Flipping the home invasion thriller on its head, Netflix’s The Last House puts a family in peril when a mysterious threat seals them inside their home with no escape while torrential rains pour down — for days that turn into weeks, months and years. Louis Leterrier’s capable direction and reliably solid performances from Greta Lee and Wagner Moura as parents desperate to shield their kids from their worst fears make for a film that, despite its sci-fi and horror elements, is as much a psychological chamber drama and survival thriller about four people using their wits and dwindling resources to stay alive, even as their close-knit ties start fraying.
Inevitably recalling the isolation of COVID lockdown, the screenplay by Matthew Robinson (Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die) oscillates between finding comfort and terrified vulnerability in self-reliance, keeping the exact nature of the force imprisoning the family — and seemingly everyone else in the world — vague until roughly an hour in, when the suspense is turned up even as the storytelling gets wobbly.
The Last House
The Bottom Line
Lockdown redux.
