Movie · 2023 · Drama, Mystery, Thriller · 2h 20m · R · English
Curator score: 2.0/10 (1.1M ratings)
There's no going back to normal.
Overview
A family's getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyberattack knocks out their devices—and two strangers appear at their door.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.0/10
IMDb: 6.4/10
Letterboxd: 2.84/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Metacritic: 68
TMDB: 6.4/10
Director
Sam Esmail
Production
Esmail Corp, Red Om Films, Higher Ground
Cast
Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Myha'la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans, Kevin Bacon, Vanessa Aspillaga, Orli Gottesman, Alexis Rae Forlenza, Josh Drennen, Erica Cho, Pavel Frolov, Jesse King, Kevin Kenny, Sam Esmail
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A sleek, anxiety-soaked thriller with strong performances and a sharp sense of unease, but it’s more effective as a mood piece and social allegory than as a fully satisfying mystery. If you like apocalyptic dread, domestic tension, and stories that leave gaps for interpretation, it’s worth a watch; if you want clean answers or a tightly paid-off plot, it may frustrate you.
Best for
Viewers who enjoy slow-burn disaster suspense
Fans of prestige thrillers with social commentary
People who like ambiguous, conversation-starting endings
Audiences drawn to isolated-house tension and paranoia
Skip if
You want a clear explanation for every plot thread
You dislike movies that prioritize atmosphere over payoff
You’re impatient with characters making frustrating choices
You prefer grounded realism over heightened allegory
Overview
Leave the World Behind is built like a pressure cooker: elegant surfaces, creeping dread, and a constant sense that the world outside the frame is collapsing faster than the characters can understand it. Sam Esmail stages the film with real control, and the cast sells the escalating panic even when the script withholds too much for too long.
Worth noting
The movie works best as a portrait of modern fragility—how dependent comfort, communication, and identity are on invisible systems that can fail all at once. It’s less interested in solving its catastrophe than in making you feel its social and psychological aftershocks.
Bottom line
That approach gives the film a memorable mood, but also a frustratingly uneven payoff. Some viewers will find the ambiguity provocative; others will feel strung along by a story that keeps promising revelation and settles for unease. Either way, it’s a polished, divisive thriller with real craft behind it.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Hank (3.5★) · 21257 likes
Friends addicted daughter or toothless son
Harry Argyle (2.5★) · 16681 likes
If edging was a movie, this would be it.
Paul Nescau Flamenguista · 12771 likes
Wait wait wait, so Kevin Bacon and Ethan Hawke are not the same person?
OstrichJames (2.5★) · 9246 likes
Well I guess no one told you life was gonna be this way.
joão vitor (3★) · 8439 likes
in the name of the father (don’t look up)
the son (bird box)
and the holy spirit (leave the world behind)
2014 · Thriller, Science Fiction · 1h 29m · NR · Curator 6.5/10 (578.7K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Philo, Night Flight Plus, Cineverse, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
A compact paranoia thriller about ordinary people trapped in a reality that stops making sense.
1998 · Action, Drama, Thriller · 2h 12m · R · Curator 4.8/10 (392.3K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A surveillance-paranoia thriller that taps into the fear of invisible control systems.