Alison Brie stars in "The Rental."IFC Midnight
- Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "The Rental."
- Dave Franco's new horror film follows two couples as they escape to a remote home for a weekend getaway.
- But once they arrive, existing tensions within the group are exacerbated, and a series of unsettling events cause the vacation to turn into a nightmare.
- Most of the movie is pretty straightforward, but the ending raised a few questions.
"The Rental" is a new horror movie directed by Dave Franco that follows two couples — Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Michelle (Alison Brie), and Josh (Jeremy Allen White) and Mina (Sheila Vand) — who escape to a beautiful and remote home for a weekend trip.
But from the start, the couples' vacation is plagued with petty arguments that slowly snowball. Eventually, the tensions within the group cause things to spiral out of control, leading to a bloody conclusion.
Most of the movie is pretty straightforward, but the final moments raised a few lingering questions.
"The Rental" is in theaters, select drive-ins, and On Demand today. Keep reading to see the biggest questions we had after watching "The Rental."
So the weird, racist host wasn't responsible for any of the creepy goings-on in the house?
Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand, and Jeremy Allen White star in "The Rental."
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The audience is suspicious of the vacation home's racist and rude host for most of the movie, especially after he insults Mina, a Middle Eastern woman.
But in a twist, it appears he had nothing to do with the crimes. A mysterious masked man kills the group and then goes back into the home to remove cameras and the video equipment that it appears he had planted there.
He also tried to give Josh and Mina's dog Reggie a scratch on the head – seemingly implying he was also responsible for their dog going missing earlier in the film.
While the movie's final twist is enjoyable, it's still a bit hard to accept that the home's host had nothing to do with their deaths, and was merely a red herring.
How did the masked killer not die after Mina stabbed him in the face?
Sheila Vand plays Mina in "The Rental."
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Towards the end of the film, as Mina is escaping, she manages to stab the killer in the face during a fight. But instead of having any effect on the masked murder, he simply removes the knife from his cheek and continues to pursue Mina, eventually causing her to fall to her death.
Later, it's revealed that the killer was wearing a mask the whole time. But a flimsy rubber mask wouldn't do much to stop a deep wound. So how does he survive?
It's possible that the wound was more superficial than it looked, but the movie never really explains how exactly the killer was able to overcome a stab wound to the face.
The biggest question is who is this masked man and why does he target people who book vacation homes?
In "The Rental," the killer installed hidden cameras in shower heads to track his victims.
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The final few minutes of "The Rental" make it clear to the audience that this attack on the group wasn't random, but expertly planned.
After leaving the scene of his crime, the masked killer — whose identity is never revealed — checks into another property and once again installs video equipment to secretly watch the new home's guests.
So who is he, and why does he do it? Is it simple bloodlust, or something more? Not every killer needs a backstory, but the setup is so unique, the motives of this masked murderer might have benefited from a little more explanation.
Most importantly, what happened to Reggie?
Reggie is the only cute part of "The Rental."
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As far as unanswered questions go, this one is pretty minor, but Reggie the French bulldog was one of the highlights of the movie. With his owners killed by the masked man, who's going to take care of him now?
In the movie's final few minutes, the killer is shown trying to pet Reggie, who wisely turns his head and runs out the door. It would seem that Reggie's forging a new life for himself in the Oregon woods, but how viable is this for a French bulldog?
With any luck, Reggie was found and adopted by some kindhearted people who know nothing of his previous owners' brutal deaths.
"The Rental" is currently in theaters, select drive-ins, and On Demand. For more of our coverage, click here.