Film Review

The Rental (2020) • Amazon

Two couples rent a vacation home for what should be a celebratory weekend getaway.

Dave Franco is best-known as the younger brother of actor James Franco, whom he co-starred with in The Disaster Artist (2017). But now he’s making his directorial debut with The Rental, a horror film he also co-wrote that stars his wife Alison Brie (Horse Girl). Released at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave, it has the distinction of being the first movie to reach №1 at the US box office and video-on-demand (VOD) chart simultaneously.

The Rental is something of an update to Psycho (1960), only less masterfully made, with two couples heading to the coast for a weekend getaway: Charlie (Dan Stevens) and his wife Michelle (Alison Brie), and Charlie’s brother Josh (Jeremy Allen White) and his girlfriend Mina (Sheila Vand). They arrive at the luxurious seaside house and start settling in, but are unnerved by the property’s caretaker, Taylor (Toby Huss), after he makes a few casually racist remarks toward Mina, who is of Middle Eastern descent. To say more would spoil things, but suffice to say their stay doesn’t go…