The Occupant - Movie Reviews (2024)

tarts as an intriguing, and sharply observed portrait of middle-age frustration and failure in an unforgiving culture of materialism and competition before morphing into a thriller that increasingly defies credulity

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 13, 2020

Javier Gutiérrez knows how to give his character touches of ambiguity and confusion, to generate uncertainty in the viewer. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jun 29, 2020

The main reason why The Occupant works is Javier Gutierrez's dedicated performance as the psychopathic, dejected advertiser who would go to any heights to get what he wants.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 7, 2020

The film is an ungodly look at the career of older professionals, but isn't particularly creative or shocking. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 8, 2020

This is a good thriller, but one can't help but feel that it didn't quite reach its full potential. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 8, 2020

There's an interesting genre creep at hand in "The Occupant." At its outset, it is a domestic drama; by the conclusion, it's a tense, dark thriller. The transition is very careful - and fascinating to watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 8, 2020

Siblings David and Àlex Pastor helm this psychodramatic exercise in unease that doesn't quite click, despite a strong and scary performance by Javier Gutiérrez.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 4, 2020

The Occupant may have a few flaws but is still an entertaining watch, especially for a character study on perception, desire, greed and obsession for success.

Full Review | Apr 3, 2020

The film waves off character development and merely side-eyes its frustrations with capitalism in its rush to convince us that this dullard is in fact a supervillain

Full Review | Original Score: C | Apr 3, 2020

A great job is done of setting up Javier's perspective, shaped to a worrying degree by the idealised conceptions of family life portrayed in the advertisements he worked on.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 2, 2020

Everybody wants to be Hitchcock, don't they? And they don't really understand what makes Hitchcock Hitchcock.

Full Review | Apr 1, 2020

The Occupant is a well-made movie with a variety of thoughtful visual compositions and an eye for effectively moody lighting. It also meanders tediously for an hour without really developing its characters.

Full Review | Apr 1, 2020

It's not without some pleasures but never really grips the way it should.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2020

The lack of narrative control is evident from the beginning. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 31, 2020

The lack of surprises, combined with some unbelievable incidents, contribute to [the film] not going beyond solid mediocrity. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 31, 2020

Hogar could have been a most stimulating and twisted thriller but it ends up being an entertaining one, with a fluid rhythm and excellent work from its lead. Which is not nothing, but it leaves you wishing for more. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2020

Brilliant and cruel. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2020

With an excellent cast led by Javier Gutiérrez, the Pastor Brothers have returned to feature films with serious conviction. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 31, 2020

[Àlex Pastor and David Pastor] deliver a very entertaining and twisted thriller. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 30, 2020

Writing from the confinement of a global pandemic gives The Occupant a strange atmosphere of unease. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 26, 2020