Never Let Go (2024, dir. Alexandre Aja)

by Jack Martin | Sep 28, 2024

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 101 mins

UK Distributor: Lionsgate

UK Release Date: 27 September 2024

WHO’S IN NEVER LET GO?

Halle Berry, Percy Daggs IV, Anthony B. Jenkins, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Christin Park, Stephanie Lavigne

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Alexandre Aja (director, producer), Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby (writers), Dan Cohen, Dan Levine and Shawn Levy (producers), Robin “Rob” Coudert (composer), Maxime Alexandre (cinematographer), Elliot Greenberg (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A mother (Berry) attempts to protect her family from an unseen enemy…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON NEVER LET GO?

You’ve got to feel a little bad for Halle Berry. Despite being the first woman of colour to win the Best Actress Oscar – and is, to date, still the only Black woman to win it, which is a shocking statistic in and of itself – Berry’s career has sadly not returned to that monumental high point. The last decade or so has seen the Oscar-winner rely heavily on roles in B-movie thrillers and schlocky horrors to pay the bills, and even when she does manage to attach herself to prestige projects, they get nowhere near as much attention as her winning role in 2001’s Monster’s Ball.

Ever the professional, she still puts in the effort wherever she can, including in director Alexandre Aja’s new horror Never Let Go, wherein she is clearly giving it all she’s got. But as with far too many of the movies she’s signed onto these last few years, her talents can only take the film itself so far, and sadly it’s not enough to feel fully entertained during this rather sluggish chiller.

Berry plays a nameless mother who has raised her twin sons Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) in a remote cabin deep within the woods, where she has told them that the outside world has succumbed to a mysterious entity known as “the Evil”, which can apparently manifest into numerous forms in order to lure its victims, whom it then corrupts with a single touch. The only way that they are able to survive whenever they have to venture out for food and other supplies is to tie themselves with rope attached to the house that can yank them back whenever necessary, but most importantly they must remember to never let go of the rope, or else the Evil will find its way to them. However, inquisitive young Nolan begins to doubt his mother’s claims, wondering if she is perhaps the one to be afraid of, which brings him into conflict with the more obedient Samuel, as well as the woman who’s dedicated her life to protecting her boys from the supposed evil out there.

For a while, it does seem like Never Let Go is heading in some interesting directions. You’re never entirely sure whether to accept that this is apparently a post-apocalyptic world that has been overtaken by its own Quiet Place-like monsters, or if this is all some kind of psychological breakdown on the part of Berry’s character who’s just gone completely crazy. Aja, up to a point, keeps the suspense afloat as the filmmaker refuses to entirely spell out the truth of what’s actually going on, and he manages to sneak in some chilling shots and reveals every now and then to maintain the sense of uncertainty surrounding it all.

Unfortunately, the film ends up trying to be a mixture of both possibilities, and as a result the film feels less sure about itself than its initial lead-up would imply. This is the kind of film that, for no real reason, will suddenly start having chapter titles illuminate the screen, just one of the ways that it attempts to guise its pretence of being a more sophisticated horror, along the lines of what you’d get from A24. However, a number of jump-scares give off the vibe of a mid-to-low tier Blumhouse production, with a third act that might as well come with its own Jason Blum producing credit. Neither element is executed in particularly interesting fashion, for while there is some decent cinematography and a neatly dour mood throughout, Aja struggles to find a particularly steady middle-ground that allows the story, its characters, and the overall tone to roam free without constantly bumping into one another.

It will also spend a lot of its runtime focusing on how this family attempts to survive, such as collecting and cooking tree bark as a means of food when supplies run low, and a number of intricate prayers that the young boys must recite whenever they come into close contact with the aforementioned Evil. All of that is fine enough world-building practise, but Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby’s script doesn’t do a particularly thorough job of explaining certain elements that help to make sense of a lot of it. For instance, it’s not clear as to why this apparently powerful entity that can shift into many different forms and has the ability to generate nightmarish imagery is unable to get around a simple piece of rope. Perhaps they’re distant cousins of the aliens from Signs that can’t open doors or survive being drenched in one of the world’s most prominent resources, or it’s just not very good writing (it’s more likely the latter, but wouldn’t it be something if this movie turned out to be a stealth spin-off of that Shyamalan film?).

Most concerning, though, is the fact that Never Let Go just isn’t very scary, or even that entertaining. Many of the twists and turns are heavily signposted, while some later reveals only come about because one character ends up doing something truly short-sighted to where you no longer really care for this person. It plods along at a pace that’s too slow for this kind of film, because there’s not much in terms of the protagonists or the world in which they live that really stands out enough to hold your attention, making it feel far longer than it actually is. By the time it reaches its crescendo, you’re left feeling pretty bored by it all to care, and there just isn’t much of a reason to get invested, even as it’s throwing out some eye-catching imagery every now and then.

At least Berry is good, and so are her young co-stars Daggs IV and Jenkins. But again, their talent simply isn’t enough to save Never Let Go, a film that ends up to-and-froing between schlock and sophistication, and handling neither particularly well.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Never Let Go is a sluggish horror that initially starts off with a number of interesting ideas, but many of them fade away in favour of a dull narrative that isn’t scary or makes enough sense for its concept to truly take off, despite an ever-committed Halle Berry trying to elevate the drab material.