Ready or not, here it comes… 10 Weeks of Spooktober is back for its sophomore season. It’s 10 Weeks of Spooktober 2: 2 Spook 2 Tober.
In case you’re new here, here’s how this will work. We have officially entered Scary Movie Season. If you’re like me, scary movie season is an all-year-round affair, but I like to amp things up in the fall as we head straight into the best time of the year. 2020 has been an indescribably awful year for everyone, so maybe marking this as the “best time” of the year isn’t saying much. But we’ll take what we can get.
Anyway, for the second year in a row, to count my way through pre-Halloween season, I will watch and review one new (to me) horror movie each week. We’re kicking off the second year of fine spooky fun with a new movie available on VOD: The Rental.
Prepare yourself for my spoiler-free review.
The Rental is the directorial debut of Dave Franco. It stars his wife (and my queen) Alison Brie, along with Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss. The fun all begins when Charlie (Stevens), his wife Michelle (Brie), Charlie's brother Josh (White), and Josh's girlfriend Mina (Vand) decide to get away for a weekend and rent a fabulous Airbnb overlooking the ocean. Things go south quickly when the Airbnb owner comes off as a little bit racist, but you know, whatever. Right?
Wrong.
Here’s where I don’t want to give too much away, because there are a few “twists” in this movie. But basically, after a night of partying with lots of ecstasy, the mood in the house is decidedly different. And Mina is growing more and more suspicious that the owner of the Airbnb is watching them. What’s the truth, and will these four people make it out of this strange situation? You’ll have to watch to find out.
Or don’t. Really, if you skip this one, you won’t be missing out on much.
This movie does a good job of amping up the dread early. The cast is small, so even in its short runtime, The Rental is relying on these characters to really carry the movie. While they’re not characters you’re probably going to like very much, the acting in this movie is good. And obviously, Alison Brie, my all-time fave, is great in this.
Quick Alison Brie tangent. I know she’s famous, but why she isn’t A STAR and everyone’s favorite is beyond me. Every time I see her on the screen, she captures my attention. I was first introduced to Alison Brie on Mad Men, where she has the tiniest of roles as Pete’s wife. But with so little screen time, I was already a fan. Enough so that I sought out her other work and discovered Community, which is now one of my favorite shows of all time. In short, thank you for everything you do, Alison Brie. I watched this movie for you, and you were the highlight of an otherwise pretty dull hour and thirty minutes.
Let’s get into what made this movie so dull then.
Hint: it’s not Alison Brie’s fault
For the first hour of this movie, the movie focuses on a lot of drama between these two couples. Charlie and his brother seem to have a strained relationship. Charlie is clearly the successful one, and Josh, like most younger siblings, is the fuck up. Charlie works with Josh’s girlfriend Mina. They seem to have a very close professional relationship, in fact. And Charlie can’t seem to figure out what it is about Josh that made Mina fall for him. I’m sure you can kind of see how this is going to go.
But then… when we get to the real horror elements of this story, all of that relationship drama we just spent an hour watching? It doesn’t really matter or factor into what’s happening to them at all. So when I got to the end of the movie and the final “twist,” I realized that all of that plot I followed earlier in that movie? Yeah, it really had no bearing on what ultimately ended up happening at the end.
Dave Franco and Joe Swanberg co-wrote this movie, and honestly, it just feels like they had a spooky idea for something that could happen to people at an Airbnb and then just wrote a story around it. But they didn’t actually have enough material to turn that spooky idea into a full-length film story, so then they just padded it with a lot of unrelated drama. This is going to sound harsher than I mean it, but I think this story would have been better served as a Creepypasta rather than a whole ass movie. Everyone could have saved themselves a lot of money that way too.
I am, however, always thankful for more Alison Brie on my TV.
With all of that being said, I do believe Dave Franco shows potential in the directing arena. Will I watch another one of his movies? Probably. Especially since he’ll probably cast his wife in it again. Did y’all know I love Alison Brie? Just checking.
The Rental is available to rent (lol) right now. But, like, you have to pay for it, so… yeah.
I’ll be back next week with more Spooktober! Prepare your brains!