Being a single parent to two boys while trying to escape your past is tough. It’s especially difficult when you’re raising young gentlemen in the middle of an evil-infested wood where you can safely roam only a limited duration from your home, and the ever-lurking evil wants your downfall, personally. Never Let Go, the newest horror outing from director Alexandre Aja and marking a much-welcome return to horror for Halle Berry, sees an isolated mother raising her children in an isolated cabin surrounded by an evil, shapeshifting force that wants their demise. They’re only safe as long as they stay tethered to the home’s foundation. It’s a frightening and tense horror outing with stellar performances from its talented cast. At the same time, the resolution and its handling of thematic elements leave more than a little something to be desired. Never Let Go is a horror journey worth taking, but audiences will walk away with major questions from the finale.

What is ‘Never Let Go’ About?

Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) are a pair of young boys growing up like all boys do: bickering, occupying their time, and tethered to a cabin in the woods where the evil outside is actively trying to corrupt and destroy them. Or, at least, that’s what their mother (Halle Berry) tells them. Their cabin, inherited from Mama’s family, is blessed with an enchantment that keeps evil at bay, but to leave it requires holding on to ropes tethered to the home’s foundation. Every family has their problems, of course, and this setup has three big ones. First, Mama’s the only one who can see the evil, really. Second, the young boys (Nolan in particular) are reaching the age where they have questions about the world around them and if Mama’s telling the truth. Finally, without the ability to substantially leave the house, survival depends on what they can scavenge, harvest, and preserve around the cabin…and this is the hardest winter yet. What do you do when leaving and staying seem to be equally suicidal?

‘Never Let Go’ Boasts Scares and Strong Performances, But Needs Honing
Image via Lionsgate Movies

The film boasts strong cinematography choices and production design to set a claustrophobic, beautiful world (at least until the winter hits). The forest is green, rich, and so wild it feels oppressive at times. The home is elaborately constructed, full of paintings and carvings reflecting its old origins. At the center of the hearth is a small sunken chamber with a carved wood door (slight coffin vibes), where the boys have to go to refill the home’s protective love energy from time to time. It feels like a place out of time, and it all successfully contributes to the feeling that it’s the family against the world. Aja and writers KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby build a tense world, with enough genuinely unsettling moments and scares to make for a memorable, tense time. As the film’s events escalate, there are several plot turns and set pieces that are memorable and well-executed, which should satisfy even the pickiest of horror fans. If it’s tension you want, it has tension in spades.

The film is anchored by an excellent performance from Berry, who plays Mama with continuous tension mixed with deep affection for her sons, and a wonderful and nuanced set of performances from the pair of young actors. Anthony B. Jenkins exhibits considerable range as the son who walks closest to his mother’s shadow, while Percy Daggs IV gives Nolan considerable layers: he’s good-natured but inquisitive, with an unwillingness to simply follow the rules, which sets up a growing number of boundary tests and explorations. Jenkins and Daggs have a great brotherly chemistry together, and when horror movie-style stuff starts escalating, the pair give an impressive set of grounded portrayals, playing off each other’s performances with real emotion and pathos throughout.

The film is messiest when it comes to the deeper thematic elements. It’s curious that Mama’s the only one who is plagued by visions of the evil she claims ended the world, which she explains away with claims that it’s hiding from the boys’ sight to sow division. Sure. Much remains a mystery, but we come to discover odd facts about Mama: bits and pieces of the life she lived before, actions she’s taken, regrets she’s had. She also has mysterious tattoos, including a set of spiders on her hand, and a massive snake on her back, both creatures long associated with evil in Christian folklore but with wisdom and creation in other traditions. Between the complex sets of symbolic patterns and the curious specifics of Mama’s perhaps under-explained connections to the evil manifestations, the film’s exact thematic interpretation can be argued and understood in several ways. Add an ending that’s as provocative as it’s difficult to pin down and you have a film that will leave you with questions, but not always the good kind.

As a whole, Never Let Go is a suspenseful, layered, and multifaceted horror experience anchored by a set of stellar performances and some cleverly constructed scares. The scares and plot pivots work well (though mileage in the finale may vary), and the world-building around the family is intriguing. It all makes for an engaging film, and it’s an experience that feels somewhat novel despite some of the elements being tried and true parts of many horror entries. The ending may leave some less than satisfied, coupled with unanswered questions and thematic interpretations that are rather hard to pin down, but the journey’s scary and engaging enough to provide an experience worth the journey into the woods.

‘Never Let Go’ is a Solid Isolated Horror Outing That Stumbles at the Ending

Never Let Go may be another in a long line of horror entries set in isolated cabins in danger-infested woods, but a few aspects give it a unique feel. The family dynamics both complement the horror and shift and change in interesting ways throughout, keeping the limited setting from feeling stale. The tension is regularly palpable, the evil grotesque, highly personal, and ever-changing, and some surprising scares rank among the year’s best. The finale could use a little honing (greater context, a little more clarity, some tighter thematic context and background information), but it’s still full of enough twists, tension, and surprises to have a solid time at the theater that audiences will be thinking about afterward.

Never Let Go is now in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes near you.

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