The Last House is the latest Netflix thriller, and it’s the kind that makes you think, “Who is going to watch this?” Then you see that it was their number one movie in 89 countries for the first 48 hours after it dropped, and apparently everybody watched it but you. So I watched it, and turns out it’s not bad.
It’s about a family trapped in their house by an unknown threat that has sealed up all the exits. The family has a mom (the perfect Greta Lee), a dad (the perfect Wagner Moura), a girl (Riley Chung, young and cute), a boy (Noah Alexander Sosnowski, older and therefore less cute), and a dog (even older, but somehow the cutest). They have names, I guess, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they’re trapped inside their house, unable to bust down a door or break down a wall without the mysterious outside goo sealing it right back up right away. It’s pouring down rain outside, and something about that water seems off.
They are not the only house on the block dealing with this, and they find out through whiteboard communication with their neighbors (cell service is out, because of course it is) that this is happening to their entire neighborhood at least. They’re one of the lucky families, with enough food and supplies to get them through the immediate fallout (though their DVD collection only consists of Annie and Air Force One, and I can’t think of a finer argument for owning physical media).
Houses like the senior couple next door weren’t prepared for an emergency like this, and things get dire for them quickly. Our family is relatively comfortable. Well, that is until they run out of the elderly dog’s heart medication. (If you’re the kind of person who likes to check one particular website before you watch movies, yeah, you should check that website.)
Right away, the neighbors start to swap theories. Aliens? Definitely seems possible. The government? Maybe, but why would they do this? They, and you, will never guess what is doing this, and why this is happening, and that suspense is strong enough to outlast the basic premise. As the days and weeks and months pass, the science fiction turns to horror. What’s happening inside the house gets desperate, and what’s outside becomes abominable.
I turned this on as a severe storm warning ravaged the East Coast, and the downpour outside really added to the ambiance. My phone alarmed me with weather warnings and severe storm emergency alerts twice in the first 30 minutes alone, screaming at me to take cover in the basement. I didn’t have the heart to do it, largely because the atmosphere was simply too perfect for the movie. Sometimes all you need is a literal dark and stormy night and a scary movie to go along with it. Wait until your next thunderstorm to turn this on, and you can save the 30 bucks on 4DX.
The unbelievability of the film, as well as the occasional too-far touches of absurdity, are balanced by Lee and Moura. Despite their award-season-recognized performances in films like Past Lives (2023) and The Secret Agent (2025), respectively, I think they’re two of our finest, and somehow still two of our most underrated, actors. I could do without them being Netflix’s flavor of the week, but that fate is inevitable for even our best. They elevate the material (the screenplay is by Matthew Robinson, his second movie this year after Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die), even when it tries a little too hard to be heady.
It’s directed by Louis Leterrier, best known for big-budget movies like The Incredible Hulk (2008) or Clash of the Titans (2010). His first Now You See Me (2013) is a sneaky great movie, but he also directed the most recent Fast and the Furious entry, Fast X (2023), which is also the worst one in the series by far. The Last House, despite the apocalyptic premise and probably stupid CGI budget, is his most grounded film in a while. With the next (and supposedly final) Fast and Furious film up next on his docket, you have to imagine this significantly more claustrophobic effort with great actors is a “one for me” project before he gets back to working on the high-pressure tent pole with all of the egos of The Family™.
The Last House might not be as strong as the first Quiet Place (2018), it might not be as adventurous as the most comparable Netflix original, Bird Box (2018), and it might not quite stick the landing like 2007’s The Mist (what does, really?), but it’s a worthwhile effort even in the shadow of those films. Netflix might plaster it all over the homepage (and actually, if you can believe it, market the film in a now-viral advertising push that trapped an actor — poor guy — inside of a billboard), but they’ll forget about it soon enough. Even if it’s not a masterpiece, it deserves better than that.
Review Courtesy of Patrick J. Regal
Feature Image Courtesy of Netflix