Alexandre Aja’s reputation has changed in the years since the controversial “High Tension,” as many genre fans have come to recognize his undeniable skill with tight sets and locations. If you don’t like “Crawl,” I don’t know what to tell you. He’s back this week with another one-off, though this one has a very different tone, unfolding like a parable (or several, actually) centered on the lengths a mother will go to protect her children. Maybe. Well, that and a few other things. Aja’s directorial acumen remains top-notch, working with a top-notch technical crew to elevate what is this time around a rather confusing script. Just when you understand what “Never Let Go” is saying or symbolizing thematically, it slips out of your grasp. A mishmash of mental illness, trauma, overprotection, the existence of evil and what seem like COVID allegories, “Never Let Go” fails by virtue of its conflicting ideas. It leaves very little to hold on to.
“Never Let Go” takes place almost entirely in a remote house occupied by just three people: an unnamed mother (Halle Berry) and her two sons, Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins). They have a set of rules that make the first act of “Never Let Go” feel like a variation on “A Quiet Place,” another tale of a family fighting the evil surrounding their sanctuary. The main one is that they must remain tethered to a rope that’s connected to their cabin when they go out to forage for food or just enjoy the outdoors. The mother tells the boys about an evil that will infect them if they leave the rope behind (you decide if the rope can be interpreted as face masks/vaccines for a family quarantined during a pandemic), but only she can see this evil, one that takes the form of dead loved ones like her abusive mother and horrible husband. The “evil” will infect her or the boys if it gets the chance, keeping the trio trapped in a house with dwindling supplies.
Since only Mom can see the horrific creations (and kudos to the makeup team), Nolan begins to wonder if they’re real. And, at the film’s climax, we do, too. What if Mom’s visions are just hallucinations brought on by years of trauma? Is this another horror allegory about mental illness? As the trio sinks further into starvation, mistrust arises between the boys as Nolan begins to hesitate and Samuel sides with Mom. This leads to a showdown over what’s really in the woods and the question of whether Nolan and Samuel should be more afraid of him or their mom.
It’s clear that there are a lot of ideas in “Never Let Go,” but a lot of them are left unexplored. Berry said at the film’s Fantastic Fest premiere that he hoped it would be a movie that people would think about days later, but I think that’s probably a mistake because thinking too hard about the themes in this film leads to nothing but confusion.
The biggest problem is the missed opportunity to delve deeper into the plot line in KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby’s script with the most potential: the possibility that Mom went crazy years ago. Berry doesn’t do enough with this idea, staying too focused on the role of protective matriarch when there’s a version of this movie that allows her character to be truly haunting rather than just a symbol. She speaks of an evil that took hold of her in the real world years ago — a world she claims no longer exists, but we have as much reason to believe that as the kids do. This should be a character who carries trauma and potential madness in every bone and every line, but Berry makes too many simple choices for such a complex role.
The best thing about “Never Let Go” comes from Aja’s direction and the team he’s hired to pull it off. He makes wonderful use of background movement, drawing our eye to something menacing in the woods or through a window before our protagonists see it. He’s developed a visual language with cinematographer Maxime Alexandre on films like “Crawl” and “Oxygen” that works again here. It’s a visually striking film with a tone that’s enhanced by an effective score by Robin Coudert.
While all of these elements are laudable, they can’t elevate this film in the ways it falls short. Or, rather, in many ways. Aja’s best films have momentum, pushing us in one direction down an ever-faster path. This one never quite hits that pace, wasting some of its best ideas to rehash some of its shallowest. Aja will bounce back, likely with the production of “Crawl 2.” By then, we’ll all have passed on this one.
This review was submitted from Fantastic Fest. It’s now playing in theaters.