The Rental, a new horror-thriller that serves as actor Dave Franco’s first foray into directing, is set up as one part Black Mirror and one part dysfunctional relationship drama. Two couples travel to a remote Airbnb for a weekend getaway, only to discover hidden devices watching them from afar. While the film succeeds at small-scale atmospheric tension, its techno-horror elements feel like an afterthought that never quite gels into the main story line, often to the point of randomness.

We open with some deliberate misdirection as co-workers Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Mina (Sheila Vand) secure a gorgeous Pacific oceanfront property to celebrate a successful business deal. The scene is shot to make them feel like an item, only to become awkward when it’s revealed that Charlie has a wife named Michelle (Alison Brie) and Mina is in a relationship with his brother, Josh (Jeremy Allen White), of all people. It’s a pairing Charlie finds bemusing since Mina’s very attractive and Josh is a “barely qualified Lyft driver” with a previous criminal record, but the four of them, plus Josh’s dog, make their way to the house without a hitch. The only caveat is the bookings/maintenance man, Taylor (Toby Huss), who acts creepy and might be racist for not answering the Iranian American Mina’s house bid, despite approving the same deal with her white colleague.

Though their encounter with Taylor ruins the mood a bit, the group still tries to enjoy an opening night of drugs, dancing, and hot tub relaxation. But then a few bad decisions are made that take the trip in a more stressful direction, especially once Mina discovers hidden cameras in the showers. It’s a different take on the “isolated cabin” subgenre Sam Raimi popularized (albeit set in a far nicer residence), complete with what feels like an Evil Dead 2 throwback as the film’s title appears over a tunnel. I was initially intrigued by the setup and liked how the movie builds a casual dynamic between the four leads before revealing its thriller components. The problem lies in how that source of danger is revealed, at least to the audience.

At first, The Rental builds to a confrontation between its only established characters, as most films do. However, the surprise of who’s behind this invasion of privacy feels off because it’s completely detached from anything the couples learn themselves. They’re so engaged with what they perceive to be the real danger that the idea of an outsider culprit never crosses anyone’s mind. Try to imagine Halloween without Sam Loomis to explain Michael Meyers’s obsession with his old house or need to kill and you’ll understand the disconnect. The final minutes reveals a wider modus operandi, but it feels too little too late.

This Black Mirror-inspired predicament isn’t so much Franco’s focus as it is a backdrop for applying pressure onto his couples’ trust issues. The fallout of Charlie and Mina’s actions—which is telegraphed the moment they wind up alone in a hot tub—is already a topic of concern for Michelle and Josh when they arrive. Both love their partners but worry whether it’s possible for such close colleagues to stay platonic.

At just under an hour and a half, Franco and Joe Swanberg’s script would have benefited from a few extra one-on-one interactions between Charlie and Michelle or Josh and Mina, enough to establish a repertoire that the aforementioned sexual attraction threatens. Still, the performances make the bits of humor and interplay tension work, providing more character-driven decisions than your standard horror plot of bad choices that lead to gruesome outcomes.

However, The Rental is less focused compared to Natalie Erika James’s Relic, which utilized its limited cast and location to overlap horror and drama seamlessly. This, by comparison, layers multiple genre conventions atop one another without warning, moving from relationship dramedy to conspiracy thriller and somehow ending with an ’80’s slasher climax. Franco and cameraman Christian Sprenger know how to make a location feel tense—occasionally invoking wide shots to imply a hidden stalker’s gaze—but not incorporating more of that threat into the internal drama beyond a masked figure somewhat undermines its conclusion.

Do I recommend The Rental? As a VOD weekend entry, sure, but part of me wishes it began with something resembling the last few minutes, thus integrating more the surveillance motifs and setting into the main plot. Otherwise, we’re left with a decent piece of indie horror that suddenly shifts tonal gears toward a very left field outcome. Dave Franco definitely made me feel uneasy about Airbnb’s, but I’d still go to Jordan Peele for tips on how to genre-blend a home invasion movie.