The Rental is a 2020 horror film, directed by Dave Franco in his directorial debut. The movie follows two brothers Charlie and Josh (Played by Dan Stevens and Jeremy Allen White) and their respective partners Michelle and Mina (Alison Brie and Sheila Vand) Who go on a couples retreat to an isolated guest house where they find themselves been watched by a mysterious masked stranger.
Now watching this movie i didn’t know what to expect. I had not seen any trailers and all I had seen was the poster and the poster gave me a supernatural/Phycological vibe as the poster depicted the guesthouse on a vertical flipped mirror image with a person falling from said house Into the fog below.
So i’m a sucker for psychological movies and after getting that vibe i was really excited to see where Dave Franco took this movie, However the movie isn’t a psychological horror, it’s a Slasher movie with some psychological elements. The movie industry is chocked full of Mediocre slasher movies trying ever so hard to recreate the success of movies such as Halloween or Friday the 13th and though some have raised the bar of what a ‘Great’ slasher film is, most nowadays are just bland movies that aren’t even that bad that they’re good.
Saying all that above, The Rental does not fit in the majority of slasher movie garbage, does it raise the bar…No, but it’s still a good watch as it has lots of interesting ideas that keeps viewers wondering on what is going to happen next.
Along with some great ideas the movie does have strong performances from its minimal cast, Alison Brie is a standout because she is given the biggest arch in the movie despite not having as much to do as the other cast members, which all their performances do just exactly what they are supposed to do and this movie throws aways the idea of expendable characters that are just in the movie to serve no other purpose than die. All the characters feel like they are actual people and you have no idea who is going to bite the dust, even though some characters are more likeable than others you still kind of root for them even though some are scumbag-like.
The Direction of the movie is also pretty good, during the night time scenes the guesthouse is shrouded in fog and every camera angle is smartly placed to give you the impression that they are constantly getting watched without straight up telling the viewer such thing (despite the occasional breathing ominously plastered on to the background noise.
Where the film flaters though is the pacing the movie spends so much time where the characters are just hanging around with each other and are obviously just setting things up and nothing really happens then everything happens in the last half hour or so, though the last act is really entertaining and suspenseful, it takes way too long lingering on plot points that ‘do’ progress the movie, but this being a slasher, i expected a little more ‘slashing’ but given its small cast i can understand why Franco didn’t start to kill off from the very beginning, however The movie Hush come to mind which masterfully keeps the viewer entertained and on edge with a low body count and a small cast. Something this movie doesn’t quite pull off.
I do appreciate how the filmmakers kept the killer’s identity a secret but still manage to flesh out the character a lot through the films ending credits, now without spoilers this is the best part of the movie.
Final Score.
Title:Okay
Though it doesn’t raise the bar for slasher movies, and feels bogged down by a slow start, The Rental has a entertaining last act that has you hooked all the way through to the credits and ironically given the movie title, i wouldn’t buy the movie but it’s definitely worth a Rental.
Head Over Reels 