Jaden Jordan
- Aug 17, 2021
- 2 min read

The Rental (2020)

The Breakdown: A pair of couples rent a beach house for what they hope will be a relaxing vacation, but things go from bad to worse as the strange groundskeeper, drama, and secrets begin to come between the group.

Watch If: You want a drama about two people pretending they didn't cheat on their spouses.

Not If: You're after a more traditional horror movie.

SECONDARY FACTS

Overall Rating: 2.2

Length: 1:28

Country: USA

Language: English

Scare Factor: 1/5

REVIEW

THE QUICK AND DIRTY

This relationship drama spends the entire run time on the edge of something happening, only to fall flat when it was meant to crescendo.

PREMISE: 2

The problem that plagues this film is that it isn't about what it thinks it's about. That is to say, 90% of it is about a shitty vacation and two people stressing about the fact that they're cheaters. It's a drama (and a boring one at that) that someone duct-taped a slasher ending onto.

Now, even if it being a poorly packaged drama weren't a breaking point for me, there's still the issue of it being very boring. The characters that the story follows make consistently dumber and dumber decisions, and the entire premise of the film makes it impossible to feel badly for them, even when you are very clearly supposed to.

ACTING: 3

There's really nothing to say for the acting. Some scenes were good, some were just OK. Most of them were, acting wise, in between the two.

AUDIO AND VISUALS: 2

Loud music is not a viable substitute for plot. The entire movie is peppered with these bizarre moments where it almost feels like the creators suddenly remembered that they were trying to make a horror film, but rather that write any actually spooky scenes, they opted to put on some creepy music on full blast and call it a day.

Then in the last ten minutes of the film, it goes full October haunted house, and whips out all the fog machines and blue-hue lights that the remainder of their budget could acquire, so that they could end the film with a confusing, drawn out, and very out of place slasher sequence.

ATMOSPHERE: 2

-SPOILERS-

The idea of someone watching your knowledge is creepy enough on its on, so much so, that i am honestly amazed that this film managed to take something so intrinsically scary and make it boring. The audience is coerced into an hour of watching drama, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it finally does, its a literal random serial killer with no face, no lines, and no reason for the audience to care.

DELIVERY: 2

I'm not sure if this was intended to be a slasher film, and just got lost in the drama, or a drama film that pitfalled into a horribly tacked on slasher ending, but either way, it was boring. It's as though the ending was originally supposed to go to a different movie.