The Last House Review

The Last House, Netflix's new sci-fi thriller from director Louis Leterrier, has been streaming since August 7, 2026. Greta Lee and Wagner Moura lead as parents trying to hold their family together after a mysterious rain seals them inside their own home. I liked most of it more than I expected to. The ending is a different story, and it's genuinely splitting people down the middle.

What is The Last House actually about?

Jason (Wagner Moura) and Ann (Greta Lee) wake up one morning with their two kids, Graham and Ruth, and by lunchtime they can't leave the house. Not "the car won't start" can't leave. The doors physically won't open. A strange rain has started outside and just keeps going, and nobody they can see or call is answering. The lights still work. The tap still runs. That's almost worse, because it strips away every practical excuse to panic.

What actually works here, in my opinion

I went in expecting a haunted house movie and got something closer to a pressure cooker about a marriage. Moura and Lee aren't playing a couple in crisis because of the house. They're playing a couple whose smaller, quieter tensions get forced into the open because there's nowhere left to put them. The Hollywood Reporter called it a "psychological chamber drama and survival thriller" ahead of calling it horror, and I think that ordering is exactly right.

Where the reviews actually disagree

Nearly everyone agrees on the setup and the middle stretch. It's the ending where things get messy. Variety credited the film's "clammy atmosphere" with doing more work than its actual answers do. Slate was harsher, lumping it in with a run of recent Netflix apocalypse movies. On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience comments read like two different movies. My honest read: I liked the ending more than the critics quoted above did, but I understand exactly why they didn't.

So is the whole movie divisive, or just the last twenty minutes?

Just the last stretch, really. It's not "is this movie good." Most of it clearly is. It's "how much do I personally need a slow burn to fully pay off, versus how much am I okay with a smaller ending after a big buildup."

Should you actually watch it tonight

If you like slow, character driven thrillers where the tension comes from people, the first two-thirds are genuinely worth your time on their own. Moura and Lee are doing some of the best work I've seen from either of them. If an ending that doesn't fully match its buildup really bothers you, it might be worth reading a spoiler summary first and deciding from there.

Frequently asked questions

Is The Last House based on a true story? No. It's an original sci-fi thriller written by Matthew Robinson, not based on a book or a real event.

How long is The Last House? 112 minutes, rated PG-13.

Who stars in The Last House? Greta Lee and Wagner Moura lead, with Riley Chung, Noah Alexander Sosnowski, Emma Ho, and Gabriel Barbosa also starring.

Is The Last House's ending good or bad? Genuinely split. Critics and audiences disagree, with some finding it a satisfying payoff and others feeling it undercuts the slow burn that got them there.

Looking for something else to watch tonight?

If slow building, character driven thrillers are your kind of mood, our movie recommendation quiz can help you find something matched to that specifically.