Never Let Go Review

Never Let Go comes from the production company behind Stranger Things and sees Halle Berry star in a small-scale survival horror film.

In the woods is a woman (Berry) and her twin sons Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins). A great evil has destroyed the world and it wants to infiltrate the family home. Their only protection is the rope tied to their home. As winter bites the family struggles to find food and they face the joint threat of starvation and paranoia.

Never Let Go was a mixture of ideas but it can be boiled down to a horror fairy tale. It was overt with its fairy tale influences with the setup in the woods, the narration early in the film, and a family fighting against some sort of evil force that inhabits the woods. Never Let Go was similar to The Watchers, released earlier in 2024. Both were fairy tale-influenced stories about people trapped in a forest that’s filled with monsters. In Never Let Go the boys were told that they needed a rope to protect themselves from the evil, adding to a fairy tale feel.

Never Let Go can be described as a film directed by Benh Zeitlin and M. Night Shyamalan. Both directors have reputations for making modern-day fables. Zeitlin is known for Beasts of the Southern Wild, a Southern set coming of age during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Never Let Go also had a Southern Gothic feel, even though it was filmed in Canada. Shyamalan doesn’t need much of an introduction and some of his films were fables. The best comparison between Never Let Go and Shyamalan’s filmography would be with The Village since that film was about a remote community and the effects of the young character’s upbringing on them. Like Shyamalan’s films, Never Let Go focused on a family dynamic during some sort of extraordinary circumstance.

Never Let Go was a mash-up of different horror subgenres. It combined survival, psychological, and supernatural horror. As a survival story Never Let Go was about the family struggling and starving. The vegetables in their glasshouse were failing, and they were resorting to eating bugs and frogs, which wasn’t enough. This struggle, combined with the bleak surroundings, and the family bond breaking down made Never Let Go feel like The Road, especially during the second act. The supernatural element was obviously through the unseen evil threat.  The mum warned her boys and protected them like Sandra Bullock in Birdbox.

The old adage of horror films is that they are normally a metaphor for something else. This was true for Never Let Go since it was a story about mental health. The woman had demons where she visualised people from her past. It led to the woman displaying erratic behaviour towards her children and it led to a question, did the disaster really happen or was it made up? The issue involved the boys potentially inheriting their mother’s condition. It added a sense of distorted reality that the film was trying to project. This part of the story did require top-notch acting. Berry has won an Oscar and was an executive producer on the film, so it was expected that she would give a good performance. She was able to flip from a caring mother to a terrified woman to an unhinged lunatic with ease. The two young actors who played Nolan and Samuel were terrific as they embarked on a dark coming-of-age story as they start to distrust their mother and each other. They had difficult roles and the young actors were up to the task.

Tasked with tying the themes and ideas together was Alexandre Aja. Aja has plenty of experience as a horror director and his films have ranged from dark, serious offerings like High Tensions and The Hills Have Eyes remake to silly monster movies which he provided with Piranha 3D and Crawl. Never Let Go was more of Aja’s more serious films and for two-thirds of Never Let Go it was solid. It covered material I generally enjoy. It had an atmosphere, especially during the first act where there was tension and horrific imagery. It struggled after the twist that was telegraphed early, but it didn’t make Never Let Go any less frustrating.

Never Let Go was a film that was brimming with ideas and potential. The film had a strong setup, tone, and central performances, but it did suffer as it progressed.