One of the most unsettling thrillers on Netflix is The Occupant (originally Hogar), a Spanish-language film that preys on modern anxieties about status, wealth, and identity. It’s a chilling psychological drama led by a fantastic performance from Javier Gutiérrez.
Gutiérrez plays Javier, a once-successful advertising executive who is forced to give up his luxurious, architect-designed apartment after falling on hard times. He and his family move to a modest, cramped flat, and Javier finds himself unable to cope with his new, lower-status life.
The film’s tension begins when Javier discovers he still has a set of keys to his old home. He starts letting himself in when the new tenants—a successful man, his wife, and their young daughter—are out. His initial visits are nostalgic, but they quickly curdle into something far more sinister.
Javier becomes obsessed with the new family, studying their lives, their habits, and their relationships. He begins to envy the life they are living in his home. This envy and resentment spiral into a meticulous and terrifying plan to infiltrate their lives and take back everything he believes he has lost.
The Occupant is a slow-burn thriller that builds an unbearable sense of dread. It’s a dark exploration of a man’s narcissism and his refusal to accept his own failures, leading to dangerous and horrifying consequences for the innocent family in his sights.