Netflix's upcoming sci-fi thriller will drive you out of your homes this August

A film designed to get you out of the house

For some of us, kicking back and relaxing in the comfort of our homes is the ideal way to spend a weekend. However, director Louis Leterrier of Now You See Me and Lupin fame has a brand-new sci-fi thriller that might drive even the most stalwart homebody outside​​​​​.

The Last House, starring Greta Lee (Past Lives) and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent), follows a married couple and their two children as they suddenly realize they are sealed inside their home. Despite their efforts, no amount of destruction is enough to force their way out. Alongside Lee and Moura, The Last House also stars Gabriel Barbosa (May December), Emma Ho (The Expanse), Noah Alexander Sosnowski (Section 8), and Riley Chung (Sunrise).

Worse still, it seems as though everyone else in the world is experiencing this exact issue. With no solutions in sight, the family is forced to work together, not only to figure out what is keeping them trapped in their home, but also to manage their dwindling food and other resources.

The trailer for The Last House perfectly encapsulates how something like the home, a place most of us regard as safe and comfortable, can be transformed into a horror in its own right. As shared in the movie's press release, the home the family is trapped in was hand-built and "meticulously designed" through cross-departmental collaboration. The result is a claustrophobic, intense space where reminders of life outside haunt the family at every turn.

The psychological repercussions of long-term indoor confinement aren't entirely new — a handful of films explored that concept during the COVID-19 pandemic. With The Last House, though, Leterrier's focus seems to be on bringing a distinctive visual approach to the film's contained setting that makes watching it feel like you're hanging on a knife's edge.

However, while the house takes on a life of its own, one of the biggest mysteries is what has happened to the world outside. We can see from the trailer that wildlife still persists, but what could possibly be so terrible that humanity had to be locked inside?

We'll hopefully unlock that answer ourselves when The Last House premieres on Netflix worldwide on Aug 7.