Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

We’re about to get a double bill of terrible things happening in suburban neighbourhoods. The End of Oak Street releases 14th August and the week before we get Last House on Netflix starring Greta Lee and Wagner Moura. Alasdair Stuart stepped into the neighbourhood, but unlike the characters, he made it back out…

0.01 – Storm in the distance

The first thing we see in the whole trailer is the storm. So this looks to be set right at the start of whatever happens. In fact, I wonder what happens to the folks outside when it happens?

0.04 – The dog’s fine… RIGHT?

Oh God they have a dog. And we don’t see him in later scenes. Run, buddy! In fact that’s a good question, can animals get outside?

0,09 – ‘I’m not, I’m… hiding from our children.’

I love the gentle, exhausted affection of this line and how much it curdles later.

0.31 – Water healing the window?

Is the water fixing the window as he tries to break it?

0.49 – WHOLE WORLD?

The call back to the various Dawns of the Dead is a nice touch. It also suggests the power and internet are out which, as we’ll see later, seems to speak to an external, malicious force…

1.04 – Water distorting

Note how the water wraps around his hand. That, the persistent rain storm and the apparent vortex in it looks a lot like some form of alien invasion.

1.09 – Movement in the house

I wonder if this is from later in the movie, as we see later on in the trailer. It certainly looks like someone comes in from outside.

1.17 – Farming

I love the ingenuity of this. Ripping up the floorboards, planting what I’m guessing are tomato plants. What a smart way of doing it.

1.24 – Day 1,183

My heart dropped. That’s 3.2 YEARS…

1.31 – Last of Us-esque

Note the other houses look almost ruined. Looks like no one else made it. Also it’s not raining anymore…

1.49 – Turned Handle

The Spielbergian energy of the locked door unlocking from the outside is lovely.

2.05 – ‘HIDE’

The blinding light that follows this, and the guttural purring we hear a few times suggests this is a long form alien invasion. I wonder, are the humans being… ripened? Are the houses essentially Tupperware given how untouched everything else on the planet seems to be?