'The Rental' A Review

The Rental is a horror movie about two couples going away for the weekend to a remote cabin using an online rental site. Charlie(Dan Stevens) and Mina(Sheila Vand) are business partners and Michelle(Alison Brie) and Josh(Jeremy Allen White) are their respective significant others and Charlie and Josh are brothers. After conflict with the caretaker Taylor(Toby Huss) the group takes moly and the evening goes too far. Tensions, suspicions, and paranoia rise and the group finds themselves trapped in a situation out of control.

The cast is wonderfully stacked. Stevens is always a treat and gets to play a little against type with a streak of smarm. Brie in one of her more dramatic turns, flourishes. Vand who has the most dimension to play within is captivatingly raw and electric and White is also magnetically charged. The group as a whole and the various subsets all have wonderful chemistry but the narrative the characters are within never quite makes up its mind what it wants to be nor allows the actors to go horror-movie-ham or have any kind of realistic emotional development.

Beautifully shot with graceful flowing camera movement, a stunning static location balancing both beauty and claustrophobia. A subtle thrumming score all balance to create a near perfect mood. But the glaring problem is the narrative, it is hodge-podge of derivative horror tropes injected with some baffling interpersonal issues and the two never come together. The story, and hence the movie, lacks focus and as such, despite it's stellar cast and immaculate production never really gets off the ground. First time director Dave Franco shows great ambition and promise but the tone lacks clarity- is this a slasher film, a home invasion, a moral allegory? The answer seems to be 'yes' and in trying to hit so many genre points none are fully realized.

Currently available to rent on most VOD platforms.

Stream It.