There was a movie called “Leave the World Behind” that popped up on my Netflix feed this weekend.

I think it was on the trending section. I never heard of it before so I looked it up. Ominous, thriller, psychological were some of the descriptors. But the reviews were in the tank. So lets take a look.

Some of you may remember an old blog, or feature I used to have called 2 star Sunday, where I watched and reviewed only shows that were 2 stars or less. (I’m not even sure what happened with that) Well anyway.. I would say that the majority of those movies that claimed to be terrible, were actually quite good… for the most part.

And that is what I am going to say about this one as well. Leave the World Behind. Directed by Sam Esmail released in 2023 and out on netflix right now.
Fairly packed with bigger name actors such as Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, and Ethan Hawke, its billing got me to check it out.

“A family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a blackout. As the threat grows, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world.”

Since this is a “thriller”, spoiling too much about it is going to be a bad thing. But to get up to speed, a family living in the modern 2024 landscape rents a house to go on vacation to get away from things for a while.
But strange occurrences in the world start happening. Mostly in the background or on the news at first. But then they start happening up close.

Blackouts, media reports,, things keep ramping up around them. But they don’t really know why or what is all going on.
Then the actual owner shows up at the house they have rented looking for safety and a bit more news and insight of the situation.

For about 139 minutes this movie had me hooked. It was tense. It has direction, weirdness, awkwardness. But each character seemed to be played at one end or the other of the oddball scale. All at the same time.

Someone walked in while I was watching this and asked what it was, and I said it reminded me of 10 Cloverfield Lane. Similar feel.
Escalation of outside attacks on USA. Preppers. Desperation, panic That whole thing.

I thought this was a pretty good flick. Until the 140th minute. Then it just ends. And I mean there is no fooling around here. Right at the height of anxiety,, it just ends.
No warning. No attempt to set up a part two. No explanations of all of the plot threads that were started or eluded to (and there is a lot) none of that.

I cannot think of another movie that opened up such a wide swath, and then turns off the lights. I’m not even sure what or where I should start trying to piece together some sort of head cannon ending because there is just too much left sitting there.

Did I like Leave the World Behind? Yes. Did I hate it? Also a yes. Did it deserve a 2 out of 5 rating? Hells no!

This is something that you have to experience for yourself. Maybe I completely missed the entire plot, maybe I accidentally fast forwarded to the end, maybe I was knocked unconscious for 30 minutes.

I hope some of that happened. But for now,, I WANT to give this a much higher than 3 out 5 but I can’t just yet.