‘The Rental’ is a story of suspense, intrigue and tension, revolving around four individuals seeking to spend a weekend by the ocean in a beautiful rental. Charlie and his work partner Mina decide to spend a week end away before commencing a new project at work. Together with Charlie’s wife Michelle and his brother, and Mina’s boyfriend Josh, the foursome reach a beautiful vacation home. On arriving they meet with Taylor, - the caretaker of the house, who, after a brief exchange comes off as disagreeable and suspicious. As the group settle in for a fun weekend things soon take a turn for the worst as the characters reveal suppressed emotions and find out they are being monitored.
The quick rundown of the story may seem straight forward, - an unsuspecting group of individuals being monitored for unknown reasons and things going awry. What makes ‘The Rental’ stand out from a group of similar slashers is the character development and the ability for the viewer to track and understand the choices every individual in the story makes.
‘The Rental’ opens with Mina and Charlie talking about renting a house for the weekend. The two appear close, but we soon learn they are only work partners. Together with Michelle and Josh, the foursome reach the rental and all seems to be well, as there is no tension amongst the characters and all appear to be enjoying themselves – as is standard fare for suspense flicks of this kind. As the evening winds down Mina and Charlie have sex, confirming any suspicion of the two having feelings for each other. The next day, as Michelle and Josh are hiking, Mina discovers a hidden camera in the shower. As she tells Charlie the two realise they were filmed cheating, making them reluctant to inform the police.
‘The Rental’ builds in suspense through allowing the viewer to sympathise with the characters, as we are invited to suffer their inner conflict with them. Usually someone presented as a cheater is objectively hard to make likeable. ‘The Rental’ presents us with the particular circumstances and guides us to understanding how Charlie and Mina ended up in the situation that they did.
Soon after, Taylor is called to the house by Michelle, making Mina and Charlie tense. As Mina confronts Taylor, of her suspicions of him monitoring the group, Josh misinterprets the situation and beats him up. Undetected, an unknown individual suffocates Taylor. Mina, Charlie and Josh decide to dispose of Taylor by dropping him off the cliffs. Michelle is shown the footage of Charlie cheating and tries to leave the house. Shortly after leaving she crashes and messages Charlie, but is then taken out by the unknown assailant. As Charlie tries to track her, he too is subdued. Afterwards, Josh receives the footage and confronts Mina, causing him to storm the house, looking for Charlie, only to be bludgeoned to death. Finally, Mina tries to outsmart the killer, but on running away through the woods, she falls off the cliffs, not having seen the edge due to the fog.
The final sequence of the film shows us the killer removing the monitoring equipment and setting up in another rental, revealing to be unconnected with the house caretaker. As the footage of unsuspecting tenants rolls with the credits, the tension mounts and leaves us terrified of the possibility of having been monitored ourselves, as it appears that not much is necessary by way of tech to carry out such activities.
‘The Rental’ is a tense film, successfully establishing characters that are more than one-note horror movie clichés. Charlie, as played by Dan Stevens, is introduced as a likeable character, respectful of his co-worker and in a good relationship with his wife. Over the course of the film however a more real image of Charlie’s personality is revealed, as we discover his history of being unfaithful. Stevens delivers an excellent portrayal of an individual who is ultimately motivated by preserving his own well-being, revealing a haunting truth of not being able to truly know someone. Mina, as played by Sheila Vand, delivers a character trying to cope with reconciling her actions. As the group decide to dispose of the dead body, parallels can be drawn between her hiding the fact that she cheated and Josh dealing with the guilt of murdering someone. Vand does well in presenting the fear that stems from being discovered in her lies and hurting someone she cares about. Michelle, as played by Allison Brie, delivers an excellent performance, as her character has great comedic moments and delivers an emotionally charged performance after the truth about Charlie and Mina is revealed. Josh, as played by Jeremy Allen White, delivers a character that initially could be misconstrued as a straight-forward jock-type, yet reveals a hidden emotional depth. As Josh bears his emotions to Michelle about the fear of losing Mina, and later the dread of being found out about murdering Tyalor, White showcases the hidden anxiety a lot of us posses. In portraying Josh, White forms a fully rounded character and completes a cast of realised characters.
In writing, directing and producing this film, Dave Franco has done an outstanding job in his feature directorial debut. Horror movies are often written off, as they are said to lack in substance and often rely on overused tropes. Even though ‘The Rental’ contains recognisable horror elements and is at times predictable, the film exceeds expectations when it comes to character development. Co-written by Joe Swanberg, Mike Demski and Fraco, the trio have managed to inject life into a type of film that has been done to death. With creating multi-faceted characters that we can discover without over explaining them, ‘The Rental’ is a success in delivering a film that is tense and allows us to be invested in the personal drama of the characters.
Overall, the film delivers a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game that greatly intensifies towards the end, yet can be more vividly remembered for the tension between the individuals and their motivations.
Score: 3/4
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