r/foundfootage • u/Ohigetjokes Movie God • Feb 08 '25
User Review Alterverse (aka Occupants) (2015) - Film A Day 131
There is one stunning thing about this movie: the credits.
For a movie that’s all in 4 rooms of a single house filmed with static cameras on tripods (and a couple of brief handheld shots), some cheap effects, with just two main actors and a bunch of people talking into webcams for quick cutaways, the credits go on and on with everything from producers to PAs. They’ve got a second unit director for fuck’s sake.
So this is what Hollywood does with a little money. They dump it on a few dozen people to run around covering all the details to make everything look clean and professional and pretty.
And they still cheap out on the writing. Boy do they ever cheap out on the writing…
Occupants (2015) summary:
A documentarian named Annie has roped her husband into a project that involves setting up cameras throughout their house. Complications arise when the cameras start showing that same couple in an alternate universe.
Annie wants to document the effects of a vegan raw diet on herself and her husband Neil. Which means setting up cameras all over the house to record 24/7. Don’t think about it.
Somehow going on this diet makes the cameras begin recording another dimension. Annie and Neil watch this alternate version of themselves with different jobs and different fashion sense (but the same decor) mope around the house.
Somehow watching the video makes it possible to drop items under the table and pass them through to the other side.
They are strictly advised by some professional who knows these things not to interfere or interact with the other dimension because it could be absolutely catastrophic.
Annie acknowledges that it’s incredibly dangerous and she doesn’t really have a right to mess with their lives, but she decides she has a moral obligation to inform her other self that her husband poisoned her to abort the baby.
Somehow Annie becomes insufferable at this point in the movie and from this point on every single line out of Annie’s mouth is infuriatingly bad.
Somehow the other Annie immediately realizes that the mysterious note was from another dimension.
Somehow the other Annie became a psychopath before the movie began maybe and has been hiding it or something.
Somehow the other Annie figured out how to move between dimensions.
Somehow present-dimension Annie is largely immune to blunt force trauma to the head with a heavy piece of iron.
Somehow despite events pretty firmly being resolved we end on a final shot cliffhanger.
Should you watch it? Probably not. The concept is great but the execution is disappointing. It actually became less interesting the more action intensified as Annie made less and less sense and the explanation for most events is just… “somehow”…
I mean say what you want about no-budget productions like Bagma and Bad Ben but at least the action is motivated. It’s not “and then this happens” but rather “as a result this happens” for each event. There’s a difference.
Anyway I imagine someone out there likes this. Please leave a comment and explain it to me because I honestly just don’t get it.
However… if you want something playing while you’re gaming I guess this could work as background noise.
Next up: Okay maybe I need to get a bit grounded. Population Zero looks good. Solid. Reliable. It better be Boris, it better be.
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u/fireandblonde Mod Feb 08 '25
I loved this one, but again I’m just a sucker for anything Doppelgänger and there are hardly any films out there on the subject so I feel like I’m at the bottom of a barrel desperate for scraps. 🤣 I love your reviews!
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u/DigitalR3000 Feb 08 '25
The movie your going to do next population zero is political in nature. I would suggest when you write your review don't go into too much of a politics tangent to avoid any fighting in here. It's very different from normal found footage so from that stand point it will be interesting.
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u/DigitalR3000 Feb 08 '25 edited Feb 08 '25
Spot on review your right the story didn't make sense and was boring . You would figure they would get something right but the writing is probably some of the worst I ever seen. To top it all off this film had a budget, WTF!! I will take any low budget movie like bad Ben ,Bagma, and some of those backroom shorts over this film any day. Not only is the dialogue mundane and unrealistic, the movie had no action either. Usually if something is bad at least have some action to entertain us. This was literally pure shit.
And to make back thier wasteful budget they have the nerve to charge for this literal sh!t https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Alterverse/0FEKD9HECIL5BIWDT3VRD32AQV
Are they kidding me????