OCCUPIED

Occupied Movie Review

Sarah (Liza Binkley) comes to her uncle's secluded, woods-surrounded home to babysit her little cousin Charlotte (Lucy Bock). While there she begins to hear voices and go a little mad. We've all heard the following: "I sat through that entire movie and nothing happened". This statement has never been more aptly applied to a film than it is to Occupied.

Here's a highlight

The entire movie revolves around Sarah and Charlotte--in fact, only one other character even appears in the film, and most unfortunately, neither Binkley nor Bock are even remotely close to being talented enough to carry an entire film. The movie looks almost like a home video and it clearly has no budget--I suspect that nobody will be surprised when the names Binkley and Bock appear time and again in the credits. I can only assume the two families have been friends for years, had a little extra money to spend, and decided to make a film. So early in the film Charlotte tells Sarah a series of stories about what has happened outside the house, and this actually does build a good bit of suspense, but it is never really touched upon again. As we see Sarah start to go crazy we get a flashback sequence...and then the same sequence again...and again...and again...I honestly lost count how many times I saw the exact same flashback sequence. The director (Mollie Binkley, also the writer...surprise!!) goes with distorted visuals to portray Sarah losing her mind--unfortunately, we are shown Sarah and her surroundings being distorted, giving the impression it is the viewer, not, in fact, Sarah going crazy--of course sitting through this movie for 90 minutes could do that to a person. Even when we are not presented the overused distortion, the focus is way off in many shots. Fortunately, not everything about this movie is bad. Other than a good premise that was never given the light of day, the characters are quite likable and seem like real people (even if the actresses appear to be struggling with their lines and give an obviously scripted delivery). The music, as songs, are decent, but they distract far too much from what we are seeing unfold before us--of course since you're reading this review, if you've never seen this film and decide to watch it in spite of what I have said to this point, you are very aware that nothing is happening anyway, so just enjoy the songs when they come up and don't worry about what is (or isn't, as the case may be) happening on the screen. Occupied really isn't a terrible movie--the story could have gone in many interesting directions (but didn't), leading me to believe this would have been much better as a book. As a feature length film, it feels like a waste of time.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 4

Occupied Movie Trailer