The Last House Review - Great Premise but Familiar Walls

“The Last House” has a Netflix premise that practically sells itself from the thumbnail: a family wakes up and tries to leave their house, only to discover they can’t.  Every door and window has been sealed shut, the rain outside won’t stop, something appears to be moving out there, and the family must figure out how long they can survive with whatever is already inside their home. For many viewers, this setup is enough to draw them in.

Directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Matthew Robinson, “The Last House*” stars Greta Lee and Wagner Moura as Ann and Jason, parents desperately trying to keep their children alive as days inside the house stretch into something more serious. The film is engaging for about the first third, tapping into an immediately relatable question: “How long could we actually make it?” How much food is upstairs? What happens when the water stops? What occurs when the Wi-Fi dies? And what happens when everyone starts getting on each other’s nerves? These smaller survival details are often more intriguing than the eventual mythology.

Lee and Moura lend the film more credibility than the material may deserve. Moura portrays Jason as a father constantly calculating the next problem while trying not to frighten his family. Lee brings a different energy to Ann, whose survival instinct gradually becomes one of the movie’s strongest elements. However, “The Last House” begins to encounter a significant issue.

Being trapped in the same location becomes repetitive. Who knew? The screenplay introduces temporary complications, but the family itself never becomes interesting enough to sustain nearly two hours of confinement. The movie clearly aims for echoes of “A Quiet Place” and other narratives where an ordinary family serves as the emotional center of an extraordinary apocalypse. Yet, those films made us care deeply about the characters before asking us to invest in the threat. Here, the concept comes first, leaving the characters several steps behind.

The obvious parallels to the pandemic lockdown are hard to miss, and the later environmental themes never become as thought-provoking as they initially promise. The final act ramps up the scale, but I’m not convinced it gets any better. Leterrier knows how to stage spectacle, and there are moments when the film finally breaks free from the visual sameness of its central location. However, by then, I found myself more interested in getting answers than in being emotionally invested in what those answers might mean.

“The Last House” isn’t terrible. In fact, it’s exactly the kind of Netflix movie that I can imagine millions of people clicking on Friday night, watching from beginning to end, and then barely remembering by Monday. A great premise might get you through the front door, but you still need a good movie waiting inside.

Final Grade: C

“The Last House” is streaming now.