Director: Dave Franco
Distributor: The Searchers
Duration: 88 minutes
The Rental (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Horror movies are simply not what they used to be. While this statement could make us look like we’re almost dinosaurs, we noticed a certain trend in ‘modern’ horror films. Either they include a lot of violence and gore, or they end up being a snore-fest for the entire film, only to cram every ‘exciting’ item in the last five minutes. We recently took a look at The Invisible Man, which we found extremely dull. It seems many people disagree with our opinion on that film, however. That being said, this time we have a look at the recently released The Rental, which is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. This movie is also aiming at a certain suspense-factor and mystery, rather than an elaborate show-and-tell formula.
In The Rental we see a group of four people rent a property for their vacation. This involves two brothers, Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and their significant others, Michelle (Alison Brie) and Mina (Sheila Vand). While this plot is quite common, we soon spiral down the rabbit hole adding racism to the mix, where one of the main characters, was discriminated against. This becomes even more clear when they arrive at the property, and the caretaker, Taylor (Toby Huss), is clearly not fond of Mina’s presence. Especially considering the remarks he makes. Nonetheless, the group tries to make the best out of their vacation, be it with drugs and booze. Soon after, Mina discovers a camera in the shower and things turn a bit grimmer.
The flow is basically as mentioned in the introduction; slow, and everything of significance seems to happen during the last few minutes of the movie. Overall the characters don’t feel exceptionally superficial, but they do lack something that makes you care for them. Then, their actual choices make you care even less about what happens to them, as there only seems to be one decent person in the group of friends. Nonetheless, the movie seemingly goes nowhere, until, as expected, the ‘entity’ of this film shows up in a violent fashion. We didn’t necessarily hate the entire experience, it just felt oddly paced, slow and actually felt like one of those TV movies you have on in the background.
In terms of acting, the movie isn’t too bad, it just lacks enough depth for the character to properly come to life. All you know is that it involves two brothers and their dates, and without spoiling too much, it becomes clear that two of them are attracted to each other. This is almost the entire package, thus leaving not that much room for a superb acting experience. This situation gives a bit of meat on the bones of the characters, which is already more than some other horror films, but it still doesn’t make you really care for the characters. Nonetheless, the acting performances are ok, given the material they had to work with, and the limited wiggle room the movie provides.
Sadly, the Blu-ray edition comes with no special features at all. This physical edition just lets you choose the desired subtitles, and that’s it. Even though the movie speaks for itself, it would have been nice to have something extra when paying full price for a physical copy of a film. Then again, the movie does not really use that many special effects, has only a tiny bit of blood and ‘gore’, and there was no real usage of special effects.
Conclusion
The Rental is not a bad movie, but it’s not a good one either. This is one of those films you might enjoy in the background, during a heartfelt conversation with friends, while eating some snacks and perhaps a cozily dimmed living room. True horror fans will not find any real horror in this film, and even though it is not classified as a thriller, it is one from start to finish.
The Rental (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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