Jay Rohr
Never Let Go doesn’t get a good grip. It drops whatever interesting threads it could follow to tell a story full of obvious attempts to cause confusion. Yet, there’s a compelling atmospheric quality enhanced by solid performances which keep the creepiness alive. While the film is never as terrifying as it clearly wants to be, it’s fresh enough to be entertaining. It just doesn’t need to be seen in theaters.
The movie stars Oscar winner Halle Berry (Monster’s Ball) as Momma. She lives deep in the woods with her twin sons, isolated from The Evil. This entity only she can see has apparently destroyed the world. Their home is the only safe haven and venturing out anywhere requires being literally tied to it by rope or else The Evil will manifest, infect them, and cause calamity. After survived in isolation for years, the family is starting to starve. Their choices dwindling, this tightknit group begins to corrode as their options worsen.
In a post-quarantine world, some of the film’s thematic aspects make perfect sense. Berry’s Momma is a parent struggling to protect her children from a largely invisible threat the kids don’t entirely understand. This breeds skepticism and frustration which complicates matters. I think anyone raising kids through quarantine would relate. The problem is that the way the story unfolds, and the themes are addressed aren’t very compelling.
Much of this stems from the obviousness of certain elements. For instance, there are two children which means one is skeptical while the other is not. Yet, they only butt heads when the plot requires a complication. Their growing animosity which is at the heart of the ensuing difficulties never affects any other aspect of their lives. What results is some toothless resentment that predictably intensifies when The Evil is an issue.
Speaking of obvious, Never Let Go wants to have a certain ambiguity. The film strives to be the kind of thriller without certainty. As such, it endeavors to make audiences question circumstances. The intention is to leave viewers wondering if there is any supernatural entity plaguing these people or if Halle Berry is simply mentally ill. Even when the children seem to encounter The Evil, there’s room to suspect they’ve simply inherited her delusion. This would be great if Never Let Go handled it well.
Instead, the movie oscillates at obvious moments. The set pieces which are meant to shift one’s suspicions are so blatant they don’t conjure any tension, tragedy, or dread. Rather than the quicksand of uncertainty sucking audiences down into unsettling ambiguity, it feels like being jerked around by a pack of dogs this way then that.
Still, the set piece scares in question are largely satisfying on their own. There’s a reason they may seem compelling in commercials. Divorced from the overall material, there are creepy entities with unnatural qualities. The look of these dark moments is tonally on point. And sometimes the outcomes are genuinely shocking. It’s where they lead that is often disappointing.
Director Alexandre Aja was once dubbed a member of The Splat Pack. The term coined by film critic Alan Jones denoted filmmakers who made “unapologetically disgusting, brutally violent movies.” His filmography includes flicks like Haute Tension from 2003, but more recently pictures like the surprisingly fun 2019 beer and pizza movie Crawl. Never Let Go couldn’t be farther from the kind of flick that earned his Splat Pack badge. In a way, it shows how Aja has evolved as a creative.
Never Let Go has a wonderfully sinister look. Much of its horror is atmospheric. The woods appear properly unsettlingly. It’s easy to imagine something sinister lurking among the timber. That sense of why the wilderness is scary permeates a lot of this picture. Consequently, it’s a shame when much of the feature relies on jump scares, accompanied by audio stings (music and effects) to emphasize frights. Maybe it would be forgivable if these amplified anything but it’s just ear stabbing noise.
Sound is often a spoiler for many moments. The audio effects seem cranked to eleven on occasions that don’t need them. For instance, one scene of Halle Berry loading a crossbow contains every click, clack, and clatter of the bolt at the highest volume. It’s enough to give someone without misophonia the disorder.
Performance wise, Never Let Go is on solid ground. Halle Berry is perfectly unnerving as a strained mother stressed to the brink of insanity. She conveys the kind of person doing their best despite a losing scenario chewing her into defeat. Her twin sons Nolan and Samuel are played by Percy Daggs IV (The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey) and Anthony B. Jenkins (Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist). The two often hold their own with Academy award winner Berry. Their strain, stoicism, and heartbreak come across clear, thanks to the young performers. The shame is the way the movie wastes their potential.
There are a few features similar to Never Let Go. It echoes the themes and concepts found in flicks like It Comes at Night, Retreat, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and most recently 2024’s Arcadian. This type of psychological survival horror thriller is almost its own subgenre at this point. That would be fine if this flick did anything interesting. However, it’s only unique angle seems to be a mother alone with her sons.
At risk of implicative spoilers, I’ll confess to a twist in the tale that promised intriguing possibilities. The only downside is that Never Let Go dropped that thread in favor of sticking to its formula. It’s almost like the movie is afraid to take the bolder routes its own narrative would allow.
Despite being wonderfully atmospheric, the tension Never Let Go hopes to choke audiences with never manifests. Instead of an unsettling story about a family disintegrating due to doubt Never Let Go delivers boilerplate spooky woods scares. Yet, there are enough fresh frights to make this a rental on an otherwise dull night. That said, there’s no reason to see this in theaters.
