There's an abundance of tropes in The Last House, and most of the time, the film doesn't seem like it has any problem with that. Instead, it is content to try its best to create what I believe is a new, hopefully sci-fi horror franchise like A Quiet Place, but with a water/sea theme in this case. In that sense, the role of The Last House is to establish the lore - one day, after a storm came, everyone was locked into their house, with no way of escape. One family is determined not just to keep their sanity through that, but to even thrive under these absurdly difficult conditions that are only deteriorating.
However, that approach does involve a small twist there, which is the passage of time through the story. For some reason, the very first trailer immediately signals this, killing the surprise. Those who enter the film without this prior knowledge will likely have a somewhat more interesting time, even though I suspect it won't be a massive change when it comes to the overall experience. Like the tropes it uses, the plot progression of these kinds of films is not very divergent.
Thanks to a good cast and well-written dialogue, which never stray into banal or ridiculous territory, The Last House is a modestly entertaining but very predictable film. I'm not sure if the success it generates allows for a full franchise. Yet, it will likely have a long shelf life for streaming viewers who want something not overly clever, but watchable.
