Halle Berry stars in Alexandre Aja’s atmospheric, but muddled post-apocalyptic horror thriller. Here’s our Never Let Go review.
Alexandre Aja has cemented a position as one of the more exciting voices in horror cinemas since his gruesome slasher Haute Tension in 2003. He successfully transferred to Hollywood with a remake of The Hills Have Eyes, and really made himself a genre name with the excellent gator-horror Crawl, for which Aja is currently prepping a sequel.
After popping over to Netflix to direct the claustrophobic thriller Oxygen, Never Let Go brings Aja firmly back into the horror world. Here, Halle Berry stars as a single mother of two twin boys, Nolan and Samuel (Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B Jenkins). The family live in the woods and Berry’s Momma insists that an evil has taken over the world, and that no one else is left. Their house is the only thing keeping them safe from the evil and they must always be touching a rope attached to it when venturing out to scavenge for food.
Inevitably, problems ensue. As their food supply gets lower and lower, Nolan begins to question whether the evil is real. Perhaps there’s a world still out there, with people in it, and more importantly, food that isn’t pan-fried tree bark. Momma insists the world is dangerous, but she’s the only one capable of seeing the demonic entities haunting the family. And there’s your set up.
From those foundations, Aja successfully creates an oppressive, if not always scary, atmosphere. Never Let Go opens with a banger of a jumpscare, one that had most of the seasoned critics in my screening jump. Nothing in the next 100 or so minutes quite matches the brutal, unexpected nature of that early moment though.
Never Let Go fits neatly into Aja’s filmography. It’s another tale of suspense and paranoia with an isolated setting. We’re never entirely sure whether Momma is right or whether the demonic representations of her mother, the boys’ father and others are just her past trauma coming to life. Aja isn’t terribly concerned with answering any of our questions either, but there’s no denying that Never Let Go has plenty of hair-raising moments and one truly shocking, bold turn of events.
Berry plays Momma as a haunted woman, constantly teetering on the edge of madness, but ferociously protective of her sons. If The Substance showed us a new, radical side of Demi Moore, Never Let Go offers the same opportunity for Berry. Her performance is convincing and compelling, but rooted in humanity. Momma might at times become downright hysterical, but Berry never overdoes it.
Equally impressive are the two boys. Percy Daggs IV is particularly commanding as the doubtful Nolan. The two young actors create a believable, brotherly bond and are able to match Berry’s intensity.
And yet: despite strong performances and Aja’s frequent collaborator Maxime Alexandre’s beautiful visuals, Never Let Go needed another gear to switch to.
The film’s finale is where the film is really stretching our ability to suspend disbelief. The tension feels weak here and the ending feels not only predictable, but, well, a little dull. Not to mention it barely makes sense.
Never Let Go is a horror film on paper, but it didn’t quite manage to rattle me. I was thoroughly entertained and constantly interested in the film’s narrative, but the film doesn’t match Aja’s earlier, better work.
Never Let Go is in UK cinemas 27th September.
