to unravel as she and Wade start having similar dreams. Lucy also sees the screaming man, and at one point the couple experience a “waking” dream in which they see a family, including the angry father and two rotting spectral women arguing at dinner. As Lucy and Wade attempt to figure out whether their house is haunted, the mystery around why these figures are appearing grows.
The Occupants is an earnest attempt at creating an atmospheric haunted house story. It creates a unique angle by having the titular ghosts haunting the couple via dreams, and suggesting that the couple can have the same dreams and experience them as one. But this promising twist of the narrative soon loses steam, and the film quickly falls into horror tropes that seem to flourish in contemporary horror cinema.
What keeps the audience engaged, even when the upcoming twists become more transparent than a ghost, is the invested performance of Cristin Milioti as Lucy. She begins the film as a happy wife and mother and a successful counselor. She quickly transitions into a slightly frightened woman. But she also takes charge, refusing to ignore the terror within the house. While Wade seems to lose interest in the issue, even though he also witnesses the entire ghostly dinner, Lucy diligently tracks down all angles. She takes interest in her babysitter’s religious beliefs, accepting the possibility that the ghosts may be demons. She calls her sister and accepts her advice to summon a psychic to the home. When she feels she has exhausted her resources, she finally agrees to have Glen put her under hypnosis, hoping that the therapy will provide her with an answer she may have missed.
*****
As Lucy chases lead after lead, the toll of the excursions, along with her mounting worry for her family’s safety, shows on her face. Her eyes grow wider with each new scare, her hair more frazzled with each dead end. In a way, her wide-eyed gasps could be viewed as overacting, but the frenetic, over-the-top performance does manage to keep the audience invested in her character, which is important since she is not only the film’s protagonist, but is also the only character in the film to interact with every character in the film.
Still, the film is so loaded with cliches and questionable activities by the characters, that the audience will likely do more groaning than the ghosts, which is a shame because this film does have a very important message. As cumbersome as the mystery gets, the concept of abuse is still there, and that issue is one that is fascinating to explore in a horror film. What could have been a fascinating study of abuse, infused with supernatural elements to avoid feeling overly preachy, ends up being a mangled final act that creates frustration and confusion rather than a platform to approach a real-life topic that is truly horrifying.
