Movie: The Rental (2020) Caution Spoiler Alert

 The Rental

Came out; 2020

Time; 1 hour 28 Minutes

Watched: Netflix

Rated: R for violence, language throughout, drug use and some sexuality

IMDB Rating; 5.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomato Meter 73%

Popcorn Meter 47%

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring.

Dan Stevens as Charlie

Alison Brie as Michelle

Sheila Vand as Mina

Jeremy Allen White as Josh

Toby Huss as Taylor

Story Line.

Two couples on an oceanside getaway grow suspicious that the host of their seemingly perfect rental house may be spying on them. Before long, what should have been a celebratory weekend trip turns into something far more sinister, as well-kept secrets are exposed and the four old friends come to see each other in a whole new light.

Thoughts:

I want to know who the fuck brings their dog on vacation to lock it outside the whole time. I was irrationally irritated by the careless disregard of the dog throughout this movie.

This wasn't bad. It was a bit of slow burn type movie. Nothing creepy or scary really happens until the end. You're basically watching 4 friends making bad decisions and neglecting their dog on vacation.

Sure, they find cameras in the shower, however that's something that happens in these types of rentals. Both in real life and in movies.

Things don't really kick off until the “killer” starts stalking them. Then it gets interesting and a little dark (the type where you can't see the movie)

The killer cleans up the house, the dog walks back in. He pets the dog and leaves. We never really find out what happened to the damn dog.

The killer is then seeing renting another place, making copies of the keys and setting up his cameras.

The movie ends with the footage from the cameras while the credits scroll across the top.

I wouldn't say it was a bad movie, but it also wasn't great. Watch if you'd like!

CAUTION; Spoiler Alert

Charlie (Dan Stevens), his wife Michelle (Alison Brie), Charlie's brother Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and Josh's girlfriend Mina (Sheila Vand) decide to rent an ocean view house for a weekend getaway. After Mina's application for the house is denied for no reason, Charlie submits one and is accepted. Upon arriving at the remote property, the group meets the property owner Taylor (Toby Huss), whom Mina confronts for denying her application believing it was racially motivated. Taylor denies this and leaves, although he does return later that day to drop off a telescope for the group to use, which alarms Mina. The group settles in and it quickly becomes clear that someone is observing the unaware guests.

After Josh and Michelle go to bed, Mina and Charlie have sex in the shower. The next morning, a hungover Mina and Charlie agree they can never be intimate again, while Josh unintentionally makes Michelle paranoid over Charlie's faithfulness after mentioning how Charlie cheated on a former girlfriend. While in the shower, Mina discovers a camera in the shower-head and alerts Charlie. Freaked out, Mina goes to call the police, but Charlie stops her as alerting the police would risk someone finding the footage of the pair having sex.

Michelle uses drugs and calls Taylor to fix the hot tub. Mina privately confronts Taylor about the hidden camera, which Taylor claims to be unaware of and moves to call the police himself. Mina tries to stop him, which Josh witnesses and assuming Taylor is attacking his girlfriend, beats Taylor unconscious. As the group argues over what to do, Mina tells everyone about the hidden camera in the shower. After the group leaves Taylor in the bathroom to discuss what to do next, a masked man (Anthony Molinari) sneaks inside and smothers Taylor to death. When the others return and realize Taylor is not breathing, they assume that Josh has accidentally killed him.

A frantic Michelle demands they call the police, but Charlie refuses to let his brother go to jail, suggesting that they stage Taylor falling off the nearby cliff into the ocean by accident. A despondent Michelle goes to bed while the others carry Taylor's body to the cliff. When they drop the body it gets stuck on an outcrop, forcing Josh to go down and push it into the sea. While this is happening, Michelle is stalked in the house by the masked man who broadcasts the tape of Mina and Charlie having sex on the television. Devastated, Michelle drives away in the car only to run over a spike strip and crash into a tree.

Mina realizes that they need to find the camera transceiver to destroy the footage of Josh assaulting Taylor. She and Josh go searching for it while Charlie goes to help Michelle. He finds her dead body before being murdered by the masked man. Mina and Josh break into a locked room under the house, but only find old boxes of junk. The footage of Mina and Charlie in the shower is sent to Josh's phone and he confronts her over it. Hearing someone enter the house, Josh goes downstairs believing it is Charlie. The masked man kills Josh and then hunts for Mina, who manages to sneak outside. He pursues outside where Mina, who is disoriented by the fog, accidentally falls off the cliff and into the ocean to her death.

With everyone dead, the masked killer returns to the house, removing any evidence of the murders and the collection of cameras he installed. The killer rents a new property and installs cameras into it. Oblivious new inhabitants rent the locations, and the masked man attacks a sleeping couple... killing both of them and thus quietly continuing his murderous serial killing spree.