Dave Franco's The Rental Coming to Blu-ray in December

It's been an unconventional year in the world of movies, to put things lightly, as the coronavirus [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

It's been an unconventional year in the world of movies, to put things lightly, as the coronavirus pandemic has seen countless movies alter their release strategies in hopes of being seen by as many audiences as possible, with one of the horror films to actually be released being The Rental, a project all the more unconventional as it came from writer/director Dave Franco, who fans largely know for his comedic efforts. The film debuted in select drive-in theaters and On Demand services, with The Rental now coming to Blu-ray and DVD on December 1st from Scream Factory with a handful of special features.

In The Rental, 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. Alison Brie, Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand, and Jeremy Allen White star in this unnerving and sophisticated debut thriller.

The disc's special features are as follows:

  • Behind-The-Scenes Featurette
  • Audio Descriptive Track
  • Trailer
the rental movie blu ray cover
(Photo: Scream Factory)

Given that Franco is known for projects like 21 Jump Street and The Disaster Artist, the stakes were understandably high for the filmmaker to circumvent any expectations from the audience, though actress Vand noted how his experience on-screen ended up being helpful when collaborating on the project.

"He definitely is a perfectionist in a way that I love," Vand shared with ComicBook.com earlier this year. "I feel a little more safe, and actually a lot more safe and comfortable when I see that a director has a strong vision. It's sometimes more worrisome, even though it can be nice to be let off the leash and be on a long rope where you can play a little more, but if you hear too often a director say, "I don't know, try it," it can get disconcerting. But with Dave, there was never, 'I don't know.' He had an answer to every question, and I appreciated that because it made me realize from the get-go that he did have a strong vision in his mind, and it was a vision that I agreed with."

She added, "I appreciated the back and forth. I feel like sometimes I'm very self-righteous in my opinions because I've spent so long with my character, thinking about it. And I think that Dave pushed me sometimes into better performance spaces and there were times where I wasn't necessarily sure on set, like, 'Oh, is this too subtle or too small?' And then when I saw the movie, I was really grateful that he subdued parts of my performance and then brought out other parts of it. I really liked collaborating in that way because he's an actor, so I knew he was looking at it the way I'm looking at it because we both have actor eyes on it. It's a combo of the two, because I feel like perfectionism can have a negative connotation, but in this sense, it didn't feel that way."

Grab The Rental on Blu-ray and DVD on December 1st.

Will you be adding the film to your collection? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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