#Thriller #Movie #Review - Room for Rent (2019)

In the last few days, I’ve come across some movies that I didn’t even know were in the works. And when I saw the trailer for Room for Rent (2019), I knew I had to see it. The biggest reason was that I hoped it was better than the other Lin Shaye movie from earlier in the year, and it is.

The first time I saw Lin in anything was, of course, Insidious. She has this way about her that hinges on the edge of lunatic but never tips over. Well in Room For Rent, and similar to The Final Wish, her character has lost her husband. In this one, she plays Joyce, who seems sad and frail, but there’s that gleam in her eye as she’s tormented that she isn’t exactly the victim she’s trying to make the world believe. And as the film progresses, the veneer rubs away, and we see the pure, raw Joyce, and I wonder what actually happened to her late husband, Fred.

The menacing of a woman scorned is quite the thing to see as Joyce makes sure that she gets what she wants, too bad it happens to be Bob, a man she’s rented a room in her house to; he’s at least thirty years younger, but she thinks she has a chance. You go girl.

Joyce’s obsessions and lies and changing lies are creepy and frightening. And her smile, wow, it sent chills down my spine every time it stretched across her face. The 13 Cameras moment was just as repulsive as it was the first time I saw it. Her blurred lines of fantasy and reality are exacerbated as she read the pages of romance novels. The lengths that she goes to get this man are beyond belief, though believable if that makes sense.

I’m happy to say that Room For Rent is much better than Lin’s first of 2019, and I’m giving it 4.5 out of 5 Stars.