Director – Jon Stevenson
Starring – Wil Wheaton (Into the Dark, Star Trek: The Next Generation), Brian Landis Folkins (Tales from the Vault, Hoax), and Amy Rutledge (Neighbor, Eyes of the Dead)
Release Date – 2020
Rating – 4/5
Several months ago I received a press release from IFC Midnight with a few of their upcoming titles in it. One of those titles was Jon Stevenson’s directorial debut, Rent-A-Pal. I was born in the mid-80s and grew up in the 90s with a huge part of my childhood spent in the video store.
I remember all these VHS fads like visiting the zoo on VHS, dating schemes, and so on. So when I saw that this movie was set in the early 90s and based around the Rent-A-Friend tape series I had to see it. Lucky for me, my friends over at Umbrella Entertainment was kind enough to send a copy my way. Thanks guys!
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows David (Folkins) who lives with his mom who is suffering from dementia. All the care she requires prevents him from dating so he has resorted to video dating as a way to find love. As he waits to find a match he finds a tape called Rent-A-Pal. The film follows host Andy (Wheaton) who begins a friendship with the viewer. David is skeptical of this as first but soon becomes obsessed with his new friend Andy. His friendship even gets in the way of a match that is seemingly perfect with David. The friendship takes a deadly turn when Andy insinuates that he should kill his mother which he does… **Spoiler Alert**
I was really interested in this one because I remember seeing videos like this when I was younger. Putting a horror spin on something like Rent-A-Friend was something rather unique but not unexpected. Videos like this were rather creepy in a way and most of the people who participated in them were rather sad. I love how this film was able to combine the creepiness of those tapes with the sad and lonely people that these tapes were aimed for.
The acting in this one is absolutely phenomenal. I’ve seen praise for Wheaton in his role for Andy. Though he does a fantastic job as the film’s creepy Rent-A-Pal host it’s Brian Landis Folkins that really sells the film. Wheaton deserves all the praise he gets but Folkins is the star of the show and deserves the credit he truly deserves. The supporting cast is great as well. The performances are all amazing and everyone really carries their weight here.
The story for this one is a time capsule full of nostalgia and grounded horror. Seeing the video dating network, the VCR and tapes, and a man approaching middle age desperate to find love is a solid foundation for a horror film that wants to be more real that fiction. Tossing in the weird tape to build friendship and having a lonely and desperate man snap really brings real life horror to the screen. We don’t have monsters, mutants, and other things that go bump in the night. What we have is human doing human things and that’s scary enough. We have great pacing, plenty of character and story development, and just enough tension at the end to make the story work. I really enjoyed how this one was put together.
Finally, this is not a bloody flick. We do have a scene at the end that shows a small bit of blood but nothing that you gorehounds would be looking for. The film is story driven with more focus on the characters than deaths. Overall, Rent-A-Pal would have been my top pick for 2020 if I would have seen it last year. It’s an absolutely amazing film that I recommend to any genre fan. It’s well worth your time so check it out.
