When we think of the movies of French filmmaker Louis Leterrier, we think of big, loud, brash blockbusters painted on huge cinematic canvases — movies like The Incredible Hulk, Fast X, Now You See Me, Clash Of The Titans. As such, the prospect of Leterrier’s latest movie The Last House — a Netflix-bound, single-setting sci-fi thriller centred around a Greta Lee and Wagner Moura headed family of four who find themselves inexplicably locked in their own home — already had our curiosity. And now, with the release of the movie’s first trailer, suffice it to say this thing has our attention, too. Check it out below;
Question: Is this the first time a number of days — in this case 1,183 days to be exact — has been deployed as a jump scare in a trailer? Follow-up question: What the hell is going on in The Last House? Heck, the film doesn’t even come out until August but on the basis of this first trailer alone, we can already tell we’ll be talking about this one for some time. Sure, the set-up — Greta Lee and Wagner Moura play two parents, Ann and Jason, who inexplicably find themselves locked in their home with their two young children — screams ‘on-the-nose post-COVID movie’ on the surface. But as this trailer goes on, introducing self-fixing windows, impregnable doors, unearthly sounds from outside the familial home, and an unexpected visitor with big Parasite energy, the intrigue just builds and builds in a way that’s only as deeply unnerving as it is super intriguing. Is it aliens? Monsters? Does this family live on the next street over from The End Of Oak Street? Is everyone on Earth locked in? If so, why? If not, why not? Honestly, we haven’t the foggiest, but we do want to find out.
The official synopsis for The Last House — which, it’s worth noting, was shot at least in part on 35mm film — offers very few clues, but does intriguingly lean into the movie’s survivalist framing, reading: “A family of four are suddenly sealed inside their home 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.”
So what is the deal with The Last House, then? Why does Greta Lee’s Ann have so many shocked reactions in this trailer? How do those windows keep repairing themselves? Is the proverbial call coming from inside the house? Are supernatural shenanigans afoot? Would it actually be so bad to spend 1,083 days locked in with Moura and Lee for your parents? We’ll find out the answers to at least some of those questions when The Last House opens its doors to us/locks us in on 7 August.
