Never Let Go
A mother and her two young sons hide out from an unseen evil in their cabin in the woods.
Three characters in search of a reason: Anthony B. Jenkins, Carter, Halle Berry and Percy Daggs IV
Photo by Liane Hentscher, Image courtesy of Lionsgate.
For much of his bloody career, Alexandre Aja has reinvented old material to chilling effect. Even his breakout feature, the shockingly intense Switchblade Romance (aka High Tension), was a loose (unlicensed) interpretation of Dean Koontz’ novel Intensity. Then there was the Hills Have Eyes remake, the Mirrors remake, Piranha 3D, and so on. Now, while drawing on the old tropes of a cabin the woods (cf. The Watched), Aja may well have invented a whole new sub-genre: the horror of bewilderment.
To be afraid, to be very afraid, it helps to know thine enemy. Here, the brothers Samuel and Nolan have only their mother’s word for what is going on in them thar woods (or in her mind). Apparently, there is an evil out beyond, but so long as the three of them are tethered together by a rope, they should be safe – for now. They must never let go…
The problem here is that Aja gives us no reason to care for this close-knit family. As ‘Momma’, Halle Berry seems more than a little batty, her gruesome hallucinations visible only to her (and the audience). To unsettle us, Aja keeps much of the action in the dark, while laying on a soundtrack of creaks, sighs and a nocturnal chorus of woodland creatures. Even the dog, Carter, is an unnaturally loud beast, whether emitting a whine or just heavy-breathing. It feels as if Aja has found himself with a limited box of tricks and so lays on the creeps with the aid of an over-zealous sound effects department. If we can barely see what is going on, at least our ears are kept busy…
From the start it’s unclear what is going on, other than what is divulged in a folksy voiceover by Nolan. We learn that Momma has not only killed their dad, but both her parents, and with the rest of the world cut off, the trio has to forage for food, frying up a bug risotto and Samuel gamely popping a live frog into his mouth. Needs must, and the ickier the better. But because Samuel and Nolan are unable to see the demons that haunt them, we are left in two minds as to the reliability of our narrator. It’s irritating to say the least, which no end of cheap jump scares can alleviate. It takes a director of some skill to gain the trust and interest of an audience when there are so few actors around to entertain us. Tom Hanks pulled it off in Cast Away, Robert Redford in All is Lost and Tom Hardy in Locke. Unfortunately, Aja’s groaning, ink-drooling extras just don’t cut the mustard.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Halle Berry, Anthony B. Jenkins, Percy Daggs IV.
Dir Alexandre Aja, Pro Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Alexandre Aja and Dan Levine, Ex Pro Halle Berry, Screenplay KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, Ph Maxime Alexandre, Pro Des Jeremy Stanbridge, Ed Elliot Greenberg, Music Rob, Costumes Carla Hetland, Sound Ken Yasumoto, Acting coach Andrew McIlory.
21 Laps Entertainment/HalleHolly/Media Capital Technologies-Lionsgate.
101 mins. USA. 2024. US Rel: 20 September 2024. UK Rel: 27 September 2024. Cert. 15.
