The Rental (2020)

This is one of those thrillers where a group find themselves having to get rid of a body after a fun weekend getaway due to tempers flaring out of control, though the one killed isn't actually responsible for a specific crime against them.

Cameras installed in the showers spy on them, and a certain adultery between two of the group (Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand) needs to be covered up, with the caretaker (Toby Huss) considered the one at fault. Stevens' brother (Jeremy Allen White) physically assaults Huss as he's trying to call the police while Vand attempts to stop him, since the adultery would be uncovered. Meanwhile, Huss actually isn't the person with the camera installed and watching (and recording) activities committed by visitors, masking up and eventually going on a kill-spree. The masked killer suffocates Huss while he's in the tub unconscious. 

I love Alison Brie (G.L.O.W and Community, especially, though she's a monster in "Scream 4"), who is just adorable and Stevens cheating on her had me more than a bit, "Nooooo! You can't cheat on Alison Brie!" Stevens is revealed by White to be a serial cheater, during a conversation with Brie, her reaction to that is why I will watch anything she's in: all of a sudden you see this grand realization and a mix of "Uh oh" and "He wouldn't do this to me, would he?" sinks in. The adultery won't stay hidden, despite all their efforts, including how the death happens out of Vand hoping to prevent that getting out while trying to stop Huss from calling the police. The killer has all the goods necessary to wreck what little time he allows the group to have left.He just toys a little with them before killing them.

Vand I fell in love with while watching her marvelous B&W vampire film, "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night", but, in this film, I was left just gut-punched because Brie was such a delight. I appreciated how Brie never was cool with disposing of the body and allowing a crime to go without intense protest. The footage of adultery was the final straw.

The hammer killings were mostly shot either off-screen or at a distance, but the teeth stabbed into a head is right up close. I don't think the violence being too explicit is necessary. The spying itself and subsequent killings at other AirBnbs are what I think chill the bones more than anything else.

Nothing against Dave Franco, but the talent of Stevens, Vand, and Brie in a rather generic thriller seems a bit of a waste. This just isn't anything all that KAPOW. I've seen so many of these, so many.

Still Brie is a treasure that I love with all my heart so I don't consider this a waste, though I feel bad she got dragged into all of the hell inflicted on them. All she does is take some Molly and have some fun. I always feel Brie is sort of kept an arm's link since Vand and Stevens work together, and White is Stevens' brother.  2.5/5

I decided to cut the below from Letterboxd..

Nothing against Franco, this really feels like a lot of other "vacay goes horribly wrong at a nice cottage as secrets/lies unravel relationships as a killer intrudes upon them" thrillers I've seen. It really is very much like many soap opera melodramas. When you have Brie (whom I adore), I won't consider the film a total loss. And the activities of the peeping killer  unveiled -- though I've seen "The Collector" and "Hell Fest" among others also do this -- are chilling. The hammer killings are mostly at a distance or off-screen, so besides the teeth stabbing a head, I think the peeping and how the killer operates will be the most creepy/intense part of the film.

Oh, Brie poking fun at Huss' plumber crack is hilarious. I did pop at that.