2026 | PG-13 | starring Wagner Moura, Greta Lee | directed by Louis Leterrier | 1 hr 52 mins | 3 out of 5 stars |
Father Jason (Wagner Moura) and mother Ann (Greta Lee) are raising their two young children in suburbia when one day a storm comes and whatever falls from the sky seals them, and every house around them, in their house. Forced to conserve food, fend for themselves and communicate with their neighbors in writing through signs in windows, the family becomes self-sufficient long enough to become a threat to the forces who brought the rain.
With the way that Netflix has churned out gimmicky, click-bait junk, just to get a weekends buzz, over the last few years, it’s no wonder The Last House was met with skepticism. I came into this one only hearing nothing but bad things and was pleasantly surprised by all of it. It looks like another gimmick film of the many the streamer pushed down the pipe to clone A Quiet Place after the success of their Don’t Look at It quasi-thriller Bird Box. Don’t look, don’t make a sound, don’t speak, don’t breathe. Something is out there a new sense against you and what’s the laziest way to work the problem. The Last House is not that, it starts with the central conceit that people are locked in their house, not that the rain is toxic, but something in it has sealed the doors and windows shut, and then plays out a family adventure inside a chamber film.
It’s too bad it came in so close to the similar suburban horror The End of Oak Street. They have a bit in common – family trapped in a sinking house where suburbia has been assaulted by nature – but in a lot of ways play off of each other’s weaknesses. Where Oak Street was about momentum, horror and spectacle to the expense of the sci-fi and character elements, this movie has stronger characters (particularly a strong father figure in the always reliable Moura, Narcos, Civil War, The Secret Agent), children that aren’t annoying and gives itself the breathing room to explore the problem. In several ways I preferred it. It’s the best kind of high-concept movie, where we watch characters work the problem. They grow and catch food, they communicate, they build a small home ecosystem and they do it, over a… long time. But it also doesn’t just let the film be a mystery box, supplying a villain and a motive for our heroes to fend off. I fully expected this movie to settle into isolated, family crumbling misery porn and was fine with the rays of hope it gives us.
The Covid Lockdown allegory is strong here and is also handled better than it is in, say Alejandra Aja’s Never Let Go or The Woman in the Yard. It’s atmospheric and finds new ways to keep the visuals interesting without feeling more claustrophobic than it needs to. Louis Leterrier is a director known as a go-to for assembling shallow studio fluff (Now You See Me, Fast X, The Incredible Hulk), and yes, the characters are still thin and the structure is formulaic, but this movie is completely competent in how it’s made and how the story rolls out. A reliable adventure and much better than the streaming blockbusters Netflix usually gives us. A delightful surprise. The Last House could have worked as a full theatrical release.