The Last House

• Directed by Louis Leterrier
• August 7, 2026 (Netflix)

A family finds themselves inexplicably sealed in their house, forcing them to learn to survive. They’re in there for years and not days or weeks.

The Last House was a movie that appealed to me because of its Twilight Zone style idea. After viewing it becomes clear that this is movie the writers never thought about the consequences of their ideas or asks simply asks the viewer not to think. It gets weak if not falls apart when you simply start thinking about the film.

This is a weird mix of a family drama and a Cthulhu mythos horror film. There are even elements of the Dawn of the Dead as told by Zack Snyder with the townsfolk using message boards or whatever you wanna call them to communicate. Characters freak out over the least important things. You get trapped in a house inexplicably, yet you’re concerned over a gun bought for defense. Then there is the daughter noticing roaming creatures but not bringing them up even though their world has been shrunk to a relatively small house.

To add a sense of danger there is a great deal made of the structural issues of the house and the chimney. It sounds like the building is about to collapse without some major work but engineer dad (Wagner Moura) is unemployed and mom (Greta Lee) does not have a job? Not sure about her. Then the house is fine for several years until it collapses into a very deep pit once everybody is safely out.

Dad is a very good engineer because not only can he get a car running with no available parts that has not run before the event but build an assortment of traps and gear from household items. The A-Team would have been impressed with his skill.

The film sets multiple rules for survival or how this world is governed which are easy enough for the audience to understand intuitively if not overtly and then abandons them as needed for something to happen. Rain comes at specific times of the day as alluded to by Ruth (Riley Chung). Rain and water acts as a kind of radar for the threatening force which the entire Delgado Family quickly realizes. You stay away from the windows and avoid being seen and they can’t find you. Then The Last House decides to toss it as the movie needs. Like the creatures finding them at the end in broad daylight with no rain. Or the numerous instances where the family watches the rain and nothing happens.

It also can’t decide what the creatures we eventually see specifically are. Are they aliens or supernatural beings or ancient creatures from the depths? It all gets flung in there like so much poo as fact with no hard evidence. If they left it as a discussion and not a settled idea each and every time it might be a little different.

You may ask since this takes place over years and not days, where did the trash go? Four people are trapped in a house for years yet they don’t have any trash. They would probably be hyper reusing things but there’s just some stuff that over time would become unusable and they can’t send it outside very easily. They have a trap that they are using to catch animals and bring them in through the structurally deficient chimney but there is no mechanism to get stuff out. That is to say nothing of catching enough food to feed a family of four for several years.

No matter how much they try, there is no way to break the windows or doors to escape but they are able to break through the floor to get to the sewer or the dirt under the house to grow food. Why no tunnel to the exterior? You have gotten to the dirt!

Whether you’re a dramatic presentation of some kind or comedy, consistency in the rules you establish is necessary. It helps get the viewer through any of the mistakes you make but if your mistake is you’re not following the rules consistently then your viewer won’t be able to get through the film.

You also need to think through your story. What will the outcomes of a decision be. Like catching animals is fine but when the people can’t go outside what are they doing with the trash? And even if you don’t have a very good idea of how to do it, you need to offer an explanation on what you do. Maybe the animal skins were used to make parchment? Something to explain things away even if it is poor.

Last House really works when the monsters finally decide to do something. Then it gets kind of stupid. They capture a creature who has burst into their home to kill them because it decided not to when it salted their water and living room garden. Dad has managed to tie it up and is threatening to kill it if it does not let them outside but not to be bad they let it go. Huh? Why did they let them go? It’s a nice one despite being part of some type of Cthulhu force from the depths of one of the oceans that’s been killing humanity for the past several years.

In the climax of the film, Ruth gets sick and needs antibiotics so they go to the neighbor’s house who was a dentist to access his stockpile of drugs. Don’t ask why a dentist has so many random meds sitting in their house. The problem is that Ruth, after she gets the antibiotics, is on her feet and fully functional for the purposes of the strike against the Cthulhu creature, who turns nice. No recovery time needed.

There is talk of a nice creature by Ruth and it is that (presumed) nice creature that they convince. Before the end you can presume there is a hive mind of some type because it is stated the family never encounters another creature. Certainly they have no walkie talkies but the nice creature must convince a few not nice creatures to let the family alone based on their one act of mercy. So how did word spread? Do not even think how a genocidal species suddenly gave it all up.

The Last House is a very basic survival idea that unfortunately undoes itself. It’s an okay watch but the more you think about it the worse it gets.