The Last House (2026)
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Premise: A mysterious rainstorm causes buildings to seal shut, imprisoning people inside of their homes. A family is trapped together while amphibious monsters lurk outside.
What Works: The best part of The Last House is the opening. It has a Twilight Zone-like premise and the scenario echoes the experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s fun for the family at first, almost a vacation, but isolation takes its toll. The performances of The Last House are quite good. The film stars Greta Lee and Wagner Moura as the parents of two children who are played at first by Riley Chung and Noah Alexander Sosnowski and later by Emma Ho and Gabriel Barbosa. They are convincing as a family, especially in the early scenes. The banter between the family members feels authentic and early scenes have a great deal of humor. The film looks good. The neighborhood slowly descends into decay as nature takes over. Later on, giant amphibious creatures stalk the neighborhood. The special effects have a naturalistic look that is convincing.
What Doesn’t: The storytelling of The Last House is sloppy. The filmmakers play fast and loose with the logic of their concept. A family is trapped in their house by a supernatural force. A storm system has sealed the doors and windows of their home and efforts to smash through and escape are unsuccessful; the house supernaturally repairs itself. But later in the movie the family is able to rip up the floorboards and get to the dirt underneath the house to lay a garden. They feasibly could have tunneled their way out. The family is also able to run a rope up the chimney and out of the house. The rope is baited with a trap to grab small animals but how they get this contraption up the chimney in the first place never makes sense. The film is littered with these kinds of inconsistent details. The filmmakers don’t follow through with their ideas and characters. Prior to the rain, the family doesn’t really know their neighbors but afterward begin communicating with them though signals and chalk signs. This idea is introduced but dropped without explanation. The ending has a major reversal of expectation that isn’t properly set up. This moment is supposed to be emotionally affecting but it’s just confusing. The film also has occasional narration. It’s unnecessary and feels tagged on to overexplain what’s already obvious.
Disc extras: Available on Netflix.
Bottom Line: The Last House wastes a good cast and an interesting idea. The filmmakers don’t commit to their central idea and the film squanders many of its most interesting aspects.
Episode: #1112 (August 16, 2026)