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

Billed as an indie slasher, it works even better as a wickedly unsympathetic chamber piece.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 21, 2021

It's pretty basic boilerplate, scary-movie stuff, with tropes and tricks that have already been extensively satirised elsewhere.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 20, 2021

The Rental has a familiar plot with familiar story beats, but it is so well-paced and deliberate, and its cast so good, that even though you know where it's going, it's still immensely satisfying to take the journey.

| Aug 4, 2020

Confidently weaves real world anxieties with all the twisted, sinister possibilities the horror genre affords.

| Aug 3, 2020

Stranded-in-a-cabin tropes tend to be a lot of fun. So it's easy to get on board with the premise of The Rental, especially given the front-loaded tension between its two couples.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 30, 2020

Instead of trying to make a point, Franco just makes his movie, and that's just fine. It's not a backhanded compliment to say The Rental is worthy of its title.

| Jul 28, 2020

Rather than building on the characters' moralistic inequities, and relating them to their unknown voyeurist, Franco lets the final act wither.

| Jul 27, 2020

While the performances ensure that the movie is always watchable, the hesitant storytelling makes it far from compelling, a bad trip about a bummer vacation.

| Jul 24, 2020

It is a solid watch. it plays with how crazy the idea of renting a home from a complete stranger is. It's got a great ensemble and it uses them well... but it does stop short of having something really groundbreaking to say.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 24, 2020

This one is pretty nifty, as such things go, especially if you are partial to the psychological portion of psychological thrillers.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 24, 2020

It might not make you skip your next weekend trip, but it will make you think twice about where you decide to stay.

| Original Score: B | Jul 24, 2020

Franco builds up a nice sense of dread, throws in some uncomfortable human conflict, stirs it up and lets it all explode.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 24, 2020

The Rental gave me nightmares, not only because of what it chooses to show but also for what it leaves unseen.

| Jul 24, 2020

There may be some existential meaning to The Rental's abrupt, too easy ending. But if you ask me, I think Dave Franco ran out of money, time, and ideas.

| Jul 24, 2020

While it's easy to see a lot of Franco's influences in The Rental, he still finds a way to make this house his own.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 24, 2020

Had the writing been deft enough to properly germinate them, there are seeds of ideas about the toxicity of aspirational real estate and those that indifferently own it that could have possibly have flowered into something worth exploring.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 24, 2020

Even in spite of its obvious nowness, this thing is such a lean, mean, and utterly merciless old school programmer that it might seem anachronistic if not for the fact that it's being released onto many of the same drive-in screens that would have shown.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 23, 2020

Brutal, smart, wild and mean, The Rental savagely reinvents the summer camp slasher for the vacation rental generation, and delivers a punchline payoff that will leave you reeling.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 23, 2020

A very generic slasher with nothing to say that hasn't already been said in movies like 13 Cameras.

| Original Score: C- | Jul 23, 2020