ROOM FOR RENT: Lin Shaye’s Performance Keeps This Dud Alive

There aren’t many reasons to watch Room For Rent. It’s a low budget, low-intelligence thriller about a widow who decides to open her house to strangers. It’s not particularly thrilling, but it features one of the most fun performances by an actress in a while. And that’s all this film really needs to be passable and decent.

Lin Shaye is a familiar face for horror fans, with a starring role in James Wan’s Insidious franchise as demonologists Elise. Shaye has also appeared in several other films, both horror and other genres. She currently has an impressive six films in post-production, but it will be hard to beat her absolutely bonkers performance in Room For Rent.

A Sad Old Widow

Room For Rent begins with Shaye’s Joyce losing her husband traumatically. She finds herself alone and lost, having relied on her husband for a lot of things, including the finances. She finds out about her husband’s debt that she is now responsible for and after a trip to the library to check out one of those steamy romance novels, Joyce spots a magazine advertising easy money. She’s inspired and opens her house as a ShareBnB. Her first guests are Sarah (Valeska Miller) and Edward (Casey Nicholas Price), who soon departs even though Sarah and Joyce spend some time bonding together. Joyce then finds the tall, dark and handsome Bob (Oliver Rayon) to move in and develops a dangerous obsession over him.

Room For Rent has no business working as well as it does. It’s a fun little movie; a bit trashy but also incredibly touching. Shaye throws herself into Joyce and just rolls with the insanity of the script. If anything, the script can’t keep up with Shaye’s madness.

The film’s biggest strength is its tendency to ground everything in tragedy and sadness. Joyce is a truly heartbreaking character; she never asked for any of this, but she is simply trying to survive in a world that is completely foreign to her. She’s comfortable cooking and cleaning for Bob, finding a sense of purpose through these activities. She fixes herself up with some killer hot pink lipstick and high heels, but all these attempts to seduce Bob fail. Joyce is from a different time and feels alone without a man and believes Bob could be the answer she’s looking for. It’s a sad premise and Shaye excels at playing Joyce as desperate and embarrassing, but always someone we can empathise with.

Or Is She?

Although Joyce might turn into the villain of the story, it’s hard not to root for her character. Whether it’s because the script does a good job illustrating her character or a bad job making other characters pleasant and interesting, is a whole different thing. Bob is bland and, although polite, has an unpleasant feel to him. None of the other characters have any personalities and to an extent, neither does Joyce, but Shaye simply pours enough of herself into the role to compensate for this.

Digging deeper into the character of Joyce reveals a broken woman alone in a world she doesn’t recognise. The death of her husband has left Joyce, a socially awkward woman, completely helpless. She is ridiculed by the local youth and she prefers to disappear into wildly romantic, but unrealistic books than face the real life. Joyce is deliciously irritating and terrifying, often in equal measure within the same scene. Shaye plays Joyce as an oddball, a strange but ultimately harmless woman. Or so we thought.

When Joyce’s jealousy and violent tendencies emerge, it’s almost a victory. Sucks for the people she targets, but she’s finally freed. It is implied that her marriage was abusive and a neighbour tells Sarah that Joyce was once pregnant but her husband made her “get rid of it”. She wants to feel wanted, sexually, and needed, like a child needs a mother, so she finds surrogates for both. In Sarah, she finds a daughter and in Bob, she finds a suitable male suitor, like one of the studs from her novels, one that could sweep her off her feet. But she also treats him like a child at times, subbing for the son she never had.

The World’s Worst Filled Donut

It’s a shame nothing else works in the film. The dialogue is clumsy and doesn’t fit into anyone’s mouth. All characters are bland and without any unique qualities. Room For Rent is like the world’s worst filled donut; doughy and undercooked until you get to the sweet, jam-filled middle that is Lin Shaye and it’s all worth it again.

None of the other actors really make an impact, they all seem to be there to give Shaye someone to bounce off of. And it works, to an extent. There are also some strange bird’s eye view shots, that look like they might have been achieved with a drone. Using drones for cinematography comes with its fair share of issues: these shots often lack elegance and the human touch. They’re distant and cold, unnatural and almost robotic.

The film’s ending isn’t shocking or crazy enough to work. It needed to become weirder or at the very least, more entertaining to satisfy. It comes off as lazy and a bit too convenient. Although seeing Lin Shaye snort a handful of cocaine is a visual I did not know I craved. Yet, there is a sense that, in the midst of all the craziness and tragedy, the film’s ending is a sweet and a happy one.

Room For Rent; Overpriced Or A Total Steal?

Room For Rent is a lovely little thriller gem, a real diamond in the rough. It’s not a class A film or cinema at it’s purest, but it explores some fascinating themes and one of Lin Shaye’s best performances. The script could have gone through a few more drafts to make it a bit meaner, but at 80 minutes, Room For Rent is refreshingly lean, but with plenty of meat on its bones.

What’s your favourite Lin Shaye performance? Does Room For Rent manage to subvert expectations? Let us know in the comments!

Room For Rent had a limited release May 3rd and was released digitally on May 7th in the US.