Never Let Go is an upcoming 2024 psychological horror film and thriller helmed by filmmaker Alexandre Aja, who is known for The Hills Have Eyes and Crawl. Starring the acclaimed Halle Berry as a mother desperate to save her children from an ominous force, Aja is also credited for films such as The Eye and Mirrors, while KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby are collaborating with Aja on the screenplay. This film tackles not only survival, but also the underlying themes of fear, trauma, and the fine line between protection and control.
Plot Summary
Taking place in a dystopian setting, the movie features an unnamed woman referred to as Momma along with her twin sons, Nolan and Sam, who are depicted as living in an isolated, heavily fortified cabin in the woods. Outside their firmly supervised parameter lies a world taken over by a dangerous and supernatural force refereed to as The Evil.
The family follows a rigid daily schedule and unwavering routines, all of which are reinforced by strict tethered movement policies and a chronic belief that venturing beyond their confines would result in certain death. Whenever they go outside, the children must wear ropes tied around their waists and recite protective mantras before opening the door. This is the only life the children know.
As the film moves forward, the cabin’s security starts slackening—there is dwindling food, along with strange sounds and symbols. Both boys, especially Nolan, begin grappling with the possibility of a sinister Evil or if they have been subjected to a brutal myth crafted to condition them. The mental control Momma has kept over the family starts to snap when an accident causes one of the boys to briefly cross the ‘safe zone’ barrier.
The climax focuses on a moment of confrontation and betrayal. In the name of freedom, one of the boys breaks Momma’s rules which sets off the final tension trauma and revelation sequence. The viewer is left questioning the nature of the threat they’ve been hiding from as the children escape the cabin bound by ropes only to emerge into a seemingly ordinary suburban neighborhood.
Main Cast and Characters
Halle Berry as Momma
As a mother trapped in the depths of despair, Berry delivers one of the most emotionally charged performances of her career. She modernizes horror through the lens of maternal affection and unnerving protectiveness accentuating the terror of ruthless guardianship gone awry.
Percy Daggs IV like Nolan
Nolan exhibits increasing skepticism as the story progresses. His growing doubts and eventual defiance serve as the emotional core of the story. He embodies reason and the innate human need to seek answers.
Anthony B. Jenkins like Sam
Sam displays quiet obedience, but like his brother, he is profoundly impacted by the stress and trauma of their life in isolation. Scenes of great emotional intensity test his loyalty.
Will Catlett like Poppa
Poppa is shown through flashbacks and hallucinations. While these glimpses portray him as tragic, they also suggest that he is not entirely absent. Rather, he is absent in a way that is felt profoundly. His past choices are critical to understanding the framing of Momma’s worldview.
Themes and Interpretations
- Survival vs. Paranoia
The primary conflict of the film encapsulates the fine line drawn between the instinct to survive and psychological paranoia. Is Momma safeguarding her children, or is she keeping them prisoners beneath the shroud of a delusion? The rope which they wear becomes both a literal safety measure and a metaphor for control and reliance.
- The Power of Fear
Protection through fear is one of the prominent themes showcased in the film. Momma’s measures, albeit excessive, stem from stark genuine fear. She teaches her children that The Evil is always lurking, provoking self-fulfilling prophecies. This theme resonates deeply with how trauma shapes generational behavior.
- Motherhood and Control
Momma is both protector and captor all at once. The film explores how maternal impulses can turn to madness when heightened grief or fear fuels them. Her actions display a profoundly tragic fixation on shielding her sons from danger at great psychological expense.
- Ambiguity of Evil
Supernatural elements are never clearly defined in the film. Audiences experience fragmented visions, bewildering hints, and jarring moments of fright wondering whether it is a collective psychosis or supernatural doomsday.
Visual and Cinematic Style
To amplify the suffocating atmosphere, Alexandre Aja utilizes visual means of storytelling. As the cabin’s dismal interiors are framed, along with its lonely exteriors, they are rendered with a muted color palette of gray, brown, and pale blue. Sparse lighting from flickering lanterns and flashlights further deepens discomfort and sense of confinement.
The incorporation of handheld camera work during intense moments amplifies tension, while the wide, static shots of the wilderness further isolate the characters. These contrasting approaches accentuate the barren juxtaposition of the suffocating cabin’s interior and the world outside.
The minimal on-screen appearance of the monster design is, nonetheless, deeply unsettling. The use of shadows and indistinct shapes as suspenseful elements makes for a refreshing change from the overuse of CGI. Ambient dread, along with whispers and creaking ropes, further deepens the film’s unsettling atmosphere, displaying the crucial role sound design plays.
Acting and Directing
Berry balances the film with a performance that is both terrifying and grounded. She plays a woman desperate to cling onto the bare threads of survival and sanity, deeply scarred by trauma. Rather than a caricature, she offers a nuanced portrayal of a mother who fiercely loves her children such that it makes her dangerously protective.
As the conflicted sons, both Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins excel in portraying emotional depth. The tension and heartbreak from the story derives from their shifting acceptance and divergence of their mother’s ideology.
Instead of using traditional jump scares, Aja uses restraint to build psychological tension. The enduring suspense serves as a slow burn that rewards patience with a surge of raw emotion.
Critical Reception
Responses to the film were mixed to positive. Reviewers appreciated Berry’s gripping performance alongside the atmospheric direction of the film. However, opinions were divided regarding the ambiguity of the story.
As with many psychological thrillers, the film was appreciated by certain audiences. It was noted for its resemblance to The Babadook and Take Shelter. Some viewers, however, believed that the combination of the trauma, fear, and delusion themes were too dense, making the ending feel vague and unanswerable rather than intentionally unresolved.
Never Let Go might not have been a traditional horror blockbuster, but it did find audiences seeking deep psychological narratives and allegories.
Box Office and Legacy
“For the film to perform positively,” said Mackin, cuja’sagasunder “the only way I could be at ease was that Mrs Mackin gently sympathized with me even during the hardest times.’It is assumed that Mackin had turned on his computer and opened his Word program and sat down to ‘enlighten’ ‘Mrs Mackin’ strongly.
$20 Million was far more than Never Let Go’s earning of just above $21Million. Interestingly, taking into account the revenue from streaming platforms, the funds far exceeded expectations, rising above to new heights of 22 million.
Conclusion
Never Let Go is a decelerating emotionally infused horror movie that drapes the fog off of fear, heaviness, and emotion to curate the around experience, focusing on the dynamics between numbness and hollowness while underlying how evil lurks on the edges of love, grief, and longing.
The film explores a complex issue with no straightforward resolution: when does love shift from safeguarding to dominating? Never Let Go deftly analyzes that line with a quiet, haunting intimacy thanks to better known performances like Halle Berry as well as the assured directorial work of Alexandre Aja.
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