How to watch The Rental movie online: Release date, reviews and more

(Image credit: IFC Films)

The Rental release date, cast

Release date: Friday, July 24
Cast: Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss.
Director: Dave Franco
Run-time: 1h 28 min
Age rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%

Sad you can't travel this summer? Watch The Rental movie online and you'll probably feel lucky to stay at home. The horror film is available on demand right now, after premiering Friday, July 24.

The Rental is actor Dave Franco's directorial debut, and stars his wife Alison Brie, Dan Stevens (Legion, Downton Abbey) and Jeremy Allen White (Shameless). Franco also co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Swanberg (Easy).

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The story follows two couples on a weekend getaway that turns sinister. They rent an AirBNB-type house on the Oregon coast but soon suspect the owner of spying on them. And over the weekend, well-kept secrets are exposed and the four old friends come to see each other in a whole new light. Maybe quarantining at home isn't so bad after all!

Here's everything you need to know about how to watch The Rental online right now.

How to watch The Rental with a VPN

If you're stuck abroad — away from countries where The Rental is available on video on demand — you will likely run into geo-fenced restrictions on the platforms and services you can use But, with the help of a virtual private network (VPN), you can watch The Rental (and all the other services you already pay for) no matter where they are.

Based on our testing, the best VPN is ExpressVPN, which is easy to use and delivers fast internet speeds, making it simple to set up for streaming in no time at all. It also works on practically any device, starting with iOS and Android and including streaming devices such as the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Apple TV. Plus, game consoles like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

How do I watch The Rental in the US?

The Rental is streaming now after being released on Friday, July 24 as a video on demand rental via major digital marketplaces. .

It will also play in some drive-in movie theaters around the U.S.

The Rental cast

The Rental cast is fairly small, since the movie is almost like a bottle episode, featuring mostly two couples. Here's the cast list:

Alison Brie as Michelle, Charlie's wife
Dan Stevens as Charlie, Michelle's husband and Josh's brother
Jeremy Allen White as Josh, Mina's boyfriend and Charlie's brother
Sheila Vand as Mina, Josh's girlfriend
Toby Huss as Taylor

The Rental reviews

Dave Franco's movie is getting mixed reviews. Some critics are calling it an effective thriller, while others are disappointed that it's not sufficiently scary. Here's a roundup of The Rental reviews:

Rolling Stone: "Over 88 vise-tightening minutes, The Rental never lets up on your nerves. But it’s the human betrayals that cast the longer shadows, the ones that keep you up nights."

New York Times: "... one of the most dissatisfying, anticlimactic endings in genre memory."

Entertainment Weekly: "... a neat, nasty little thriller with a brutally effective final third."

AV Club: "This setup is so credible, in fact, that it’s doubly disappointing when the thriller elements do finally materialize and then promptly fail to thrill; it’s as if someone snatched the remote and changed the channel to a half-assed slasher starring the same characters."

Associated Press: "If such horror films can be split into three parts — dreamy setup, scary stuff happens, all-hell-breaks loose ending — what makes The Rental a more satisfying experience is that the ending actually IS scary and suspenseful, even surprising."

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Kelly is the managing editor of streaming for Tom’s Guide, so basically, she watches TV for a living. Previously, she was a freelance entertainment writer for Yahoo, Vulture, TV Guide and other outlets. When she’s not watching TV and movies for work, she’s watching them for fun, seeing live music, writing songs, knitting and gardening.