For many parents, convincing children to listen to your hard-won wisdom and avoid making the same mistakes for themselves is a daunting challenge. Adults are placed in charge of the world because they’ve lived long enough to experience its dangers firsthand, but each new generation is born convinced that no harm could possibly come from playing with those matches or staying out past that curfew. The contradictory desire to shield our offspring from the traumas that shaped us while allowing them enough independence to become fully fledged adults is often one of the defining questions of parenthood.
Alexandre Aja’s “Never Let Go” illustrates that age-old parenting challenge with a very literal metaphor. A woman known only as Mama (Halle Berry) lives with her sons Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) in a remote forest cabin where mere survival is an all-encompassing task. Years have gone by since the world has been engulfed by an invisible, abstract form of evil that killed her husband and burnt society as we know it to the ground. This evil can take on any shape, altering your perception of reality to the point where you could kill your entire family without realizing what happened. It only impacts adults, and their cabin appears to be the one place on earth that the evil can’t reach. Naturally, Mama warns her kids to never let go of the house.
They still have to venture out into the woods to find food every day, but an elaborate rope system keeps them from fully separating from the building. Miles of rope are tied to the foundation of the house via a pulley mechanism, and nobody is ever allowed to set their rope down until they’re safely back inside. It manages to avert disaster, but it’s hardly a sustainable system once children reach the stage of questioning what their parents tell them.
Samuel and Nolan have never known anything beyond this life, but they’re already starting to wonder what else might be out there. While they spend their days eating grubs and tree bark, old Polaroid pictures pique their interest about a pre-apocalyptic world where their efforts could be pointed slightly higher up on Maslow’s pyramid. Mama finds herself in a paradoxical spot, as she’s eager to reminisce about the past despite knowing that any information she provides could shift her sons’ attention away from the invisible evils that keep her up at night. Her fears are soon confirmed — and once the boys start wandering into the forest on their own, a lifetime of sheltering them is thrown out the window as they’re all faced with a monster that threatens to shred their perceptions of reality.
KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby’s script takes a clever (if occasionally underdeveloped) premise and turns it into a twisty thrill ride that never gives audiences a moment to get comfortable. The evil’s method of manipulating characters’ views of reality creates an “Inception”-like effect in which we’re never quite sure if we’re watching the real story or a deadly hallucination. But the real strength of the narrative lies in the parent-and-child relationships at its core. Berry is excellent as a world-weary mother who struggles to prepare her kids for an unforgiving world while still trying to carve out moments of the happiness that has long eluded her. Both child actors give impressive performances as well, portraying a convincing sibling relationship while balancing the constant fear and tragic acceptance that come with growing up in a dangerous place.
Aja’s off-the-rack directing doesn’t do much to elevate the story visually, but the director of “Crawl” and the 2006 remake of “The Hills Have Eyes” hasn’t lost his knack for jump scares. Certain twists will remain unspoiled, but “Never Let Go” should resonate with both horror junkies seeking fall escapism and parents looking to see their struggles visualized. Much like in real life, the only way Mama can guarantee her sons remain unscathed is to hold onto them forever — but in both cases, we’re left to learn that letting go is a dangerous inevitability.
Grade: B
A Lionsgate release, “Never Let Go” opens in theaters on Friday, September 20 after having its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024.
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