Spoiler alert! We're discussing major plot details from the new Netflix movie “The Last House” (streaming now). Stop reading if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to know what happens.
Earlier this year, the internet fell in love with Wagner Moura.
The Brazilian heartthrob became a breakout star of awards season thanks to his Oscar-nominated role in the political thriller “The Secret Agent," which won him a Golden Globe for best actor.
So it’s something of a sick joke that his new film, “The Last House,” makes the amiable hunk do the unthinkable.
The sci-fi mystery follows a family of four who, along with the rest of their neighborhood, are inexplicably locked inside their houses with no escape or communication with the outside world. Jason
(Moura) and Ann (Greta Lee) attempt to put on a brave face for their young kids, but as the weeks and months drag on indoors, the entire clan starts to unravel.
The movie takes a tragic turn when the family’s ailing golden retriever, Cassidy, runs out of medication and is no longer able to walk or move around. And so, they make the heartbreaking decision to have Jason shoot the elderly dog while Ann and the kids are watching their favorite movie, “Annie.”
Making the whole ordeal even more stomach-churning, the crying children cover their ears as they watch and sing along to the musical. And as they reach the chorus of upbeat anthem “Tomorrow,” a faint gunshot rumbles in the background.
“Oh, God, there was so much that went into that! You have no idea,” Lee recalls, shaking her head. “It just speaks to how incredibly absurd our job is. Collectively as a cast, we were having to pretend that we were grieving the death of our beloved family dog, when in reality, our stunt dog would not play dead.”
As a result, “I remember us crying and saying goodbye while trying to hold the dog down a little bit because he kept getting up,” Lee adds, laughing. “The comic absurdity of that was wild. It was just like, ‘Yeah, this is all fake.’ ”
“Annie” becomes something of a running joke throughout the first half of the film, as the kids beg to watch the 1982 classic incessantly. When Ann and Jason can no longer take the chipper orphan redhead, they escape to another room to smoke some weed.
Lee, 43, knows precisely how the beleaguered parents feel, as the mother of two sons, Apollo, 9, and Raphael, 6, with her actor-writer husband Russ Armstrong.
“We watch a lot of Disney movies – those are always a hit,” Lee says. “There was a moment where ‘Encanto’ was just part of our full existence. But also ‘Hamilton.’ That soundtrack looms large in our household!”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Last House' dog scene was actually comically 'absurd' to film
