Review: The Rental

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: 2 attractive couples, shown as having some serious issues between themselves in the opening scenes, nonetheless decide it would be a great idea to all spend a weekend together at a luxurious, yet isolated rental home in the middle of nowhere. Not surprisingly, things do not end up going so well for them. 

Despite the somewhat unoriginal premise, Dave Franco’s directorial debut showed quote a bit of promise. The film opens with Mina (Sheila Vand, TV’s Snowpiercer) and Charlie (Dan Stevens, Downtown Abbey, Legion), making googly eyes at each other in their office while searching online Air BNB Listings for a much-needed weekend of relaxation. They have been working hard on a project together and deserve it. They seem like such a happy couple!   

Then, enter Mina’s boyfriend, Josh (Jeremy Allen White, Shameless). Wait, what? He asks if he is interrupting anything, happened to be in the neighborhood and wanted to see if Mina needed a ride home.  Josh also happens to be Charlie’s brother, and has a history of being jailed for violent assault, on top of employment difficulties. Hmmmm…interesting.  Josh is presented as the opposite to the polished and professional Charlie. However, the brothers seem to have a genuine love for one another, and the chemistry between Mina and Josh is plausible.  

Cut to Charlie and his wife Michelle, (Alison Brie, GLOW and Community), in bed that evening, discussing how Josh really hit the jackpot with Mina, and how amazing and out of Josh’s league Mina is. Michelle does not seem at all bothered by this. Strange pillow talk, but it does set up a dynamic that made me want to see how their weekend will play out. 

On the drive to the home, Mina voices her concerns that her initial application for the rental was turned down, yet Charlie’s was approved an hour later. She suspects her last name, Mohammadi, had something to do with the decision. Upon meeting the man who rented them the home, Taylor (Toby Huss), it appears she may have been correct.  

He is not the owner of the home but claims to be his brother. Taylor oversees maintenance, lives up the road, and has full access to the home. He is also rude, abrasive, and asks Mina how she got “mixed up with this family”.  Mina calls him out on his denying her application, and his evasive answers are less than convincing. On top of that, there is a strange hidden door with a numeric lock beneath the porch, Michelle finds soot on her supposedly freshly laundered sheets, Mina finds a strange framed photo of Taylor in one of the bathroom’s drawers, and a dog that Josh snuck onto the property despite a “no pets” policy, is on edge.  

Despite initial reservations, the group decides that recreational drugs, alcohol, dancing, and hot tubbing are the best way to spend their first night there. Why not? All big horror film taboos, it goes without saying that things go downhill from there. Secrets are unveiled, suspicions arise, and evidence arises that the foursome are being spied upon. 

The four lead performances are all strong, as are the visuals and suitably creepy score. The atmosphere is foreboding, and the dialogue well-written. The concept of staying in a home which you do not own, especially with today’s technology, is a scary one. How much do you know about the owner, are you completely comfortable with their full access to the property?  Are cameras for security, or something more sinister? How much uneasiness is justified, and how much is just paranoia? The fear of being tracked or watched against your will is unsettling, common in society today, and one which I feel could have been explored in a better fashion here.  

Unfortunately, I found the resolution to the film very disappointing. Instead of taking the relationships of the characters, their backgrounds (while not very fleshed-out), or discovered secrets into account, the end reveal is frustratingly generic. While not wanting to spoil anything, I will say there was a “final girl running through the woods” scene that had me rolling my eyes.  There was a lot of potential for a great final twist, and it did not deliver. The film recovers a bit after a clever end credits scene, but not enough for me to strongly recommend it.