I generally like “end of the world” thrillers. I don’t even mind those with endings that leave me hanging. That’s probably why I liked “Leave the World Behind.”

About a year ago, I wrote a piece for Gutter Review, “Apocalypse Then: The Superiority of Bygone Disaster Films,” about how in general I thought classic end-of-the-world films like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “The World, the Flesh and the Devil” were better treatment of the kind of apocalyptic stories that were the currency of science fiction literature of the first 60 years of the 20th century than their modern counterparts.

Apocalypse Then: The Superiority of Bygone Disaster Films

So I went into “Leave the World Behind,” director Sam Esmail’s thriller for Netflix, kind of cautiously. What happens if I hated the film, which grew out of a production pact with Barack and Michelle Obama and starred a great cast, including Mahershala Ali, Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke? I’d hate to hate it.

No worries. The film, while long on set-up and short on “Panic in the Year Zero”-style payoff, is satisfying.

Actually, there’s a very contained version of “Panic” – released in 1962 and starring Ray Milland as a hard-nosed survivor leading his family group through the hours and days after nuclear war – in “Leave,” with the same kind of “I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon” vibe.

Added to that end-of-the-world flavor is a treatment of race and class. Roberts and Hawke play a New York City couple who, along with their kids, go for a weekend in the country to a luxurious house. They’ve barely settled in when the Internet goes out and the owner of the house (Ali) and his daughter show up. They’re unable to get to the city and need to stay over at their AirB&B. Roberts’ character is uptight and – much is made of this – hates people. Roberts’ reluctance to let the visitors move back into their own house is noted by Ali’s daughter, played by Myha’la.

Once accommodations are figured out, the next order of business is to connect with the outside world. There’s not as much “Panic”-style panic as in most movies of this type, but there is some meeting of the minds and meeting of the neighbors, a herd of deer.

There’s more made of a quest of the youngest (Farrah MacKenzie) to find the final episode of “Friends” streaming somewhere than a quest to answer what the hell is happening, and the most prominent theory, from a survivalist neighbor played by Kevin Bacon, is about as close as we get to an explanation – until the final shot.

“Leave the World Behind” is a prime example of the type of apocalyptic story that focuses on the point of view of the everyman-and-woman rather than “Deep Impact”-style deliberations by POTUS deep in the White House bunker. I like a good presidential speech summing up the disaster and urging people to remain calm as anybody, but this is a good change.