New Sci-Fi Movie That's Perfect For Steven Spielberg Fans Is Now On Netflix
The Last House is a new Netflix sci-fi original movie about a family forced to survive together during what appears to be an apocalyptic event. Directed by Louis Leterrier, the movie follows this family as they are unable to leave their home during a major storm. However, this seems almost supernatural in design, as the doors and windows won't open, and the storm doesn't end. While Leterrier (Transporter, Fast X) is the director, he clearly made this movie as a love letter to Steven Spielberg.
The Last House is a sci-fi film that follows one family and barely leaves them at all, with the only outsiders being those people they see through their windows in the neighborhood. When the revelation comes that this is not a natural storm, and there are alien-type beings out there who want to destroy all human life to reclaim the planet for their own, the movie goes from an apocalyptic storm film to one with a family fighting for their survival against otherworldly beings.
Spielberg spent his career coming back to the sci-fi genre, with inspiring movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to scary alien invasions like War of the Worlds and even the recent government conspiracy movie, Disclosure Day. The Last House is nowhere near as good as any of those movies, but it does share similarities with Spielberg's work in several surprising ways.
The Last House Is Now On Netflix - What The Movie Is About
The Last House is as much a family drama as it is a sci-fi movie, which plays in the same arena that Steven Spielberg has mastered. In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the movie is about a father who has to decide if he wants to devote his life to his obsession with discovering something out there over even his own family. In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, it is about a young boy named Elliott who has an absentee father and finds himself protecting an alien who needs help.
An even more obvious example is War of the Worlds,which is more focused on a family trying to find each other and survive together than it is about attacking aliens. That is what this movie is about as well, with the family of four trying to find a way to survive as the water-based creatures that caused this disaster try to starve out and kill all the humans. However, this family, by working together, finds a way to survive. The Last House features a suburban family trying to overcome devastating odds on their own. This is pure Spielberg.
However, as much as the movie copies Spielberg's themes and family dynamic, there is an even bigger homage to the legendary director in the movie itself.
Why The Last House Is Perfect For Fans For Spielberg Sci-Fi Movies
Leterrier wanted to shoot the movie in a way that was reminiscent of the 1980s. In an interview about the movie, the director compared The Last House to E.T., and said that he wanted to shoot it as a homage to that film, something that actor Wagner Moura noticed as well. "The first half of the film is all shot in 35MM and you can see the grain," Moura said. Moura also said it was the same Panavision lens series that Spielberg used to shoot E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark. However, Leterrier didn't stop there.
Moura also said the kitchen in The Last House is an exact replica of the kitchen in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It is clear that Leterrier was thinking about Spielberg when he made his new Netflix sci-fi movie, and this is one of the more interesting Spielberg-style films, while still remaining very different from the iconic director's past sci-fi releases.