FilmMovie ReviewsMovie Review – The Rental (2020)

IMDb Rating: 5.8/10

R | 1h 28min | Horror, Thriller | 23 Jul 2020 (Netherlands) | Movie

Metacritic: 63/100

Rotten Tomatoes Rating:  73% Fresh (Critics), 48% Rotten (Audience)

Director: Dave Franco

Writers: Dave Franco, Joe Swanberg

Stars: Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand

Movie Tagline: “Secluded getaway. Killer views”. 

IMDb summary: Two couples rent a vacation home for what should be a celebratory weekend get-away.

Don’t believe (all of) the hype. That’s one thing to take away from The Rental. That’s not to say that it was a terrible film, it certainly wasn’t terrible, but it was something.

Dave Franco’s directorial debut sits firmly between “oh, yeah, that film, got to watch that” and “wait… haven’t I seen this film before?” There’s something very familiar about the plot of this film that kept popping up now and then. It was just a little too familiar.

Two couples planning to get away only to find that they’re “not alone”. There’s a minor subplot as well between Dan Stevens’ character and his work pal, but this was only a distraction and does very little to add to the overall “horror” aspect of this film.

The re-hashing of a plot is not the problem, it’s whether it brings something new to the film that gives it merit and separates it from other, similar movies. Two of those films we’re referring to are 13 Cameras and Vacancy. Franco’s film incorporates elements of both films into its plot.

However, the finer points to focus on which give this film a slight edge are Dan Stevens, who is very believable as the boyfriend type. And Sheila Vand from The Girl Walks Home Alone At Night has a nice role that she carries off relatively well. We’re not complaining about the acting talent.

There’s something challenging about films that focus on a tiny area as a set such as a house or the cockpit of a plane, for example. You cannot help but feel like the characters have nowhere to go, nowhere to run. It’s a lot of fun to see this in a film and see it done well.

There is also one other detail that we can’t talk about because it would spoil the film somewhat but this one plot point was extremely well done and written perfectly which is why we are giving this film three stars instead of two and a half.

We definitely think this film could have the potential for a sequel, but that’s most likely a spoiler – oops (not really). Wait, don’t they all die? Does someone survive? Wait, is the survivor the killer?

Just go and watch the movie, fam.

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