SPOILER ALERT: This story contains major spoilers for “The Last House,” out now on Netflix.
“The Last House” is a new sci-fi feature that just dropped on Netflix that’s built around a central mystery: What if you and all of your neighbors were locked inside your houses with no option for escape and had no idea why?
That’s what Ann (Greta Lee) and Jason (Wagner Moura), along with their two kids, Graham and Ruth (Noah Alexander Sosnowski and Riley Chung), face in this new dystopian tale from screenwriter Matthew Robinson and veteran blockbuster director Louis Leterrier (“Fast X,” “The Incredible Hulk”).
The film starts on an unexpectedly rainy day, when the family realizes they’re sealed into their house with no way of opening or smashing through the doors or windows. Any attempt is thwarted by a seal seemingly made of rainwater.
Thanks to a well-stocked pantry, the family is able to survive handily as weeks crawl by. Christmas comes and goes, and at points the crew is happy to live the simple life together. But things grow more tense, especially as neighbors that are also sealed in struggle to survive.
Although the film doles out answers, there is some economical hand-waving about why the neighborhood has power and running water for so long. And also there’s literally a Chekhov’s Gun, but more on that later.
Things hit a tipping point when a neighbor who had been out jogging when everything was sealed runs up to the family’s windows and starts pounding, screaming things “Everyone is dead,” “Don’t let them see you!” and “They’re here, and no help is coming!” She also looks crazed and is carrying a big butcher knife, but is pulled away by wet-looking tentacles which burn bright after they capture the jogger.
Things get increasingly bleak, as the family dog’s heart medicine runs out and Jason has to put him out of his misery, and then — in doomsday prepper mode — carves up the body and puts it in the freezer just in case food gets dire.
As time goes by, rainfalls grow more sinister, as big monsters claw against the windows if they spot anybody inside, forcing the family to quickly close the curtains. Meanwhile the family is growing increasingly hungry and grumpy with each other, as food runs low with no new signs of escape.
But just when it seems like all is lost, Jason comes up with an idea of how to trap animals outside and drag them through the open chimney, while Ann removes the flooring to turn the house into a garden. Unfortunately, the power finally goes out.
We jump ahead five years and the house is a full-on farm. The kids are now older and played by different actors (Emma Ho and Gabriel Barbosa). The neighborhood is overgrown, looking like a full-blown forest. While there is plenty of food, everyone looks pretty depressed. Meanwhile, the soil surrounding the house is eroding and the structure is sinking.
One day during a big rain, a creature uses water powers to open the door to the house. The family hides from the beast, which looks like a mix between a Cthulhu, an octopus and a big, beefy guy. Beyond causing distress, it appears as if some fluid dripping off the creature instantly deep freezes anything it touches. The alien leaves before it can do much damage, but when it departs the family is still trapped inside. Ruth accidentally tastes saltwater coming from one of the beasts, and they realize that all of the plants and drinking water were poisoned by said saltwater. It also solidifies a theory that perhaps the beasts come from the darkest depths of the sea, instead of the stars.
Ruth gets bitten by a ferret that accidentally gets stuck in their food trap, which makes her sick and in need of antibiotics. Jason freaks out and tries to ram his car through the garage door, but it knocks him out and exposes some deeper cracks in the house’s foundation. He then lifts some tile out of the bathroom and realizes it opens up into the sewer drain, which connects the whole neighborhood — including the house of their dentist neighbor who has antibiotics.
Ann has to go down into the sewer as she’s small enough to fit, and makes it to the dentist’s house. The inhabitants are long dead, and she grabs the antibiotics, but she’s chased out by a monster, who then realizes that there are humans in their house.
The family then works to booby-trap the house “Home Alone”-style, confident that if they can defeat incoming aliens, they can escape out the doors that were opened in the process.
The rain starts up again, paired with some nasty-looking cyclones. Water starts rapidly flooding the house, with a creature swimming through, clearly adept at moving underwater as had been predicted. Frantic skirmishes between the family and the beast take place as the house floods, and eventually the invading creature is tangled up in a trap. Jason frees it, hoping it will show the same mercy to them, and it does, letting them into the wilderness. They’re initially surrounded by more creatures, but the beast they helped shooed them away.
Their house disintegrates and falls into the ground, and then Ruth — whose kindness to animals ultimately saved them, as it encouraged her father to free that beast — runs to the shoreline. It’s clear that Seattle is now underwater, given that the Space Needle is nearly fully submerged, but the family starts laughing as they go to grab their fishing gear and sail across the now elevated water.
The movie ends with Ruth’s narration: “We never saw them again, but we think they’re still out there. After all, it’s their home too.” They finally ask over their boat’s radio if there are any survivors, and get an inquisitive “Hello?” back as the credits roll.
Watch the trailer below.
