The Last House Movie Review

The Last House (2026)

Watch the trailer
Written by: Matthew Robinson
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Starring: Greta Lee, Wagner Moura
Rated: PG-13

Plot
A family of four is suddenly sealed inside their house with no way out and must work together to survive against both their dwindling resources and the mysterious, looming threat that is keeping them trapped.

Verdict
This fails from nearly the beginning with pointless voice over that tells us exactly what's about to happen.  The story is largely disappointing with a lack of consistency, stakes, and realism. The movie takes liberty when needed to add tension, but it's always a shortcut. It never comes close to doing enough. The first half was almost bearable. The second half was even less engaging as it became absolutely clear this movie was not going to get any better.
Skip it.

Review
Voice over in the opening scene robs this of any tension. We're told the rain is the problem and that humans aren't alone. It would be so much more fun to experience this instead of given a summary at the beginning. Why would you undercut the movie before it starts?

This wastes little time. Six minutes in and the family can't open the doors or windows to leave the house. This has done the bare minimum to establish the family. We're told the house is falling apart, and Jason (Wagner Moura) is out of work. He can't open the front door, resorting to kicking it open. That doesn't work, and the only problem is that the door swings in, so kicking it wouldn't accomplish anything. He then tries to smash a window. The glass fractures but remains in place. The rain has created some kind of shell around every house.

Noah Alexander Sosnowski, Wagner Moura, Greta Lee, Riley Chung play Graham, Jason, Anne, Ruth

Despite being trapped, they plan to keep a schedule. They'll also watch the two dvd's they own. There's a Netflix dvd mailer envelope briefly shown, a reference to the good old days. If the rain wasn't enough, and it's not, there are shapes moving in the rain. The rain also seems to have some amount of sentience.

In the first of many forced emotional stakes, the family has an old, sick dog. Locked in the house with no access to the outside workd creates an issue. After a couple of months, food is scarce and nerves are frayed. Jason manages to 'fish' for wildlife through the chimney. Somehow this rain creates an impenetrable shield around the house except for the chimney. After a few iterations, Jason creates a trap that works. With one of his prototypes, he almost pulled a live fox into the house. I wish that had worked just to see what would have happened. I also don't know how they keep getting things up and out of the chimney. Later they capture a skunk. The stink would be insane, either as they capture it or when they kill it. That aspect is completely ignored.

More pointless voiceover precedes a time jump. I did not expect the family to last five years. They seem to be the last house left. Trapped in a house for five years would exert an emotional toll. This portrays a family that's created a stable life, and somehow managed to grow enough food to sustain themselves. The dad restores his Camaro, yet know one else even knew. They're in the same house, there's no way they wouldn't know how it spends him time. Then there's the question of where he got gas. Later in the movie, the entire first floor of the house is flooded yet it doesn't break the door to the garage down. The water doesn't seem to even be running under the door.

Greta Lee, Riley Chung, Wagner Moura, Noah Alexander Sosnowski play Anne, Ruth, Jason, Graham

After five years, they have an encounter with a creature. It meddles around in the house frightening everyone and then leaves. There's no reason for this creature to play around except as a way to pad the plot. Why do these creatures want the family dead? Why wait so long if they even care? This movie makes no sense. These creatures seemingly could have eradicated this family whenever they wanted. Why now? Then the family gets their first emergency in five years. There's a human sized sewer pipe that runs under their bathroom. How convenient! It also runs straight to a neighboring house. These are incredibly well placed and sized pipes.

This is in the same genre as A Quiet Place (2018) or It Comes at Night (2017), but this is just nowhere near as engaging. This fits the definition of a movie, but it lacks the underlying emotion and vision that makes a movie enjoyable. This wants to create moments, but it doesn't want to create a foundation  or stakes that build to the payoff.