“The Rental” (2020) Movie Review aka the 2nd Scooby Doo movie of 2020

This is a SPOILERS filled review for “The Rental” (2020)

 “The Rental” was the directorial debut for Dave Franco and is a new take at the classic slasher film. This movie serves as the first entrée into a new slasher movie series(hopefully). With a new and terrifying idea of what happens when we rent houses and apartments on places like Airbnb.com. Who was there before us? Who owns it? Who stays there when we leave? The movie starts slightly confusing with how the relationships are portrayed between the main characters but is shortly figured out. The headline actors in this movie are of course Dan Stevens and Alison Brie, but also stars the talented Sheila Vand, Toby Huss and Jeremy Allen White. 

I thought this movie was very well done, with an intriguing plot and was shot and acted wonderfully. The plot itself is not some grand new idea it is your prototypical slasher film but that is okay it does not try to be more than it is. This film tries  to just set up a new slasher villain along the lines of a Michael Meyers.

But on to the important part

This movie is just Scooby Doo but set in our reality and shows how it would actually play out. Here are how the characters line up

Dan Stevens’ character Charlie- Fred

Allison Brie’s character Michelle- Daphne 

Sheila Vand’s character Mina- Velma

Jeremy Allen White’s character Josh- Shaggy

The good boy Chunk’s character Reggie- Scooby

Toby Huss’ character Taylor- the episodes generic creepy guy

The gangs all there. The obvious elements are there too. The entire crew goes on a trip together, discover something weird with the house and go into investigate more. Weird shady guy oddly in charge does weird questionable stuff.  In their investigation they get something slightly wrong and that twist turns to the plot to have a “surprise” ending or reveal. 

Daphne and Fred together, and the semi forced relationship of Velma and Shaggy. That’s how we all imagined they paired up right? Wrong. Fred and Velma  love each other and deserve to be together, they are the useful ones meanwhile Daphne was more stuck up but really did not do anything wrong but did not bring much to the table, and Shaggy was too busy hanging out and worrying about Scooby to be useful to the plot unless by accident.

“Let’s split up gang!” No don’t split up in a murder/haunted house, that is how bad things happen. Guess what they did? They split up. Fred (Charlie) and Daphne (Michelle) go one way, Velma (Mina) and Shaggy (Josh) go another to keep looking for clues. 

But what is the difference between a cartoon and real life? Good guys with no training going into investigating something do not catch the evil bad guys. Bad guys with bad intentions generally have their way with the untrained and naive. Call the cops save your life, you are not Sherlock Holmes. 


Plot / Writing                                
6.7/10


Dialogue                                       6.7/10


Acting                                           6.8/10


Visuals / Cinematography           6.8/10


Sound / Score                              7.3/10


Vfx / Choreography                      7.2/10


Wow / Theater Experience           7.4/10


Set / Costume Design                   6.5/10


Details                                           7.1/10


Theme / Ending                             7.8/10                                         

 Total 70.3/100

Final thoughts, enjoyed the movie, there was nothing really groundbreaking but I will definitely be watching the sequel if it happens.

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