'Never Let Go' Review: Halle Berry Survival Horror Flick Intrigues Yet Flounders its Faith-Based Themes
After making Kaya Scodelario battle gators in Florida (Crawl) and putting Mélanie Laurent in a spacecraft cryogenic chamber with depleting oxygen (Oxygen), Alexandre Aja decided, “Hm, which skilled actress should I torture this time?” With Never Let Go, the randomizer wheels spun to Halle Berry and the preset conditions landed on “the woods” with “two young boys.” In an era when the apocalyptic blueprint has been so Last of Us-coded, Never Let Go demonstrates a mother with twin boys facing hell or high water in this harsh environment. At least, that was my takeaway, since Never Let Go fails to come up with a concrete sense of self despite starting as an enticing survival horror.
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R: Strong violent content and grisly images
Runtime: 1 Hr and 41 Min
Production Companies: 21 Laps Entertainment, HalleHolly, Media Capital Technologies
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Alexandre Aja
Writers: KC Coughlin, Ryan Grassby
Cast: Halle Berry, Percy Daggs IV, Anthony B. Jenkins, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Christin Park, Stephanie Lavigne
Release Date: September 20, 2024
Set in a remote cabin in the woods, young fraternal twin brothers Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) live by their mom's (Halle Berry) set of rules that protect them from an unseen evil, called "The Evil" – a la The Happening or Black Box. They must hold on to a rope that connects them to their house 24/7, especially when they go outside. If they let go, "The Evil" will see them vulnerable. One touch its power consumes them, and lord knows what else. If they break any rules in any capacity, they must repent by touching wood in the house and saying a mantra. To seal the deal, they must shut themselves in a cellar and wait a few hours until their bodies are cleansed.
As the three try to survive and Mama’s behavior gets more erratic, Nolan becomes suspicious of his upbringing, supposing that there’s an outside world beyond their' blessed cabin. His newfound opinion puts him at a crossroads with Mama and her ever-so-loyal Samuel, untangling the ties between them.
From the start, Aja grips your attention while establishing the conditions within the family's isolated setting and how they survive. Essentially, the family's rope-centric daily life is like its own weird game of “stay in the circle” if it were brought to you by someone who watched one too many Pure Flix movies. Although there’s no Bible in sight, Mama's rhetoric is like its own cult-styled religion, its routine rooted in a twisted spirituality. It's worth looking at the film from the angle of why twin boys wouldn't survive in the apocalypse. It’s like a Darwinist experiment told in unexplored cinematic territory. Girls are known to exhibit rebellious tendencies. When you have sons, however, they’re known to eat and fight. As the family's survival becomes more difficult and Mama's patience wears thin, it becomes dour and terrifying to see what this family goes through to stay alive. A significant portion of Never Let Go's first half illustrates the family’s lifestyle, the regulations they must adhere to, and the repercussions the boys face when they disregard their mother's directives. Production designer Jeremy Stanbridge and Aja's frequent DP collaborator Maxime Alexandre's meticulous detailing of the rustic cabin setting and the swampy foliage surrounding it give the film an effective confining ambiance.
Anthony B. Jenkins and Percy Daggs IV are new to the scene, but their performances are so good that their college money depends on them. To step up alongside Halle Berry and shine beside her is a feat, but for this being the duo's leading roles in a feature, they essentially carry the film. Sam and Nolan's magnified relationship as their moral paths diverge is Never Let Go's strongest suit, and their performances enhance the harrowing emotional components the story leads to. Even in scenes when Berry's Mama is offscreen, they carry their own in a manner I haven't seen any young performer do – in a horror movie no less – in a very long time. This is a great calling card for the two performers, and I seriously hope their phones blow up the same way baby Jacob Tremblay's did during the 2010s.
The film portrays Halle Berry in an unconventional performance that puts the fear of god in you. Mama loves her sons very much, she just has a very odd way of showing it. Berry again proves she’s a force of nature, as her interpersonal chemistry with her young screen partners renders a believable and realistic family. When the screenplay makes the characters psychologically conflicted, Berry's depiction of Mama's departure from sanity is powerful and stirring.
It takes a while to realize that Never Let Go's interest lies less in the horrifying creatures and more in the family's functionality, as the slow-burning cabin-fevered minds lend to disaster. The solid production quality mixed with Mama's inflexible rules makes it seem like you're watching a straightforward family-driven horror. Halfway through, it appears that writers KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby's ideas hit a wall and the story hits a corner following Nolan's questioning about his surroundings.
As the film approaches a bleak midpoint, the narrative takes an intriguing course, yet doesn’t clarify if it wants the beliefs of Nolan or Mama to be true. So, the writers attempt to implement a "both sides are correct" approach that fails, particularly considering the extensive set-up of its harrowing world. They get greedy in their efforts, trying to show how “The Evil” is both real and not real. Yes, it's as confusing to watch as it is to describe. Even though the movie was beginning to lose steam and my interest up to the midpoint, the latter half became rather messy. The writers bind a well-developed Cain and Abel-esque tension between the boys, one that's psychologically driven by their conflicting traits but the writers refuse to make up their mind about the realities of "The Evil."
Although Never Let Go's production and strong performances by Halle Berry and newcomers Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins elevated it, the film's back half is middling and unclear, resulting in a subpar survival horror.
Rating: 2.5/5
