Netflix’s The Last House is an exciting original psychological thriller

🏚️📺 What would you do if you were trapped in your house with nothing but what is already there to sustain you for the rest of your life? Directed by Louis Leterrier (Now You See Me), written by Matthew Robinson (The Invention of Lying), and starring Greta Lee and Wagner Moura as the two protagonists, The Last House is one of the better Netflix originals dished out by the streaming platform recently.

The plot: Ann (Lee) and Jason (Moura) are two loving parents doing their best to give their children Ruth and Graham the lives they deserve, despite piling debts and problems of their own. When a sudden thunderstorm drives all the residents in their Seattle neighborhood to take shelter indoors, the family quickly realizes that they — alongside the entire world — have been permanently trapped indoors when the rain proves to be of supernatural origin.

As hours turn into days, and days turn into weeks, they begin formulating a plan to survive. The rain comes, and with it, supernatural dangers that no one can begin to fathom. What was initially treated as a temporary situation soon proves to be an unpleasant permanent reality, and they’ll have to make difficult choices to survive.

What we liked: The Last House is a psychological sci-fi thriller that truly offers something fresh: an interesting never-been-done-before premise that prioritizes its characters over cheap jump scares or convoluted special effects. The film brilliantly showcases the toll that isolation in the face of imminent danger can take on the human mind, the lengths we would go to survive, and the unthinkable actions we would take to protect ourselves and those we love. Moura and Lee, alongside Riley Chung and Emma Ho (who play Ruth at various stages) and Noah Alexander Sosnowski and Gabriel Barbosa (who play Graham), all deliver commendable, raw performances that felt entirely human at their core, with Lee proving a scene-stealer.

What we didn’t: While the Netflix original gets lots of things right, some things just don’t land, including the nature behind the supernatural phenomenon, the origin story of the “villains,” and the overall message of the film, which to many viewers could be considered cheesy. That said, we’d say its IMDB rating of 5.5/10 is a little unfair.

The verdict: The Last House is a Netflix film that is actually worth your time. From start to finish it proves intriguing and difficult to pause. The last act in particular had us on the edge of our seats, and the tension paid off. The film is a true original and difficult to predict — that alone earns it favor.

WHERE TO WATCH- The Last House is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer on YouTube (watch, runtime: 2:32).