Film Reviews

August 7, 2026

"The Last House" is a so-so science fiction thriller that regularly feels like it's in a rush to get through itself, especially at the beginning, as if it was banking on the audience not having a long attention span. It's fitting, then, that it's being released on Netflix, which typically means viewers probably won't be sitting down to watch it in a single sitting and will likely be doing other tasks at the same time. This isn't the first movie to operate as though it's aware it's being viewed on a streaming platform (versus in the theater), and it certainly won't be the last.

Along with its hurriedness, the film is a composite of several others of its kind, with M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" and "The Happening" coming to mind, not to mention "Cloverfield" and "10 Cloverfield Lane." In fact, the filmmakers seem to assume the audience has seen a lot of the movies they borrow from and indirectly rely on us to recall said movies in order to give "The Last House" a mood and sense of dread and excitement it otherwise doesn’t give itself time to establish on its own. Perhaps this was filmmakers' way of freeing themselves up to focus on the movie's burning questions of how and why the characters are in their peculiar situation.

To be fair, the characters' bizarre predicament, and the questions surrounding it, are, to a degree, enough of a hook to keep us watching, even if it mostly feels like a passive, inconsequential experience. The protagonists' puzzling scenario is set up within the first 10 minutes, maybe less, when a female narrator informs us, "The day the rain came, we knew we were not alone." From there, director Louis Leterrier and editor Adam Gough dive right into the meat and potatoes of Matthew Robinson's screenplay, which is a story about a mostly ordinary family trapped, literally, by extraordinary and inexplicable circumstances.

One cloudy December day, husband and wife Jason (Wagner Moura) and Ann (Greta Lee), and their two prepubescent kids, Ruth (Riley Chung, Emma Ho) and Graham (Noah Alexander Sosnowski, Gabriel Barbosa), on their unremarkable Seattle cul-de-sac, suddenly find they can't leave their house. All the doors and windows are locked and impenetrable. And it's not just them who are facing this dilemma, but also their neighbors: the retired dentist and his sickly wife; the weird, creepy single guy; the man with the boat that reads, "seas the day"; the outdoorsy younger couple who like to bike and run (which, ironically, are interests that end up costing them).

Everyone in the neighborhood signals to the others, by way of chalkboards and paper signs, that they too cannot leave their homes and inquire with one another about things such as food supplies, etc. Wi-Fi is also down, although electricity remains on. Quickly, this becomes our main family's new reality: they're not getting out, yet they remain hopeful that someone outside is doing something about it, and their situation is merely temporary.

Meanwhile, Jason and Ann, to keep their house manageable and present a positive face for Ruth and Graham, come up with a plan and lay down some ground rules. Homeschooling, physical fitness, food rationing, non-internet activities: these are everyone's new responsibilities. And as far as entertainment, it's either books, board games, or watching "Annie" and "Air Force One," because these are the only DVDs Jason still has on hand (along with an "ancient" DVD player). (Quick sidebar: The constant references to "Annie" and "Air Force One" make you wonder if Netflix struck a cross-promotion deal with those films' distributor, Columbia Pictures.)

Naturally, as viewers, the family's situation triggers us to recall the COVID-19 pandemic, and how our own lifestyles practically changed overnight. This alone is enough to stir anxiety and tension when watching "The Last House," and more so as the characters' forced sequestration becomes grimmer and more dire as the days turn into months, and the months turn into years. Will the family ever find answers about why their house effectively became a prison, and will they be doomed by either mental or physical health issues?

"The Last House" has a bit of humdrum beginning, but it gains traction as we observe the lengths the family will go to lean into and own their mysterious crisis, and their behaviors and methods prompt us to ask ourselves what would do if we were them, which is often the mark of any good survival story. Would we stay calm? Would we internalize our emotions and frustrations? How would we pass the time? What new hobbies or interests would we take up? "The Last House" does a commendable job of exploring these questions, and the family members do creative things that are perfectly reasonable and in the realm of possibility. For instance, Jason puts his engineering skills to work and concocts ingenious ways to trap the wildlife that's lurking around outside; Ann turns to gardening, and lucky for them, their house was already collapsing, which makes it easy for her to utilize the dirt underneath the living room floorboards; Graham fends off depression by becoming a protector for Ruth; and Ruth dives into stories about seemingly mythical sea creatures, one of which she believes she saw outside during a rainstorm.

Of course, there comes a point when "The Last House" must live up to its science fiction and supernatural labels, and the means by which it transforms from a story about a forced quarantine to a sort of monster movie, I'll let you discover. What I can say is "The Last House" does a decent job of gradually making us care about what happens to its four leads, and the actors are dedicated and convincing, especially when you think they probably could have just as easily mailed in their performances. "The Last House" reaches a point where we're watching it actively and its initial hook of how and why the characters are in this mess pays off with a fair amount of intrigue and emotion. What's more is that it negotiates its ending and avoids what we think is a foregone conclusion.

Movie categories have practically existed ever since the medium was born, but over the last couple decades, two emerged that seem to be at the forefront of viewers' minds: 1) movies that are worth a trip to the theater; and 2) movies that are worth our attention on streaming platforms. For a movie that deliberately tries to make it into the latter category, "The Last House" sits just a shade above the passing mark. We're not likely to remember it, but we feel compelled to stay with it, and by the end, we're giving it enough of our undivided focus, which is probably what the filmmakers were hoping for.

Available on Netflix 08/07/2026