There’s a good reason why Netflix’s new thriller The Last House was secretly filmed for IMAX

New thriller The Last House has just been released on Netflix, but it was secretly filmed to be projected in IMAX, and there’s a very good reason why.

That’s a pretty unusual choice for a streaming release. In fact, Leterrier has revealed that he approached the film as if it was going to be shown on the biggest screens possible, even though there’s a good chance it will never receive a proper IMAX release.

So, why was The Last House filmed with IMAX in mind?

Speaking to Polygon, Leterrier explained that he always wanted the film to look as cinematic as possible. He said, “Movies are forever, so give your best. Shoot your best negative.”

That philosophy shaped the entire production. Rather than simply making a film designed for streaming, Leterrier said he actually shot The Last House so it could be projected in IMAX, treating the format as a long-term investment instead of focusing only on where audiences would first watch it.

It’s especially surprising because Netflix is known for having a largely digital-first approach to filmmaking. Even so, Leterrier pushed for a much more traditional cinematic look.

To recreate the feel of classic 1980s films, the opening part of The Last House was shot on 35mm film using what Leterrier described as “literally the same” anamorphic lenses Steven Spielberg used on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Later in the film, after a five-year time jump, production switched to a high-end digital camera paired with vintage lenses from the 1960s. The result is a cleaner image that still keeps the texture and character of film.

There are actually even more subtle visual changes throughout the movie. The frame gradually becomes tighter as the family’s world shrinks, before eventually opening back up again.

So what is The Last House actually about?

The Last House is basically a contained psychological survival story. Greta Lee and Wagner Moura play parents whose family suddenly finds themselves trapped inside their own suburban home after an unexplained paranormal event seals them in. No matter what they try, they simply can’t leave.

Days turn into weeks. Then weeks become years. As food runs low and the rain never seems to stop, the family’s biggest challenge slowly changes. It begins as a fight to physically survive. But eventually becomes a battle for their mental and emotional well-being as tensions inside the house continue to grow. But that’s only the beginning.

Without giving away spoilers, the story gradually shifts into something much bigger, with unexpected genre twists that eventually allowed Leterrier to bring back some of the blockbuster filmmaking he’s known for.

Louis Leterrier said it was his most personal film

Although Leterrier is best known for directing action films including The Transporter, The Incredible Hulk, Now You See Me and Fast X, he said The Last House felt very different from anything he’d made before.

Explaining why he connected with the script so quickly, he said, “Usually I want to jump into an adventure, a world that I don’t know. I read, and it felt strange because I recognised myself in it.”

He added, “For the first time in my life, I was about to do something very personal. Where I was seeing myself in it, what I thought I would do, or hoped I would do.”

Leterrier also revealed, “[The script] was kind of like a first act, maybe a second act. There was no real third act. What was interesting for me was to stay within the box slightly. And never breaking out of the confines of the four walls of this house. From physical survival to mental survival to emotional survival, psychological survival. And then you add the uncanny and you add everything.”

Despite returning to big-budget filmmaking with the next Fast & Furious film, Leterrier said making a medium-budget movie like The Last House reminded him why he fell in love with cinema in the first place.

He said, “I really stretched the limits within my box, but I really loved doing that.”

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Featured image credit: Netflix.