Director explains what those creatures are in The Last House as he breaks down wild ending

Netflix’s new thriller The Last House has a pretty wild ending, but director Louis Leterrier has now explained exactly what those mysterious creatures are and what’s really going on.

For most of the film, it looks like the Delgado family is being targeted by some kind of alien invasion. But, as Leterrier explains, that’s not quite what’s happening.

So, who are the creatures in The Last House?

You might have spent most of The Last House assuming the creatures are aliens that have come to Earth to invade humanity. Actually, it’s pretty much the opposite. According to Leterrier, the creatures are ancient ocean dwellers that have existed on Earth for much longer than humans have.

“They’ve been there way before us,” he told Tudum. “We are living on their planet.”

Leterrier explains that humanity has overconsumed, polluted the environment, raised global temperatures and started “boiling the oceans”. That’s what eventually causes these ancient beings to emerge from the depths. Basically, what looks like an alien invasion is actually humanity being confronted by creatures that were here long before us.

As Leterrier puts it, “We think that it’s an invasion movie, but we realise that we’re the aliens.”

Why do the creatures look like that?

Leterrier and production designer Kevin Jenkins deliberately didn’t want the creatures to look like familiar sea animals. Instead, they wanted to keep them mysterious, giving viewers only brief glimpses rather than showing everything straight away.

Jenkins said, “It accidentally came from the second drawing I sent to Louis. You can do a thousand pictures and go on forever. That came out after just two or three pictures.”

The creatures have a fluid, almost dancer-like appearance. They stand on their tentacles in a way that can make them look like they have two legs, with the rest of their bodies flowing behind them. The filmmakers took inspiration from monster films such as Jaws, Alien and The Thing, especially their approach of keeping the creatures partly hidden.

“The more you show, the more disappointing it can be,” Jenkins said.

And the creatures were also practical. The production created a practical silicone creature that could actually move inside the flooded house.

“We knew we were going to put this in a tank,” Jenkins said. “So one of the early conversations that Louis and I had was that we wanted to do a practical creature.”

A puppeteer operated the heavy suit from inside, allowing the creature to move through the cramped rooms. Visual effects were then used to enhance the final version.

What happens at the end of The Last House?

By the end of the film, the Delgado family has been trapped inside their home for more than five years. During that time, almost everything in the house has been used, broken down or repurposed to help them survive.

Jenkins explains, “We didn’t want it to look like a house was demolished. These people are still living in there as a family.”

Jason even turns the chimney into a makeshift survival system. When the chimney cap falls away, it creates “one little chink in the armour”. It isn’t big enough to escape through, but Jason uses the opening to build traps and catch animals, something the production called “chimney fishing”.

The family also collects water and grows food inside the house. But surviving isn’t the only thing the family has to figure out. By this point, Ruth has realised that the creatures may not simply be attacking them. She understands that they’re trying to communicate, and eventually Jason trusts her and puts down his weapons.

That’s what finally convinces the creatures to spare the family. According to Leterrier, they want humanity “to learn how to live together”.

Then, just before the credits, Ruth uses a radio to ask if there are any other survivors out there. After a burst of static, a voice responds with a simple “Hello?”

Leterrier says the voice belongs to “a very, very, very iconic” person, but he’s keeping their identity secret. He also says viewers will never know for sure who it is, leaving The Last House with one final mystery.

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Featured image credit: Netflix.