The Rental is a new horror thriller directed, written and produced by Dave Franco. This is the first film he has directed and he is more known as an actor in the film world.
In the film, brothers Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Josh (Jeremy Allen White) decide to go on a weekend trip with their friends. They have found a perfect house online by the sea and are trying to make it a pleasant weekend. They only suspect that their landlord is somewhat racist towards Josh his Muslim girlfriend Mina (Sheila Vand). Despite this mistrust, the four try to make it a fun weekend, but during this time together they get to know each other better than they expected. This is how their mutual relationships are tested. When Charlie discovers they've been secretly filmed all weekend, he must choose to find the hidden footage or confess what he secretly did over the weekend.
Dave Franco has portrayed this film as his first directed film, but he has also taken on a bit too much hay by partly writing and producing this film. By taking on all these different tasks, he still struggles to convey the film clearly. At one point, the movie almost comes across as a long episode of Temptation Island and turns more into a teen drama than a horror thriller. This aspect comes to the fore without further explanation. Due to these unclear and sudden changes of genre, the film can come across as tedious.
The acting comes across as nice, but due to the unclear script, the cast doesn't really have many chances to make something special out of their roles. The characters initially come across as adults with work, but later the characters behave more like teenagers.
