You know that feeling when you see a house available on Airbnb, and it’s got like six bathrooms, a pool, and a gourmet chef’s kitchen, all for a suspiciously low price? There’s a patio and a firepit? A four-poster canopy bed as well as a home cinema? There must be a catch.
The Rental is that, in movie form.
Dave Franco’s directorial debut stars wife Alison Brie, alongside Dan Stevens, Jeremy Allen White, and Sheila Vand as two couples who rent a beautiful oceanside vacation home for a weekend getaway, only to realise that something isn’t quite right. Romantic twilight walks on the beach and drunken dance parties give way to suspicion and fear after one of them finds a camera in the shower. But as the trailer shows, privacy is the least of their problems. There’s someone lurking around the property — and he’s got a knife.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Brie first mentioned the role back in April 2019, when she posted a picture to Instagram showing off her new blonde bob, captioned: “When your husband asks you to “go blonde” for a role...you say yes.”
Asked by Jimmel Kimmel what it was like to be directed by her spouse during an August 2019 segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Brie replied: “It’s the best!” she said. “I love being on-set with him.”
But although the movie looks frankly terrifying, filming in the small town of Bend, Oregon was reportedly a blast. Brie recounted a night out with one of the cast-members that ended with her falling out of her chair at a restaurant because she was so high.
“Before dinner, I decided to partake in a local past-time — I don’t know if you know, in Oregon, cannabis is legal,” she joked to Kimmel.
Ironically, Brie and Franco owe their relationship status to another marijuana-based fiasco. In a 2017 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Franco admitted that when they first started dating, Brie had to talk him through a panic attack brought on by a weed cookie. The experience made him feel like they could get through anything together.
The Rental will be released in theaters and VOD on July 24, with a special pre-screening event planned at the Vineland Drive-in movie theatre in Los Angeles on July 18, followed by a live Q&A with Franco and the cast. You can watch the full trailer below: