By George & Josh Bate
There is a certain sub-genre of movies that plays with the sometimes blurry lines between reality and fiction. The likes of American Psycho and Inception make audiences question if what they just viewed actually happened or if it is all merely a reflection of a character’s internal experiences. The best examples of this plot trope are, arguably, evidenced in David Lynch films like Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, but is Lynch is far from the only director to explore this sort of thing. In the new horror movie Never Let Go, the audience is once again thrown into a reality-questioning scenario, although here this is somewhat different than the aforementioned movies. While the likes of American Psycho eventually reveal that the preceding movie is a conjuring of a character’s mind and only subtly hints at this possibility throughout the film, Never Let Go is overt in the question it poses to this audience. Is this real or is this not real? More specifically, is the threat real or is it merely the product of a character’s mind?
From the very beginning, this question is posed and explored in Never Let Go, a new horror film from Crawl and The Hills Have Eyes director Alexandre Aja. Never Let Go stars Halle Berry as a mother of twin sons played by young actors Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins. The family live a peaceful yet unsettling existence in an isolated cabin in the woods. Within the surrounding forest is a malicious evil that will twist their minds and make them kill one another if they lose contact with a rope that connects them to their house. At least, that’s what the mother tells her children. The family is secure and content until one of the boys begins to question his mother’s sanity and doubts the existence of the evil.
From the start, Never Let Go places doubt in the viewers’ minds. The concept of needing to hold onto a rope attached to your house as the sole means by which to keep a horrifying evil at bay immediately seems off and unrealistic, even by crazy horror movie rules. That is kind of the point, however. The threat posed is so nebulous and there are various indications from early on that Halle Berry’s character is the only one actually seeing the evil. In turn, the audience is posed a question: is the evil in the woods real or is it merely the product of a disturbed mother’s mind? In this sense, Never Let Go diverges from other reality-bending movies like American Psycho by telling the audience right off the bat that the threats they are witnessing may not be real, rather than delivering this news in some big third-act twist.
With this core question posed very early on, Never Let Go then proceeds to unfold in a frustratingly slow manner. Calculated, more methodical pacing certainly has its place in film and the horror genre specifically, but Aja’s film teeters more on the side of boring and mundane than contemplative. Much of the film is spent with Halle Berry sternly parenting her two boys as they explore the woods and have tense dinners eating the limited food they have available. Aja attempts to inject some energy and horror into the film through various manifestations of the evil that present themselves to Berry’s character, but the imagery doesn’t stand out and the scares simply aren’t there.
In part, the film’s failure to engage is due to the lack of momentum and danger implied by the core question. The audience is told rather overtly and early on that the horrors they witness may actually just be a fabrication of a character’s mind. The mere posing of this question and the various rather heavy-handed hints throughout that suggest an obvious answer to the question mean the film lacks a sense of danger and immediacy.
Things do pick up as the film goes along, however. As one of the boys’ doubts about the existence of the evil intensifies, the movie captures a degree of interest, not through its horror or the question posed, but more so through its exploration of how a child deals with the paranoia and mental illness of a parent. It is through this progression in narrative that the two actors playing Halle Berry’s sons thrive, in particular Percy Daggs IV. The young actor delivers a phenomenal performance here, one that completely quells any suggestion that child actors can’t act. Daggs IV produces one of the best performances from a child actor we’ve seen in some time and greatly helps to elevate an otherwise flat film.
Halle Berry also delivers a solid performance here. She occupies the role of a mother desperate to care for her children so convincingly and crafts a character that both disturbs and endears.
The third act of Never Let Go answers the core question at the heart of the film, while failing to provide much surrounding context. In other terms, the film addresses whether or not everything is real, but there are so many lingering questions left unanswered. Unanswered questions are common to this sort of reality-bending movie (look no further than the David Lynch movies we mentioned). But, in Aja’s film, these unanswered questions leave gaping holes that would have provided necessary context for the world in which the film unfolds.
In the end, Never Let Go arrives at a fairly predictable finish and concludes on an unintentionally laughable moment. At this point, the film certainly picked up momentum from its extremely slow start, but not enough momentum to ultimately generate enthusiasm or investment.
VERDICT: 5/10
Never Let Go poses a question for its audience right from the beginning: is the evil the characters are surrounded by real or merely a fiction conjured by someone’s mind? Unfortunately, the way in which this question is explored leads to a horror film distinctly lacking in energy and threat. A frustrating first half eventually transitions into a stronger second half, in large part due to a winning performance from young actor Percy Daggs IV. The film’s exploration of doubt and the ways in which children cope with their parents’ mental illness proves to be the most fascinating and poignant element of the film, although it all concludes in predictable and flat fashion. While Never Let Go blurs the line between reality and fiction, it’s a disappointing reality that a film with such promise falls so desperately short.
Never Let Go is the opening night film of Fantastic Fest 2024 on September 19, 2024 and hits theaters September 20, 2024.