Exploring the Underrated Horror of ‘The Rental’ with Franco and Brie

In the realm of horror cinema, few films capture the essence of real-life fears as compellingly as ‘The Rental’ featuring Dave Franco and Alison Brie.

5 Years Before ‘Together,’ Dave Franco and Alison Brie Teamed Up for This Gripping, Underrated Horror

Finally, Michael Shanks’ Together has informed general audiences of something true fans have known for years: Alison Brie and Dave Franco are an absolute power couple. And that’s not just because they’re married; while their off-camera chemistry certainly adds to the film’s disgusting nuance, each one’s expansive talent perfectly synergizes to create this body horror masterpiece. Their dynamic has led to many other amazing projects besides this feature, with none of the couple’s others matching the unsettling dread of Franco’s The Rental. Following a pair of in-laws as they discover their quaint vacation getaway is littered with hidden cameras, the film spirals out into one of the most realistically terrifying scenarios any fan could imagine. It exemplifies a subtler kind of horror, proving yes, features like Together offer unimaginable fears that will leave viewers squirming—but nothing is as understandably frightening as a stranger coming into your home and tearing your life apart.

Horror Has a New Power Couple in Franco and Brie

Viewers unfamiliar with The Rental’s disastrous latter half may initially mistake the movie for a domestic drama. It follows Brie as Michelle, who, along with her husband Charlie (Dan Stevens), his brother Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and Josh’s girlfriend, Mina (Sheila Vand), is excited for a vacation at a cliffside Oregon rental home. The film perfectly captures these duos’ comfortable monotony; from awkward exchanges to stifled but well-meaning conversation, it draws viewers into the common scenario of trying to have fun with people who you aren’t completely comfortable with. It’s Michelle who really works to make the weekend great, eventually introducing drugs into their relaxing getaway to really spice things up—she couldn’t have known that Charlie and Mina would then have sex in the bathroom, unbeknownst to their partners, in a molly-induced haze. The film is discomforting in how understandable these deeply flawed characters are, portraying unfortunate situations that many watchers can relate to—which is what makes it so shocking for said watchers when Mina suddenly discovers a hidden camera in the shower.

While this genre is filled with countless horrific scenarios, few things are as scary as the situations that viewers can reasonably imagine happening in their own lives. The Rental offers a plot and characters that trigger the audience’s empathy because of just how relatable they are. Their frantic panic is viscerally understandable, as your average person would also have a similarly frenzied reaction to whatever scary movie mastermind is doing all of this—until the movie reveals that its “big villain” is just a man. A technologically proficient, deeply vile one, but a normal man who flexes tools that your everyday person could attain to turn this group against one another and lure many of them to horrific fates. This removes a level of separation that exists in most scary movies; by playing up their antagonists as some unimaginable terror, films offer audiences a reprieve with the ability to tell themselves, “Oh, but this could never happen in real life!” The Rental is chilling not due to bold displays of bloodshed but by showing the shockingly simple ways someone could completely ruin the lives of four people over one weekend. It’s a complex kind of fear that people can easily, unwittingly see themselves in, leaving watchers with an unsettling question: how easy would it be for someone to do this in real life?

‘The Rental’ Is Realistic in the Worst Possible Way

While The Rental thrives on subtle horror, that’s not to say the film is completely missing the sickening scenes of films like Together. While sparse, its violent moments are perfect punctuations to the mental dread that permeates every scene. But it’s because of that dread that The Rental doesn’t need to rely on bloodshed to unnerve those watching. The film makes people uncomfortable because of how unfortunately resonant its story is, easily dragging them into the mindsets of these average people and making their behaviors not the bombastic actions of scary movie characters but the nuanced fear that anyone would have in this scenario. The Rental thrives by providing a story that could—to the horror of all—actually happen in people’s lives today, making it not only a standout in the genre, but also absolute must-see for anyone who’s ever been relaxing at home and wondered: Am I being watched?