NEVER LET GO

US, 2024, 101 minutes, Colour.

Halle Berry, Percy Daggs IV, Anthony B.Jenkins, William Catlett, Matthew Kevin Anderson.

Directed by Alexandre Aja..

French-born director, Alexandra Aja, made an impact with his French horror film, High Tension, in 2003. With a strong reputation for successful horror films, he has worked mainly in the United States, remake of The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha 3D.

Which means that his fans and horror audiences were expecting some more high tension. There is tension, but of a different kind. This kind of film is better described as a terror film rather than a horror film, characters experiencing a sense of menace and uncertainty, imminent unknown threats, and the audience sharing in this unease.

And this happens in the first part of the film, slowly building up the tension (far too slow for those who want immediate gory horror moments of which there are comparatively few here). The mother and her two children isolated in the woods for years, she telling them that evil has entered the whole world and destroyed it, the whole world is now them, their family bonding, love, surviving, and an incantation to reassure that evil has not overtaken them, going out the house connected with long ropes mutual security, and the continual reminder, “never let go”.

The mother is played by veteran Halle Berry and the performances of the two boys, Anthony B.Jenkins as Sam, Percy Daggs IV as Nolan, are quite remarkable., Momma has frequent hallucinations, her dead mother, confrontations with her dead husband, reminding the boys that all these are in their imagination, not real.

Where is this leading? The last part of the film moves into action, family starving in winter, the threat to kill the family dog,  desperate, even though he was their protector in the past, Nolan upset, confronting his mother, moments of doubt about the evil and its presence, wondering about the real world.

The screenplay introduces a hiking character, Nolan confronting him, wondering whether he is real or a hallucination, Sam is sceptical, but this intrusion into their world leads to a dramatic crassus, the testing of the two boys, the reappearance of their mother, more hallucinations…

Given the premise, the first half building up the atmosphere of the family and the tension, the final dramatic confrontations and resolution indicate that, of its kind (emphasising once again that this is really not a horror film and expectations that it is are misleading) it is a satisfying menace and terror drama.

1. The work of the director? Horror films? Expectations? This film as terror and menace than horror?
2. The backwoods settings, the isolation, the winter, the forests, the lack of animals, the bark and insects from the trees, the isolated hut and interiors? The musical score?
3. The premise of the story, Momma’s story and her experience of evil, her photos, of her previous career, with her husband and children? The evil, her withdrawing from the city, taking the children, the death of her mother, the death of her husband? Telling the children that evil had taken over the world? Their isolation and fear? The food supply, its diminishing? Their starvation? The rope, keeping safe when linked? The repetition of “Never let go”? The poetic incantation on the wood, the guarantee that there was no evil in the house? The life together, the boys’ love for their mother?
4. The character of the mother, her past, protectiveness, her story, the appearances of evil, her seeing them, her mother, her husband, confrontations with her husband, his threats, the old man in the woods? Hallucinations? Love for her children, protective? Starvation, cooking the bark? The issue of the dog, to kill it, her arrows, taking it to the barn, not killing the dog, confrontation with her two boys?
5. The scenes of hunting, the boys, the squirrel, the grubs, cooking and eating? Venturing out, the rope? Nolan and the egg, Sam and his fall and injury?
6. The boys, the characters, twins, Sam, older, serious, love his mother, thinking she preferred Nolan? Nolan, younger, mischievous, sleepwalking, taking risks?
7. The dog, Nolan’s emotions, the confrontation with their mother, her hallucinations, slitting her throat, her death?
8. Nolan, questioning his mother, out on the road, the stranger, coming to the house, talking, the confrontation with Sam, Sam and the arrow? Nolan following him, the 911 call on the phone? The food in the haversack? Their eating it, Sam and his scepticism, eating it?
9. The little girl, real hallucination, recognising the torch? Her fear, running away? Grief at her father’s death?
10. Sam and his being possessed, his appearance, setting the house alight? Looking Nolan in the room, Nolan escaping on the roof?
11. The rescue, the helicopter, the real world, the vistas from the helicopter, mumble reappearing and threatening? The health, recovery, the future? Sam’s comment about his mother’s love?
12. Moments of horror but a film of menace, terror and our knees?