A nasty slow-burn of a slasher movie that aspires to do for Airbnbs what “Psycho” did for motels, Dave Franco’s “The Rental” serves up a thin slice of millennial folk horror that renders the modern anxieties of the gig economy with the grindhouse-era sadism they demand. Even in spite of its obvious nowness, this thing is such a lean, mean, and utterly merciless old school programmer that it might seem anachronistic if not for the fact that it’s being released onto many of the same drive-in screens that would have shown it 35 years ago.
Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic only strengthens the pull of a film about the friction between Americans’ eroding trust in each other, and our growing addiction…