The Last House

The premise for The Last House boils down to a family being suddenly trapped inside their home with apparently no explanation for their confinement nor means of escape.

This slow-burning thriller from director Louis Leterrier (Fast X) does a decent job of replicating the emotions behind such a harrowing scenario — equal parts frightening, intriguing, frustrating, and boring.

Mostly, the science-fiction saga struggles to sustain a deeper level of tension within its claustrophobic confines as it monotonously lunges toward an eventual reveal and obligatory climactic showdown.

It follows a suburban family of four, including Jason (Wagner Moura), Ann (Greta Lee), and their two preteen children (Noah Alexander Sosnowski and Riley Chung). They’re ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances following an autumn thunderstorm. There are small issues — the garage door is stuck, the internet goes out, the dog barks uncontrollably.

Then they realize the doors and windows are locked and unable to be broken. Their neighbors seem to be navigating the same phenomenon. Nobody has answers. “Whatever’s keeping us here is not man-made,” Jason theorizes.

At first, they take a silver-lining approach by extoling the virtues of analog human connection. Yet as days become weeks, their frustration turns to panic, and eventually into desperation as resources dwindle and the situation evolves into a dystopian nightmare.

As they confront the debilitating psychological effects of isolation, the torrential rains have apparently brought predators to their door. The chimney is a possible route to freedom, but would that improve their chances of survival?

Given the logistical constraints, the pacing drags in the first half, when the screenplay by Matthew Robinson (Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die) dances around dropping hints about what’s out there while yielding more questions than answers.

The film suffers from awkward tonal shifts, as efforts to embrace the absurdity or lighten the mood with a game of Uno or a David Bowie dance-off feel like stall tactics.

Moura (The Secret Agent) and Lee (Past Lives) do their best with what they’re given, developing sympathy for the couple’s resilience and determination amid hopelessness and despair.

As the story turns more conventional in the final act, we root for the family to break free of The Last House for the wrong reasons.

Rated PG-13, 110 minutes.