Room for Rent (2016)- A Well Crafted Paranormal Horror Experience- Fitz of Horror Review

Written by Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror) September 30, 2018

Synopsis-After the untimely death of his parents, David Bagley’s life is shattered. He decides to buy his first home, in an attempt to sort things out, but quickly finds that his problems aren’t going to be solved so easily. After placing an ad online for a roommate, David starts to receive emails about a possible haunting in his house and makes it his personal mission to disprove all their theories. Of course, after a few bumps in the night and something stalking the shadows of his attic, David starts to doubt his skepticism.

I hadn’t heard of Richard Tanner or A Buck Short Productions until last year when Frankenthug was brought to my attention and it wasn’t until recently that I finally put Room for Rent into my collection. With a budget of $5,000 and the found footage angle, I honestly wasn’t expecting to like this movie as much as I did.

The main character David Bagley (Sam Wise) has just bought and moved into a new house after his parents died and he is looking to get a roommate to help cover some utility costs so he sets to Craigslist and YouTube to conduct a virtual ad and tour of the house. While filming the first video something strange is captured on film and instead of people being interested in the room they are more intrigued with the fact that the house could be haunted, leaving David alone in his new home.

David being a level headed skeptic decides to film himself debunking the haunted house theories but soon finds himself uncovering the very dark history of both his home and the town.

Richard Tanner’s writing and direction make what should have been a run of the mill low budget found footage film, into a very adept and well done horror movie. The introduction of David’s sister Sarah (Libby Blanton) was a turning point in the film because she adds extra family backstory that is a great extra layer to the film, but also the fact that she was so damn annoying. As the film transitions back and forth from David’s YouTube footage and now Sarah’s Instagram live feeds, it cements Sarah as an attention seeking party girl who is always acting like a big shot on her social media platforms. I instantly hated this character BUT the way Tanner wrote this script, I ended up loving this character dynamic.

The brother/sister relationship is clearly strained and Sarah seems to be using her camera as a filter to help her deal with the awkwardness of their situation, as she realizes something is really wrong with the house and that her brother could be in serious danger she changes and so does the film.

As stated before, Tanner’s writing of the story and the characters is, dare I say, masterful. I personally feel that about 5-10 minutes could have been shaved from the running time (1 hour 15 minutes) but that by no means took anything away from the overall great viewing experience. He doesn’t rely on jump scares or CGI to move his story along, he uses a very well written script and excellent directorial skills to spin a more creepy tale.

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