If Dave Franco is indeed determined to keep directing—and if each picture manages to be slightly better than the last—then by his fifth or sixth film he’ll surely churn out something noteworthy...

| Original Score: C- | Jul 17, 2024

Restrained and patient, The Rental has glimmers of potential without ever becoming the memorable, intelligent horror it seems to want to be.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 11, 2024

Dave Franco’s directorial debut is strong and offers a promising future. As an actor himself, he is able to direct in a way that elevates the performances as very naturalistic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 9, 2024

If “success” means getting the viewers interested in a sequel, then mission accomplished. However, sacrificing the first movie of a possible saga to just introduce its main horror element doesn’t quite work as Dave Franco might have thought.

| Original Score: C | Jul 24, 2023

The Rental has a killer view but not enough character.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 20, 2023

The film gets it right where it counts most – it’s entertaining, it keeps you locked in, and it ends in a fun and unexpected place.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 24, 2022

Franco has crafted a memorable experience, with a few genuine shocks and bluntly violent moments that demonstrate The Rental means business.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 18, 2022

With the clumsy, tedious way Franco executes this supposedly cold-blooded chiller for our paranoid, pessimistic, post-modern times, I'm not that psyched...

| Original Score: C- | Aug 30, 2021

A solid thriller that subtly goes from nerve-racking drama to shocking slasher. It's a lot of fun, and is a promising start for Dave Franco's filmmaking career.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 24, 2021

For better or worse, [The Rental] is the kind of film that will only ever treat an open door in the background as a frame for a shadowy figure.

| Jun 5, 2021

An inauthentic cabin-in-the-woods thriller...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 23, 2021

If you're going to lock us inside a dumb thriller with attractive people, can you at least make it lurid and lascivious?

| Mar 30, 2021

The excellent cast help immensely, and so does the commitment all-round to ensuring this isn't just a cookie-cutter cabin-in-the-woods effort.

| Mar 1, 2021

Delivering solid thrills and an ugly portrait of disintegrating relationships, The Rental is a clever meld of drama and horror.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 28, 2021

Two men, a woman both are close to, and the wife of one of them, all spend a weekend on the coast. What could go wrong? Everything?

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 10, 2021

A good horror movie can make even the most well-worn plot devices seem new again, but The Rental never rises above its basic storyline. Dave Franco has done some good stuff as an actor, but his debut feature film barely leaves a mark.

| Feb 5, 2021

It's very well made, and the single-location style coupled with some light (and blunt) social commentary is a clear attempt from Franco to create his own Hitchcockian thriller.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 1, 2021

The plot mechanism is simple enough - half the characters are too busy covering up for the crimes they have committed to defend themselves adequately against the crimes of which they are the victim - but it shreds your nerves nicely.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 26, 2021

A tale built on people's prejudices, misconceptions and misunderstandings (including the audiences'), The Rental may not reinvent the genre or rock your world, but it's well worth checking out.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 25, 2021

...a seriously impressive debut from a thoroughly promising new filmmaker.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 23, 2021