Movie Review: The Last House

A survival flick that turns into a creature feature

The whole COVID situation seems like a long time in the past, but it’s also still close enough that we remember how uncomfortable it was to be stuck in the house with nowhere to go. Lives changed during that time, with some families falling apart in the process. While The Last House has a concept a little more frightening than a pandemic, the feeling of being trapped inside feels somehow familiar.

The movie quickly gets to the main storyline, which is that everyone becomes trapped in their homes in the midst of a massive rainstorm. The focus falls on one family, and at the start, it feels like a bit of a fun adventure to be trapped inside with no way out. Soon enough, though, reality hits home, with food running out and tensions rising. There is also a scene with the family dog that is going to make a lot of people unhappy, although it is dealt with as tastefully as possible.

Days become weeks become months, until we reach a point 5 years after the rain began to fall. During this time, we get brief glimpses of creatures outside the crumbling house, but we are never really sure where they come from. The references to salt water and the rain suggests that they came from below, but there are also a few little nods to the cosmos that suggests they may have come from above.

When one of those creatures finally finds its way inside the house, the family understands they are on borrowed time and need to fight their way out. The final third becomes something of a creature feature filled with Home Alone style booby traps and makeshift weapons used to battle the invaders and get the family out of the house, which has become something of a crumbling prison.

Overall, it’s a bit of an uneven little movie. The start is a slow burn story of survival that eventually turns up the horror aspect in a way that feels a little jarring when it comes around. All of that said, it was entertaining enough to keep me engaged, and I did like the monsters, which had definite Lovecraftian vibes, making me think that while these things loved the water, their origins were not necessarily from Earth. You might well have a different opinion, which is part of what makes this one so interesting.

4 stars out of 5