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The Rental Movie Review

The Rental is a 2020 horror film directed by Dave Franco and starring Dan Stevens and Alison Brie. It’s an extremely messy, but also genuinely entertaining horror flick.

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“Who are you?!“

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Two couples on an luxurious getaway grow suspicious that the host of their seemingly perfect rental house may be spying on them. Before long, what should have been a celebratory weekend trip turns into something far more sinister. This is the directorial debut of Dave Franco, so now both Franco brothers have become directors, which was very unexpected.

I would actually say that he has a lot of potential to be a good director, but for now he still needs to learn as this movie’s biggest problem is the direction itself. The movie has no direction actually as it shifts gears so much in its third act that it becomes something completely different, but disconnected from the first half. That’s a running theme for other movies this year such as for example ‘Vivarium’, but here the third act was majorly disappointing.

Basically, the first half was a relationship drama, and a strong one at that. I usually do not like storylines about cheating, but this was one was so well executed that I ended up really liking it, especially the tension that arose among this group of friends. These are all horrible people, too horrible maybe, but it was so much fun watching them tear each other apart.

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However, the third act became something completely different. It finally became a full-on slasher feature that was only mildly promised before. But it was done for better and for worse. On the one hand, I was disappointed by its ending as the movie has been begging for a twist ending, but it never arrived unfortunately. And it all went out way too quickly, making for a third act that felt misplaced within this relationship drama. It was hastily done for sure.

Still though, I also kind of appreciated that they all died so quickly. That was unexpected, especially everybody dying in a horror movie with no survivors whatsoever. That was hugely original. Also, those scenes, thus, felt realistic as the kills were executed painlessly and very quickly. It was also highly entertaining to watch, but again it did not fit in with the rest of the movie whatsoever. Basically, here we have two solid movies instead of one coherent whole.

Dan Stevens is very good here, but highly unlikable, frankly even horrible as the most immoral person of the bunch. Alison Brie is the most moral, but even she was a bitch at times. It was nice seeing Sheila Vand of ‘A Girl Who Walks Home Alone at Night’ fame in this movie and she’s great. It was hilarious to me how the discussions about race and class made the first third of the movie basically the definition of an SJW Hollywood flick, but thankfully the movie moved from that later down the line.

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Toby Huss is also good here as redneck, racist place owner Taylor. He was a terrific red herring for sure. The Rental is also very well paced before that rushed third act, well shot and also very well executed in its horror scenes, but again I wanted more of those.

The Rental is such a hugely entertaining horror flick that is undeniably messy in its third act. Dave Franco’s debut direction is problematic, the third act felt disparate, hasty and even misplaced, though the kills were authentically realistic in their quick execution. The movie has been begging for a twist that never came, but still its red herring is strong, and it remains a reasonably diverting movie with good performances throughout and a memorable relationship drama at its core.

My Rating – 3.5

You can get The Rental on Amazon.