Viewed in
2012
Formats
DVD
Premise
Four college girls rent a house at an incredibly low rate, but comes at a lethal cost.
Liked
Leads, visual effects.
Disliked
Odd choices.
Thoughts
I'm not really a horror fan, especially low-budget shlock subgenre. But it's got some surprising quality.
The best parts were the two leads. Doe-eyed Katherine Browning was charming, playing the most innocent and pious of the hapless gals, with a flair for comedy. Mike Campbell definitely knew how to get his creep on as the mysterious landlord. Not meant as a slight to the excellent work of Erin LeBre, but I thought he was ickier without the makeup.
It had an interesting blend of creepiness, supernatural, and haunted house elements. While it fulfilled the minimum B-movie requirements of boobs and blood, it definitely aimed more for the psychological type of horror, which is usually the cooler type of horror anyway.
One pleasant surprise was the visual effects. I did not expect such quality for a low-budget flick like this. There were characters transporting or doing ethereal soul stuff and it didn't look cheesy or laughable. It was definitely ambitious of the film makers to have that much be part of the story, and I'm glad it worked in highlighting the supernatural elements.
There were some flaws, but they rarely took me out of the moment. Sound could've been improved upon, especially in terms of mixing and music choices. Rob Gokee's scoring wasn't the problem, rather it was rapid swings in genre from scene-to-scene, when it probably would've worked better if it was more consistent to horror-relative sounds.
In fact, music wasn't the only thing that had odd choices that didn't work. Halfway in, the movie detoured into dramaville with the trials and tribulations of lesbian love that felt incongruous to the tone. There was some cool Exorcist aspects in Browning's religious character in the first third, but I was bummed that it was forgotten once the bodies dropped. I also didn't quite get what the voodoo dolls did. But one shouldn't get too caught up in plot logic when babes, boobs, and blood are involved.
Speaking of which, I wished the death and nudity were spread out a bit more. Basically the first half mostly sex, the second half was mostly calamity. Another pet peeve of mine was too much steady-camera use during the non-scary parts.
Sometimes, when someone makes a movie out of their own resources, their story is more interesting than their product. I'm happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised by its (mostly) professional quality. This movie wasn't meant for me, but I think horror fans will enjoy its creepiness, salaciousness, creativity, sound filmmaking, and enthusiasm.
The Rental is screening at the 2012 Action On Film Festival, on August 18th, 4pm, in Monrovia, CA.
