Never Let Go (15)

A protective mother is determined to shield her twin sons from the evil that has taken over the world and flourishes just beyond their front doorstep. Every time the family ventures outside, they must tie a rope around their waist, which is securely attached to the family home. When one of the boys dares to question if the evil is real or imagined, familial bonds fray and the desperate mother risks everything to protect her brood.

LondonNet Film Review

Never Let Go (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Loving someone deeply can mean letting them go. In director Alexandre Aja’s supernatural horror, love means tying your nearest and dearest to the rustic family home with ropes and warning them that death comes quickly to anyone who dares to loosen the knots. Penned by KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, Never Let Go establishes its nightmarish premise with minimal dramatic fat, pitting Halle Berry’s terrified mother and her two young children against an invisible presence that supposedly flourishes just beyond their front doorstep in the woods..

The opening hour keeps us guessing whether this insidious threat is a product of mental illness, and thus a real and present danger to the youngsters’ welfare and long-term survival. Once the film clarifies where battle lines should be drawn, and who (if anyone) is of sound mind to make life-or-death decisions, tension dissipates and preteen co-stars Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B Jenkins are left to bench-press the lightweight emotions. Screen chemistry between the three leads holds firm when the plot shows visible signs of disrepair and director Aja exercises restraint with jump scares relative to the strong bloody violence and gore of his earlier films, including the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes.

A mentally and physically exhausted single mother (Berry) is determined to protect twins Nolan (Daggs IV) and Samuel (Jenkins) from the evil that has consumed the world. The family’s cabin is a sacred space that shields from harm. Every day, the clan chants a pledge of gratitude: “O blessed house of ancient wood/Shelter to the pure and good/We’ll keep you bright and never roam/Heaven is here within our home.” hen the family ventures outside to gather supplies, they must each tie a rope around their waist, which is securely attached to the family home and thus an extension of its protection.

“All it takes is one touch without the rope on… then not even the house can save you,” the mother warns her boys. Only she can see the shape-shifting malevolence, which takes many fork-tongued forms including the boys’ father (William Catlett), and young Nolan begins to question if the evil is a figment of his parent’s spiralling paranoia. Confusion and disbelief fester into open defiance and familial bonds fray.

Never Let Go doesn’t exert a choking, iron-tight grip on our attention teased by the title but Aja’s survival thriller elicits mild chills of discomfort and doesn’t outstay its welcome. Berry fully embodies a fiercely protective mother bear, who will cross moral boundaries if she can rationalise her choices as beneficial for her brood. Daggs IV and Jenkins are compelling and rise to the challenge of a physically demanding resolution open to different interpretations.

– Kim Hu