‘Never Let Go’ movie review: Halle Berry holds middling survival thriller together

Halle Berry’s performance lends gravitas to the lightweight horror story ‘Never Let Go’ from Alexandre Aja

The apocalypse will not be kind to vegetarians — what with cannibalism or eating frogs and family pets not being an option — that is the most important lesson to learnt from the rash of post-apocalyptic thrillers in the cinema. Maybe one can survive on berries and tree bark like the Mother (Halle Berry) and her twin sons, Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) do... passing up on the fried insects, bugs and skinned amphibians.

The family is protected by the rambling farmstead to the extent that the trio goes out hunting and gathering with a rope tied from the house to around their waists. Mamma tells the boys they should “never let go” as that is the way the Evil (Stephanie Lavigne) comes in. Through the movie we get to know the back story — how the evil turned people into monsters wearing the face of loved ones and how Mamma’s father built the house and put protection in to guard them.

Early on in the movie, when one of the boys loses his rope, Mamma runs to their rescue telling them not to look at the evil which had taken on the face of Mamma’s mother. She tells them to place their hands on the wooden floor of the house and repeat a prayer entreating the house to keep them safe. A hard winter threatens the family’s survival as do Nolan’s doubts about his mother’s insistence of a ruined world outside their home and the chance of evil taking over if they let go.

A tough choice forces the moment to its crisis. When a stranger (Matthew Kevin Anderson) comes calling, does he represent salvation or destruction? After watching Nicolas Cage bringing up his twin sons in a blighted world in Arcadian, it is time for yet another Academy Award winner to do the same. Alexandre Aja, who gave us the gruesome The Hills Have Eyes remake and the hilarious, teeth-gnashing fun of Piranha 3D, has created a vaguely unsettling movie, which looks at what happens when trust and family bonds turn upon themselves. Do they prop you up or bring you down?

Halle Berry’s performance, full of warmth and terror, keeps us invested and has one looking for the significance of letting go. Berry also has us questioning what is real and what are phantoms conjured up by a sick mind. That is the true terror — of not being able to trust oneself. And best of all, the dog survives — smart boy.  

Never Let Go is currently running in theatres