The Gist: A lonely man starts losing his grip on reality when he thinks his video tape buddy is real and will do anything for him. ANYTHING!

Anyone Famous In It? Wil Wheaton plays Andy, the titular Rent-A-Pal. All of his scenes were in one room and can only be seen on a VHS tape.

How I Watched It: Streaming on AMC+

So, What Happened? Modern people today think they have it rough with dating apps. It’s full of weirdos and creeps and you never know if you’re going to return with all your kidneys intact. But it’s a far better cry than what people had to do in the ’80s and ‘90s. You had to rely on VIDEO DATING!!

Video dating is exactly what it sounds. You make a video tape of yourself looking for a date, then other poor lonely souls like yourself watch them and decide if they should match with you. If you want to date a person, you have to call a certain number and try to connect with them. It was time consuming and it was somewhat expensive.

And that brings us to the premise of today’s film. David is a very lonely guy who doesn’t have any friends or a girlfriend. He signed up for a video dating service called Video Rendezvous where he looks at tapes of women but they all do or say something that bothers him. He’s told he should update his dating tape since it’s been 6 months since he made one. Oh and also it’s 1987. That’s important to know.

David doesn’t have friends or a girlfriend because he take care of his mother Lucille, who has dementia and doesn’t know who David is most of the time. This takes up all of his time so he can’t get a job or really socialize much. David seems like a nice enough guy, even if he looks like a chubby Jeffery Dahmer at times.

It’s mainly the glasses. Not his fault.

Anyway, after recording his new tape, David finds in the bargain bin at Video Rendezvous a tape called “Rent-A-Pal” featuring a very friendly man on the cover who promises to be YOUR FRIEND! Curious, David buys the tape. When he gets home, he puts it in and a very cheerful guy named Andy greets him on the tape. He sounds like Steve from Blues Clues, asking a question and then pausing so the person at home can respond.

David at first laughs this off and makes fun of the tape, but after a near miss with a date, he plays the tape to keep him company and soon take solace with the man on the screen. David watches this tape every day for an extended amount of time, to the point where he has the tape memorize and can have the proper response to Andy’s questions and remarks.

Things take a sudden dark turn when it appears the tape’s stock questions and answers start sounding…more personal. And seem to actually respond to David’s answers. Even during one part where it seemed like the tape was saying David’s name…

The date that David missed out on actually called David back and wanted to got out on a date with him. He ends up meeting Lisa at a roller rink and they immediately hit it off. She’s kinda shy and quiet and is a nurse at a nursing home so he understands David’s pain of being a caregiver for his mom. They have a fun date, she gives him her phone number, and David rushes home and immediately tells….Andy. The guy on the TV screen. About the date.

This time, Andy seems to get mad and jealous about David’s date. Even infuriated at him. Andy tells David they made plans for tomorrow night! David, not wanting to upset his new best friend, apologizes profusely and promises to break the date. And David ACTUALLY calls Lisa and tell her he can’t make the date.

This fucking lunkhead has something going for him and he’s going to let a videotape magic person ruin it for him! I mean, I like Wil Wheaton as much as the next guy but when he tells me I can’t go get laid, then we have a problem, Wil. We have a fucking problem.

It is around this point that movie kinda gets cringey because you felt sorry for David for the first 45 minutes of the movie. You understood his pain. You felt his loneliness. You understood when he jerked off to 8MM porn. You were there for him! Then you got excited for him when he finally finds a woman, an honest to goodness woman, who seems to LIKE HIM despite his quirks and awkwardness. And understands his living situation. You wanted to see David succeed. And now you have to watch him throw it all away because a fucking tape is telling him to. And David even struggles with this. You see he wants to go on the date with Lisa. But he also doesn’t want to disappoint his new friend.

And sure enough, he’s in front of his TV, playing stupid Go Fish with his friend Andy, who may or may not actually be talking to David. David spent so much time with Andy that hours go by and he forgets to check on his mom. He find her gone and the door wide open. Freaking out, he runs out and looks for her everywhere. He finally calls Lisa who agrees to help find her and they do, at a bus stop, waiting for a bus that’ll never come. Lisa helps David get Lucille in the car and get her home and after tucking her in, they go down into David’s bedroom in the basement.

After chatting for a bit, things get hot and heavy and they start making out. David accidently brushes against the TV remote as he prematurely ejaculates as the TV comes on and Andy starts laughing at David’s misfortune. David, embarrassed more about the video tape than cumming in his pants, gets angry when Lisa asks about the tape and he throws her out of the house.

Upset because Andy is running his life now, David cuts off all ties with Lisa and is moping around the house. Wanting to talk to his pal Andy, he finds the tape missing. Looking for it upstairs, he finds Lucille has cut it all up, thinking it was SCOTCH tape. He angrily hits her, causing her to fall to the floor, and David runs out of the house.

David shows up at the Video Rendezvous place and angrily demands they give him another Rent-A-Pal tape. They give him all the copies they have and he runs out. He starts playing it, leaving Lucille on the floor wailing in pain and soon, David REALLY snaps. He helps Lucille up from the floor, only to guide her to the top of his basement stairs and then pushes her down the stairs, causing her to break every bone in her body. He starts mimicking Andy from the tape, reciting every line Andy has ever said. And this becomes problematic when Lisa comes over to apologize. Lisa finds Lucille on the basement floor and freaks out. David chases after Lisa and using the broken videotape from earlier, starts choking Lisa. Lisa grabs a pair of scissors and stabs David RIGHT IN THE FUCKING HEART, then she runs out of the house, screaming for help. David, in his dying breath, goes to the basement and fast forwards the tape to the end where Andy says goodbye to his friend and, gosh, they had a lot of fun, didn’t they? Well, so long, pal! And David dies.

Final Thoughts: This is one of those films that people mis-label has “horror” making me fall for it. It’s only somewhat horror. It’s more of a thriller than anything else. But I was late this week with a review and didn’t have time to watch something else so here we are. With that said, this was a solid movie. The acting was wonderful all the way around. Will Wheaton did a great job as Andy and all he did was sit in a white room with a chair and a few props and say lines to a camera, but the way he said the lines and how each time you heard them in different context was great. I wish Wil Wheaton was in more movies, he is a great actor. The guy who played David, Brian Landis Folkins, was wonderful. He starts off as a sympathetic character, making you feel for the guy, but by the end you find him creepy and wonder what’s wrong with him without really having to change much. This movie will make you uncomfortable but you won’t be able to look away. And it’s hidden on AMC+ so I urge you to check it out.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.