Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Rental’ on Netflix, Starring Alison Brie and Dan Stevens in An Airbnb Nightmare

The Rental, the directorial debut from actor Dave Franco—who also co-wrote the script with Joe Swanberg—is not about video rentals, but about property rentals. It’s also not so much a horror movie as it is a character drama, with just a thin slice of horror served up at the end, like a delicious treat after a simple dinner at a classy restaurant. 

THE RENTAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Be honest: You’ve been browsing Airbnb rentals, fantasizing about “getting away” during this pandemic, haven’t you? Well, Franco might give you a reason to hesitate, with the story of two couples whose Airbnb vacation doesn’t go at all as planned. You’ve got Michelle (Alison Brie), Michelle’s husband Charlie (Dan Stevens), Charlie’s co-worker Mina (Sheila Vand), and Mina’s boyfriend Josh (Jeremy Allen White), who also happens to be Charlie’s brother. The foursome decides to splurge on an extravagant home by the coast, just for the weekend.

Right away, Mina is mistrustful of the Airbnb host. She initially tried to book the property but was rejected, while Charlie was instantly approved. She suspects the host discriminated against her Middle Eastern name, but Charlie brushes aside her concerns. We soon learn that Charlie and Mina have something of a “special bond.” It makes Josh insecure, but Michelle’s totally cool with it… until she finds out Charlie cheated on his last two girlfriends. But when Mina discovers two hidden cameras in the two showers in the rental, she and Charlie have much bigger problems to worry about it.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: In some ways, The Rental is your typical “cabin in the woods” horror movie set-up that you’ve seen in Evil Dead, The Strangers, Friday the 13th, Cabin in the Woods, and many more films. But the vast majority of its runtime is spent more like an indie character drama, á la a Duplass Brothers film.

Performance Worth Watching: The Rental that relies heavily on its four main actors, and each of the four carry their weight. But you have to give it up for the master: Alison Brie. She’s proven herself a queen of drama as well as comedy with Netflix’s GLOW, and she does it once again in The Rental. She flips from Charlie’s calm, cool, and collected wife to a jealous breakdown in an instant, and it’s completely natural. She blisses out on ecstasy, and it’s hilarious. Franco, who is Brie’s husband in real life, is lucky to have her in the cast.

Memorable Dialogue: While Alison Brie is tripping and notices her cabin-mates calling for the dog that was staying with them, she mumbles to herself, “Oh fuck, they lost the dog.” It’s one of the film’s few humorous moments, and it perfectly sums up what it’s like to be high and selfish while your friends are in crisis mode.

Sex and Skin: While there is a steamy shower scene, it’s all very PG-13.

Our Take: Franco recently caught some criticism for saying in an interview that he and Brie had written “a smarter, more elevated version of a romantic comedy,” a philosophy he also applied to The Rental for the horror genre. That’s undoubtedly an annoying way to put it, especially for lovers of either genre, but I can’t help but see what he means when it comes to The Rental, which is a lean, understated, and genuinely good indie horror flick.

At first, I was frustrated by the slow-moving nature of the film. “Shouldn’t somebody be dead by now?” I asked myself at the hour-mark, and, it seemed to me, nothing of consequence had happened. But when the film finally pivots from relationship drama to slasher madness—and it does happen eventually—it just works. Yes, the violence at the end is more painful, brutal, and meaningful because the characters feel full and real. Yes, poor special effects and cheesy jump scares earlier on would have cheapened the emotion. And yes, the eerie and satisfying credit sequence is almost good enough to define the entire film. Perhaps it’s not so surprising that Franco would display such confidence and competence behind the camera. After all, he’s been hanging out on movie sets for over a decade now.

It helps that the actors are very good. Brie is the stand-out, but Sheila Vand does a lot with a complicated character. Jeremy Allen White, who I haven’t seen much of since his Shameless days, has that oddly compelling quality that keeps your eyes on him at all times. Stevens, who I love, has his American accent down to a science. The Rental isn’t good enough to garner awards chatter—the movie does have something to say about privacy, but it doesn’t really get around to saying it until the very end—but it’s nonetheless a polished, enjoyable watch. You just might want to shift your mindset from “horror slasher” to “Duplass Brothers” before you hit play.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Don’t give up on The Rental, because the ending does pay off. And hey, it’s only 89 minutes. Why not?