So, horror fans, we’ve moved on from “Let’s not make a sound” and “We can’t see anything” to “Oh no… we can’t leave our homes!”
Yes, while A Quiet Place and Bird Box brought a different kind of apocalypse to the outside world, The Last House delivers a similar premise, but without ever leaving your front door.
Bringing back memories of COVID and the feeling of being confined to your own home, Jason Delgado (Wagner Moura) sees his usual fishing trip cut short by a sudden downpour and heads home to the comfort of his family, completely unaware of the nightmare that is about to begin.
As soon as he arrives and we’re introduced to his wife Riley (Greta Lee), son Graham (Noah Alexander Sosnowski) and younger daughter Ruth (Riley Chung), the viewer is plunged straight into a watery nightmare. This isn’t ordinary rain. Somehow, it traps everyone inside their homes. Every broken window somehow seals itself, while every attempt to unlock a door or escape is rendered completely useless.
It’s a wicked concept that grabs you from the off and immediately raises questions. How long would we survive? How much food have we really got before it runs out? It’s always the sign of a good premise when it gets you talking during the film—obviously within the confines of your own home (ha… didn’t mean the pun). I don’t think the stranger sitting next to you in a packed cinema would appreciate you asking how many tins of beans they’ve got in the cupboard.
It’s all good for a while as the family come to grips with their new reality, but you can’t help feeling there’s a really good film somewhere in here screaming to get out. The script introduces several intriguing plot threads but never really commits to exploring them.
One of the biggest examples comes early on, when Jason communicates with the neighbours and tells us who they are. It’s a great hook because we’re naturally curious about how everyone else is coping. Apart from the occasional glimpse of the dentist across the road—for reasons that only really matter later—the neighbours are largely forgotten. The whiteboards used to communicate with the outside world are quickly abandoned as the film focuses almost entirely on the Delgado family.
Surprisingly—and rather oddly—they adapt with remarkable ease. Endless nightly viewings of Annie—one of only two DVDs they own—board games, music from the parents’ LP collection… while the world outside is literally ending, they settle into this new life far quicker than you’d expect. It certainly helps that Jason just happens to be an unemployed engineer who can suddenly build animal traps to ease the family’s food shortages.
As the second half begins, a bizarre time jump doesn’t land the way it should, only reinforcing the feeling that the family are far too calm about what’s happening. Then, almost out of nowhere, we’re thrust into danger as whatever lurks outside suddenly decides it’s had enough of the Brady Bunch lifestyle and goes on the attack. Why it’s taken this long is something you’ll probably still be asking yourself after the credits have rolled.
The final showdown only brings more unintentional laughs, especially after some rather obvious foreshadowing. As the Delgado family—who, let’s be honest, are the main reason we’ve stuck with the film this long—fight for their future, don’t be surprised if you find yourself thinking, “This is beyond stupid,” long before the final outcome.
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