Rating: C+
Dir: Robert Mann
Star: Ryon Thomas, Bryanna McQueeney, Alex Galick, Gloria Mann, Savannah Whitten
We’ve been going off Airbnb lately: what was once a cheap and fun alternative to bigger venues, has become more trouble than its worth. The recent slew of horror films which use private rentals as a location, haven’t exactly been helping. Barbarian. Superhost. Bakemono. I’d not be surprised if they were all funded by a movie-making arm of Marriott. Though at least here, it’s just psychos, rather than the manager carrying out satanic rituals and summoning a demon. The victims are married couple Ryan (Thomas) and Mia Davies (McQueeney), who opt to spend their first anniversary in a Hudson Valley house owned by Kylo (Galick) and Aubree (Whitten). Mind you, Ryan’s nearby sister, Jennifer (Gloria Mann), seems a tad unstable too.
From the get-go, it’s clear this place will not be receiving a five-star review. Though partly, this is through the use of flash-forwards, to points in proceedings after ominous has been replaced by out-and-out kidnapping and violence. This help sustain the tension as the necessary boxes are ticked-off in the script, e.g. spotty cellphone reception, Ryan’s dodgy health, Kylo’s crossbow, the creepy staff, etc. All of which create a feeling of smug superiority in the viewer, who would not be so dumb as to stick around a place with this many concerning aspects. I think I reached that point after Ryan decides the noises in the attic are due to a possum. Not much of a spoiler: they probably are not.
It’s not until the 53 minute mark before even he has had enough, and the Davies’s try to leave. Naturally, that’s when the gloves come off, and the film does at least move out of the Lifetime Original Movie solar-system (where it was probably called “The Wrong Rental”). We discover the reason for what has been going on, though if you’ve been paying attention to the flash-forwards, you might have worked it out. Whitten and Galick are decent value as the psycho couple, delivering the kind of performances which teeter between wooden and over-the-top to good enough effect. Unexpectedly, the sister shows up late, and we discover that being psycho is not necessarily a bad thing. We also learn an untrained man can score a bullseye with a bow when necessary.
I will say, I did not see the particular end coming. Does it “make sense”? Perhaps not, though is hardly out of line with what’s gone before. I did appreciate the red herrings, with some plot points which seemed glaringly obvious, ending up being barely relevant, if at all. Additionally, the makers do understand that it’s more important how you finish than how you start: you will likely remember the last 20 minutes considerably more than the first hour. If only it had embraced that insanity over its full running-time, we’d have had something memorable enough to send vacation renters scurrying for the nearest Motel 6 instead.
The film is currently available digitally on Google, iTunes, etc.