‘Never Let Go’ Review: Halle Berry Wigs Out in Spooky, Effective Supernatural Thriller

The recent success of A Quiet Place: Day One has proven that audiences haven’t yet tired of dystopian survival horror, and based on its marketing, you’d be forgiven for assuming Never Let Go would be a shameless imitator following closely on its heels. No, there’s no high concept villain who you can’t so much as whisper around, but following in the footsteps of that franchise and Bird Box, this is another tale of a mother who has decamped to the wilderness to protect her children from an unseen, all-powerful threat. Without a higher concept to add some novelty to this formula, I must confess I was skeptical of director Alexandre Aja’s film going in, fearing that we were going to be treading ground too similar to those aforementioned films without a new hook that could help distinguish it.  

Thankfully, there’s something far more interesting taking place in the dark heart of these woods, with screenwriters Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby taking equal influence from the dark fairytales of Guillermo del Toro and the sci-fi paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the conception of their disturbing family drama. Halle Berry stars as the Matriarch who keeps her twin sons (Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins) under lock-and-key, making sure they’re all roped together when leaving the house to scavenge for supplies in fear of being attacked by an omnipresent evil. And this paranoia isn’t unfounded either; from the opening act, we see warped figures throughout the woods, all of whom appear to be able to manipulate the minds of whoever they touch – remaining banded together is the only real way of circumventing this. Thankfully, there’s no additional lore about how these creatures operate and manipulate minds; like the best fairytales, the key to its eeriness is through the easily digestible stakes. 

With supplies dwindling, the family begin to turn on each other, dueling in a battle to see who can be the least reliable narrator. Like Body Snatchers in all its iterations, the movie’s drama hinges entirely on whether the suddenly untrustworthy behavior of the different family members is due to being possessed by the evil spirits just beyond their porch, or if their fight-or-flight responses to their dire survival stakes have caused them to suddenly cast-off responsibility. Berry understands the assignment, playing the damaged parent as an eerie fairytale archetype who could reveal themselves to be a wolf at any moment. Her performance is broad and erratic, and this is crucial to its success; it’s difficult to suggest this is a woman behaving out of character when she frequently tests her children’s survival skills by locking them beneath the floorboards.  

The lack of world-building when it comes to fleshing out the film’s dystopia is also an asset when viewed through the eyes of two children simultaneously coming of age. Confronting a seemingly irreparable change in their dynamics with their only surviving parental figure coincides with the realization that they’ve only got her description of the wider world to account for – fairy tale characters who are only just getting to grips with the fact they’re in a fairy tale. Daggs and Jenkins are two of the better child actors to have debuted on our screens recently, with their lived-in sibling dynamic helping a vaguely defined post-apocalypse feel even more vivid. It’s through them that the drama remains grounded, with the key to survival not rooted in evading the various shape-shifting beasts that dwell nearby, but simply trusting each other – a hard task when the age-old argument about which one is their mom’s favorite rears its ugly head. The third act even felt positively reminiscent of Goodnight Mommy – albeit without any similarly macabre, definitively reality-skewering twists – as the boys turn against their own mother, leaving the audience uncertain as to how seriously we should regard the collateral damage along the way.  

The movie doesn’t quite stumble by its conclusion, but it does strip the film of any ambiguity about the reality the film is taking place in. That this isn’t quite as disappointing as it should be is because this family drama remains at its heart, ensuring relationship dynamics remain the driving focus, as opposed to the otherworldly narrative logic. And it’s true: if you’re the type of viewer who takes pride in poking at plot holes, then I’m sure you’ll have fun with this one. However, if you prefer your horror to get under your skin with its ideas rather than shake you with its unrelenting scares, then there is plenty here that will keep you unsettled. 

Grade: B

Lionsgate will release Never Let Go only in theaters on September 20, 2024.

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Alistair Ryder

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